Macintosh Portable Charger, 1500ma (MAX) Aftermarket Options

[JDW]

While browsing vintage Macs on EBAY today, I spotted a portable that the seller proclaims to have been recapped by you, UniServer. Looks like you helped him put together a very nice kit:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professionally-Recapped-Apple-Macintosh-Portable-M5126-Mac-w-Rebuilt-Battery-/151070852450?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item232c864562

By the way, I noticed that in your opening post you say, "Do not even THINK of attempting to run the Mac Portable, w/o a battery." TechKnight and I were chewing the fat on that topic extensively in this thread (the last post of which is currently yours):

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=17078

TechKnight feels that a truly regulated PSU may allow proper operation, but I've never had a Portable to confirm that. Since it would appear that you are becoming quite of a Portable Resurrection man, UniServer, perhaps you could put that theory to a test, assuming you have a regulated benchtop power supply.

 

[uniserver]

nope.

my suggestion is to install a battery

and keep the battery charged

With either with a manual alligator clipped trickle charger

or with a 1.5a / 1500ma(max) power source.

I'm not up for taking a walk on the wild side.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Very pretty aluminum plate about a half mm thick.

Battery is Out for Delivery, which, at this time of day usually translates into waiting for me at the rental office. :beige:

 

[uniserver]

man, i wonder if that has been in space?

 

[mcdermd]

STS-43. Sweet.

 

[mcdermd]

 

[uniserver]

I wonder if you could some how find out if your specific machine was in space.

that would make one HELL of an ebay ad.

Decription:

Yes this Macintosh Portable has literally been to the moon and back.



Price $8000.00

!Sold!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Apollo 17 the last Lunar landing mission predated the Mac by 12 years and the Apple 1 by four.

Good one though! :lol:

 

[uniserver]

ok then,

"This portable has been to outer space and back"

 

[JDW]

my suggestion is to install a batteryand keep the battery charged...

I'm not up for taking a walk on the wild side.

That is unfortunate. However, it is my hope that another Portable owner among us will step forward, for the sake of science and community, and perform the needed test. For truly, the ultimate aim is to keep these Portables running for many years to come. And yet, who among us wishes to perpetually keep dead or dying batteries refreshed? At first it may be fun, but the constant maintenance and care of batteries gets old REAL fast. Better to have a non-battery solution to operate the Portable. Makes it more fun and and encourages regular use.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I guess I could add some polka-dotty lookin' Tang stains and say:

". . . this Mac Portable appears to have been used in a weightless environment." [}] ]'>

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Do I need the 9V backup battery to be in circuit? Why is it that you can never find an alligator clip when you need one?

When I finally found the second one, the termination screw was missing, the iron's heating up ATM. :

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

No liftoff t the Cape and no joy in Lugville, but I haven't let the battery try to charge up very long, but neither Portable is giving me a bong or showing any signs of life as yet. Time to get the meter out and test the original & new chargers. I should probably test the battery to get a baseline reading to check it later if it's really charging. continuity on the wires hasn't been tested yet either.

If anyone has any ideas, please lemme know!

 

[uniserver]

I received my portable from macdrone last night.

Went to Batteries Plus, bought that same 6v 5ah battery that is on ebay for $10 for $12(with my commercial discount), and a fresh 9v battery.

Installed the Re-capped m5120 main board, Put it all back together and it fired right up, I was even able to swap the 40 meg conner hard drive board. With the 40mb Conner that was in my Macintosh Classic.

With this portable, it was missing the OEM battery pack, I would assume he kept it to rebuild it for his other portables.

So I just laid a blotch of goop down, and use 2 alligator clips to go from the battery to the gold connectors on the bottom of the battery tray, from the keyboard, ( all the way to the left is + ) By the way. (all the way to the right is - ) Hooked up the alligator cables, set the battery in the tray on the blotch of goop, closed the battery cover.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nice!

It looks like I'll probably be recapping next . . . unless my sneaking suspicion turns out to be true. The last time I buttoned up the LunarLuggable, everything visible was unplugged, maybe the MOLEX connector for the power is disconnected as well?

Instead of alligator clips, I was thinking about rigging up a MOLEX connector test rig for the two battery connections.

Gotta get some Acetone later and try bonking one of my bats. [}] ]'>

 

[uniserver]

Yeah pop the plastic around the keyboard back off, and check if the power connector is plugged into the board.

Also there is a 7a fuse on the main board right near the power header, you can check continuity of that .

I'v seen that fuse blown a few times with some boards.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'll have to put my nerd goggles on to check that, nothing looks much like a fuse on the board with just reading glasses. What's the component designation on the silk screen layer?

 

[mcdermd]

Believe it or not, it's "F1"

 

[uniserver]

It might look like a green resistor.

They did that sometimes.

most of the time its yellow.

its ( F ) Something. forget the number its' literally right to the bottom of the 4 pin power connector from the battery.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The Borker's fuse is good, gotta crack the NASA Luggable open when I get a chance.

I was checking out the bottom of the chassis, it looks like it's be really easy to unhook the spade connectors from the battery contacts under there and crimp male female spade connectors matched to the cable contact wire's socket and the battery lug onto jumper wires for your GoopBat installation. Route them up through the molding hole for the MoBo clip and it would be a lot more robust than the alligator clip method.

I was gonna Acetone & thump one of my batteries this morning, but the dead-blow's MIA. I may try a rag-wrapped rubber mallet, that ought to work enough like a dead blow for the purpose and it might work even better. The rag would spread the impact of the mallet over time as in a dead blow thump and the rebound action of the rubber mallet after shock may have a better jarring effect.