Planning my "Reloaded" SE/30 build.

[sunvalleylaw]

Would love anyone's help and/or thoughts in planning out my Mac SE/30 Reloaded build.

I purchased from @GreenBar0n his purple Reloaded board he didn't need with these parts:

(6) PLCC 20 sockets, (4) PLCC 68 sockets and (1) CPU socket, I have a NOS MC68030RC33B, 33MHz CPU, and I have a battery bombed Iivx I can harvest some stuff from. Maybe even use its CPU instead. I might probably do the Quadra conversion on the Iivx some day. But may as well use some of the Custom ICs & ASICs/proprietary, and through-hole components that I already have with this machine I found at the Boise Reuseum e-recycler.

Here are is the board and sockets and the NOS CPU.



I will need to decide if I want to try to do this myself, down the road after I do some practice building on easier stuff and improve my soldering skillz, or if I want to send it to someone to build for me. I may also find some help through my local vintage computer club, tvvcc.org the Treassure Valley Vintage Computing Club. I have started to study some threads here, and will study more closely, @schrockwell 's thread on his journey. I don't plan on being in a hurry, and the process and learning is a large part of what I hope to gain from this. I have a working SE modded to SE/30 already anyway.

I think I will use a new power supply. And maybe as much new parts/stuff as I can. I think, but have to look and be sure, that I have the analog board to recap also, but may look for a reloaded one. If I don't have an analog board, I will get one. I will want to find a good accelerator, and plan to find and use one day a ZigZagJoe color display kit, with the ability to drive a separate color monitor, if he makes more, or I can find one used, or something similar. As far as ethernet/internet, thinking I might end up using a Zulu SCSI Pico 2 slim as I am not sure I really will care that much about doing that much internet stuff on this machine.

I plan on using a SE/30 faceplate I have, and hope someday to find a clear SE enclosure for the back, if I can find one of those at some point. And I plan to max all the rest out over time too.

Shoot me your ideas or thoughts if you have any! This is definitely only in planning stages, and will be a work in progress.

 

[GreenBar0n]

Getting the project started, nice!

Have you watched the CayMac videos yet? He makes it look easy, but miss a solder bridge on one of those many chip legs, or damage a board trace, and the troubleshooting becomes the hardest part of all

CayMac Vintage

This channel IS: Drama, Politics, Social Issues and others FREE! Leave those items outside and we can all have fun on a neutral channel. Vintage computer restoration and preservation based in the Cayman Islands. Main focus is on Apple Macintosh computers but others are also included. Complete...

www.youtube.com

You haven't said your skill level on PCB repair - which is not to say because you haven't done it before, that you can't do it now. It looks like a fun project, and would be a thrill to succeed in accomplishing the swap.

I think the scariest part about doing a Reloaded swap, is not having spare IC's, in case something is wrong on the donor board. If someone handed me a 100% complete and working SE/30 board to do the swap, I'd feel ten times more comfortable doing it. CayMac has stacks of chips to swap in, and the proven knowledge to troubleshoot any problem in a hurry; he has the TechStep too, which is a vital tool in confirming all is well.

I still have that TechStep too if you decide to do this, let me know if you need it.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Well, kind of started. Mostly just planning steel and collecting things.

And yeah, let’s call me just a complete noob on computer builds, so this is going to be very much a work in progress. I may still hire some of it out. Planning stages still. I said, I might be able to get some help here locally as well so I’m exploring those options. I would like to learn and do as much of it myself as I can, but I don’t want to screw a bunch of stuff up and ruin parts and things. I have done some soldering, but I would not call myself skilled at all and have not worked with PCB. My experience has been more on Guitar parts.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Getting the project started, nice!

Have you watched the CayMac videos yet? He makes it look easy, but miss a solder bridge on one of those many chip legs, or damage a board trace, and the troubleshooting becomes the hardest part of all

CayMac Vintage

This channel IS: Drama, Politics, Social Issues and others FREE! Leave those items outside and we can all have fun on a neutral channel. Vintage computer restoration and preservation based in the Cayman Islands. Main focus is on Apple Macintosh computers but others are also included. Complete...

www.youtube.com

You haven't said your skill level on PCB repair - which is not to say because you haven't done it before, that you can't do it now. It looks like a fun project, and would be a thrill to succeed in accomplishing the swap.

I think the scariest part about doing a Reloaded swap, is not having spare IC's, in case something is wrong on the donor board. If someone handed me a 100% complete and working SE/30 board to do the swap, I'd feel ten times more comfortable doing it. CayMac has stacks of chips to swap in, and the proven knowledge to troubleshoot any problem in a hurry; he has the TechStep too, which is a vital tool in confirming all is well.

I still have that TechStep too if you decide to do this, let me know if you need it.

And also, I don’t really fully have a donor board yet anyway, other than IIvx bored at my ease for some parts. I’m not that knowledgeable, but that one looks pretty rough so I can see what you are saying. I will go ahead and watch the Caymac vids also. Thanks!

 

[GreenBar0n]

You're welcome! Will be glad to see your Reloaded board put to good use, really like that Purple v5.

I've been watching ebay lately, and just the SE/30 logic boards by themselves (socketed model) are going for near $300! Wonder how much a battery bombed board would go for, by itself.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Yay! Found a donor board, or rather its current owner, who is relatively local to me, found me! And has built reloaded boards and can assist me down the road. Awesome!

 

[Chardonneret]

Just a tip. When I did mine, it first didn't work because I hadn't placed the PAL chips in the right sockets. Since they all looked the same, I just didn't pay attention. After checking them on another machine, I realized they were good but their markings were not always uniform. I then searched the Internet where I stumbled on this ID sheet, which helped me matching the markings on the PALS with the markings on the board. Good luck!

341-0633-A	PAL16R8B	UG7	SE/30; Clock generator for Video state machine
341-0635-A	PAL16R8B	UG6	SE/30; Beginning of Video state machine
341-0637-A	PAL16L8B	UE6	SE/30; End of Video state machine
341-0665-A	PAL16R4B	UI6	SE/30; Controls HSync and IRQ? in regards to CPU?
341S0689-C	PAL16L8D	UH7	SE/30; Controls RAM read/write signals in regards to CPU?
341-0688-A	PAL16R8B	UE7	SE/30; Middle of Video state machine
341-0746-A	PAL16R8B?	UG7	SE/30; Replaces 341-0633-A, Clock generator for Video state machine
341-0747-A	PAL16R8B?	UG6	SE/30; Replaces 341-0635-A, Beginning of Video state machine
341-0754-A	PAL16L8B?	UE6	SE/30; Replaces 341-0637-A, End of Video state machine
341-0755-A	PAL16R8B?	UE7	SE/30; Replaces 341-0688-A, Middle of Video state machine

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Has anyone posted a Mouser order form for the parts list of late?

@trag was looking into using IIcx bits for SE/30 reloaded projects. If those work out, bork'd-n-bombed boards could go Compact?