Latest Finds in France

[BadGoldEagle]

Hello everyone, 

I wanted to share with you a couple of things I got today ! The guy brought in 6 massive cardboard boxes, 300 miles from where I live (Bordeaux to Paris). I had to pay him the trip but still, it was cheaper than using the post 

I went trough some of the stuff, but there's still 4 boxes left! And what I found in the two first boxes was amazing !!

1st item: 128k Picasso Kit

I wanted one badly. I even considered buying the plastic box only for 70 USD !

The floppies were never used, the glue never melted on those, the stickers are really white as they should be.

Now, they are MFS floppies, and I'm afraid the Plus will actually do more damage than good (mine corrupted a 3.2 system which worked before)





2nd item : Lisa-to-Macintosh Upgrade Kit

 I wasn't expecting that ! 

I haven't got a Lisa at the moment but I wish I had one to test these. I wander if I can actually test them using an '89 Mac Plus tho (it is the oldest Mac I have at this time)



3rd item : Daystar PowerCache '030

This is the "pièce de résistance". Then again, I wasn't expecting this beauty to come up. If you're wandering, that's the top of the range PowerCache, the one with the 50 MHz Motorola and the numeric math coprocessor!



Thank god the guy eventually sold it ! The PRAM battery was still in place when I opened the box! And guess what, it was a Red Maxwell ! I saved it from imminent death it think. It had already started to melt and the battery compartment as well as the contacts got covered in some brownish gel: disgusting ! If it had exploded the PowerCache would have been damaged and therefore useless!

If I get my Lapis color card working, my SE/30 will be a kick@ss machine!

I hope the next four boxes will be as interesting as the ones I opened today !

What staggers me though, is that the guy wanted 50 euros for the 6 boxes, plus 100 for actually bringing them to my flat!

Let me do the maths on what I have here: Picasso kit + Lisa to Mac + Daystar = 200 (give or take) + ??? + 200 (price of a IIci PowerCache) = at least 400 euros . That's 200 euros saved !! I got myself a really cheap deal ! 

 

[EvilCapitalist]

If these are what you find in the first few boxes, the last few should be VERY interesting indeed.  It sounds like you bought the lot to get certain items and everything past those is just a bonus.  In any event, that's a solid deal.

 

[olePigeon]

Very nice.  One of those super rare socketed-CPU upgrades for the SE/30.

 

[Byrd]

Amazing haul!  I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the SE/30 PowerCache and sound - I have the 33Mhz (I think) version and sound is glitchy at all times.  But I need to troubleshoot more, notably try it in another SE/30 board to rule out capacitor issues.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Interesting, I've never heard of that before. I guess that since your caps weren't changed, they might be the problem here. Sound problems are often related to bad capacitors. Mine had no sound for a while and refused to switch off when I told it to before I replaced all of them.

I also got the manual for installing the card, and it suggests making a copy of the hard disk before going through the install. What do you think?

I noticed a couple of 100mb Zip disks, maybe there's a Zip drive inside one of the boxes. I wanted to make a backup but i never bought the Jaz drive to do so.

BTW, will it "work" without the software installed?

 

[takimoto]

Great findings!

It works without software such as driver.but software allows you some controls.

When you got this board in SE/30,PSU has to work harder.So be sure about PSU leaking.When I got,caps in PSU leaked.

 

[takimoto]

Hardware option maker always says to backup to prevent their responsibility.I don't think you have to back up when installing this board.But back up is always good to do.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

thanks takimoto

I haven't re-capped my PSU and I think it is a bit dodgy. Sometimes the CRT acts weirdly (wave on the right hand side of the screen when cold), and I think the PSU is to blame. I've got another SE/30 which I'm restoring. I will be testing that card on this machine then.

I will get a Jaz drive for a hard drive backup before installing any additional software. The hard drive is "technically" password protected but the password protection doesn't actually work. Only sometimes when I disconnect the HD for a few days and then reconnect it, it asks me for the password, which I don't have... So the backup will actually come in handy in case the HD gets stuck in "lock" position.

Tomorrow I will dig some more into the boxes but I'm afraid the rest is just some random floppies and french magazines from that era. Although I think I saw a Farallon MacRecorder in there somewhere. Don't really know what it's for though. I  think it's meant for people who did sound recording/editing in the 90s

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Okay I saw what was in the other boxes! Unfortunately nothing as good ;(

2 SE/30 bezels which are badly discoloured. One has a torn Daystar sticker (the daystar accelerator might have belonged in this machine for quite some time?) I will use one to finish my other SE/30 restoration.

1 SE FDHD bezel also discoloured

1 M0001WP 512k basel with the nearly intact "Macintosh Plus" sticker

2 platinum Mac Plus rear cases. Near intact

1 NEW (really) Beige Macintosh Plus keyboard with box, cable wrapped and NO discolouration whatsoever 

A few mices ranging from the "classic" 1985 mouse up to the Black Pro mouse

A Farallon MacRecorder with floppies and user manual and power adapter but no box ;( 

I don't know how to record video on a 68k mac, but I'm afraid the MacRecorder won't help.



And finally a Twincom Voyager with no floppies or anything I guess that's a kind of modem is it?



There are plenty of magazines I'm too tired to list them all (there are around 250 copies of the same magazine)

 

[bibilit]

Hi,

Sweet, great haul.

Have seen any on your list, but if you come across a SE/30 Logic board i can be interested (one of my own is missing the Rom and Video chip)

 

[Byrd]

I thought the MacRecorder worked under SoundEdit with no extensions required?

 

[takimoto]

MacRecorder...What a sweet memory! I used MacRecorder to put human voice into NES game.Not for a professional audio use,but enough for 1 bit D/A converter in NES.