Un Duo Trio

[Anonymous Freak]

Okay, one of them isn't a 68k, but two are, so I figured it belonged here rather than the PPC 'books section.  (Plus, the Duo 2300c is basically just a 68k logic board with a PowerPC stuffed on it.)

Got all three cleaned up, got all my docks lined up, so decided it was a good opportunity to take a family portrait.



From left to right: 

Duo 230 - the top end of the launch Duos, with 4 MB RAM.  Plugged in to a Floppy microDock, with another Floppy microDock in front of it.  Using the official Duo power brick.

Duo 280c - the top end of the 68k Duos, with 40 MB RAM.  Plugged in to an E-Machines EtherDock (really just an Apple miniDock with the modem replaced with an Ethernet card/port. You can even feel the place for the Apple logo under the E-Machines sticker, and the modem symbol under the Ethernet sticker,) with an official Apple miniDock in front of it. It happens to be using a power brick from a PowerBook 1400c.

Duo 2300c - the last of the Duos, the 'crown prince' of the line, and the only PowerPC of the bunch.  Launched at the same time as the PowerBook 5300 line, it had the same power as the 5300/cs/c in the Duo package.  This one has 40 MB RAM, and is in a full size Duo Dock with color lid upgrade.  My Duo Dock doesn't have Ethernet or a hard drive built-in, but I did throw a NuBus Ethernet card in a while ago.

Sadly, only one battery holds any charge at all (basically exactly enough to wake up from sleep, then give you the 10 second warning.) One battery claims to be fully charged, but if you leave it in for more than 15 or so seconds, it starts making a whining/screeching noise, so that one doesn't get left in!  The last one causes whatever system its in to crash the moment the electrodes make contact!  

 

[galgot]

Beautiful.

I have a working 270c. these are nice machines, only thing i don't like is the keyboard.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The variation between my three is insane. The 280c has a good-feeling keyboard, the 230 is a bit spongy and the 2300c is just TERRIBLE. Both spongy and difficult to trigger at the same time.

 

[Elfen]

That's funny, Anonymous Freak, as they all have the same keyboard, just the placement of the connector and ribbon is different. It depends on how broken down the rubber in the keyboard is. You can swap out the Mylar sheets to get the best keyboard out of the one you want to use the most.

Anyways, nice collection. I have a nice little Duo Collection myself, and got a couple in dire need of repair. The 2300c came out with the 5300ce, which is only by a few months compared to the others. The 280/280c came out with the 190's and a month later the 5300's came out and then the 2300c & 5300ce came out together; they are related in more than one way, their development was done together to fill the market niches at the time. The 2300c can do 800X600 Resolution on the LCD Screen like the 5300ce does but it is shrunken down on that tiny screen and you need Superman eyes to see the text and icons.

They are all great machines, the top of the line of their time. They can do things the bigger machines can do; which is something that can't be said for their PC counterparts.  Not just the larger laptops but the desktops as well. I did not like how they were stifled with limited upgrades and I/O (like that 14.4 modem, why not 9600? Why not a second serial port? Why not more RAM?)

Enjoy the collective. All others will be assimilated.

 

[just.in.time]

That CRT looks like it is shooting an amazing image.  Did you ever do any re-calibration on it over the years, or is that still from the factory?  Either way, impressive.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

That CRT's image is "from factory." The plastics on it are horrendous, though!

 

[just.in.time]

I've managed to escape having any horrendously yellowed plastics.  However, all but one of my systems definitely has a notable amount of yellowing.

 

[tjjq44]

The 2300c can do 800X600 Resolution on the LCD Screen like the 5300ce does but it is shrunken down on that tiny screen and you need Superman eyes to see the text and icons.

This interpellated me quite a bit so I dug up my own 2300c to try this... without success! In the monitor controp panel, or in the tool bar, the only resolution available is 640*480

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Yeah, 2300c is only 640x480, with the option to drop to 640x400 for 16-bit "Thousands" color mode.  The 5300ce was the first 800x600 Mac laptop, and the only one of that "era" until the 1400 came out.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Also, everything I can find says the entire 190/5300 line, plus the 2300c, came out on the same day, August 28, 1995. (At the MacWorld Boston Expo.)  And from a MacWorld review, it looks like all of the PPC models hit the street on September 11, 1995. (The '040 PB190 series was delayed until October, of all things!)

 

[galgot]

I have a 5300c and seem to remember that switching the screen to Thousand color reduces the screen res too... Will check again this evening.

 

[tjjq44]

Beware of the caps in the DUO too!!!

I wanted to resurect my 210 this evening since it didn't want to boot at all for several years... After opening it up, i could see on the top left corner of the logic board, many smd leaking caps (5 or 6 and mostly bigger than in desktop macs), I replaced them but it is certainly too late... Anyway, it's a little bit better now, it boots (startup sound) but stays on the gray pattern with no mouse cursor and that's it! Sometimes it finally shows me a sad mac code:

0000000F

00000001

or

0000000F

0000000A

After that I started to disasemble my working 2300c to see how healthy it was, fortunately, no leaking caps there but I replaced the smd electrolytics anyway, preventively