benanderson89 Posted August 17, 2020 Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 I scored a IIci for super cheap (GBP£30). No floppy drive, no hard disk, no drive cage, no reset/interrupt buttons and no PSU, but the motherboard looks super clean and just needs a recapping. Since I'm also in the process of restoring two Macintosh Classics, one of them beyond repair (battery exploded and tube imploded), I now have a spare 80MB SCSI Disk, a Spare 1.44MB Floppy Drive and the two 1MB SIMMS from it's memory expansion board. Other than a PSU, which I'll wire up from a modern ATX (hopefully without blowing everything up), I should hopefully have a working IIci for nothing but the cost of some replacement capacitors and a video adaptor. Fingers crossed! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jinnai Posted August 17, 2020 Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 I'm guessing you're in the UK? I have a parts IIci that's mostly complete but might be difficult to ship things to the UK. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 The only thing I really need are the front buttons and the drive cage. Outside of that I should have everything I need! If I can't find what I need in the UK I might give you a shout. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ScutBoy Posted August 17, 2020 Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 (edited) I've got a bunch of IIci donor parts as well, including power supplies. I'm also in the US, but if you need something,let me know. Edited August 17, 2020 by ScutBoy forgot something. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2020 Are the power supplies for these switchable between 120 and 240v? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ScutBoy Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 15 hours ago, benanderson89 said: Are the power supplies for these switchable between 120 and 240v? The label says 110-240V 50-60Hz So I'm guessing yes, but you should probably verify on-line. I think Apple was pretty good about "universal" power supplies in this era. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cheesestraws Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 FWIW, the only non-universal power supplies I have in my macs are in the compacts, as far as I know. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tokyoracer Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 Somewhere I have a IIci cache card that you're welcome to have for cheap. Should speed up the machine noticeably. I'm based in the UK too. Sadly I have no other spares as I gave the bits away a few years ago. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 (edited) More than happy to take a cache card! Name a price and I'll see. Though I want to make sure I can get it working before spending anymore money. Still waiting for the machine to arrive from eBay. Edited August 18, 2020 by benanderson89 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NathanHill Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 13 hours ago, benanderson89 said: More than happy to take a cache card! Name a price and I'll see. Though I want to make sure I can get it working before spending anymore money. Still waiting for the machine to arrive from eBay. I picked up an old IIci from dad's house - it has battery explosion damage, so I'm not sure if I will get the motherboard working. So, I do have some extra NUBUS cards (ethernet/video) and stuff and will be curious about your journey. I'm waffling about using the case, which is decent enough despite some battery acid residue (or whatever), to house a Raspberry Pi or something for fun. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 Maybe see if you could put in an ATX or MATX motherboard and throw on a bunch of MAME emulators in Linux? That could be fun. Or a sleeper NAS server Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted August 19, 2020 Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 On recasings/Mac sleepers: IIci case can house interesting Mac boards. Played with two of the Quadra 700 triplets before the "Mac Conservation" movement took hold. With 3D printing now available, mismatched backplane panels should be easy enough to remedy. The IIci retains the third NuBus Slot lost in the Q700, which makes for a far cleaner 7100/G3 hack. I've got a working example of a Q700/7100/G3 that's been stripped of (interchangeable swappage) the various parts you need for my IIci and IIcx playtime. Favorite project is a Quadra 700/8600/G4 for its Quadra/G4 naming convention. So you can go full blown IIci/PPC/PCI sleeper with dremel work involved for clearing underside components and printing an ISA compatible section along with the connector strip. ATX/Pi conversions appear to be the recasing norm these days, but harking back to Mac-centric projects from the Applefritter/MLA era of yore might be interesting to some. The 8600 path amounts to the same work necessary for ATX, BTW. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NathanHill Posted August 19, 2020 Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 Yeah, worst case scenario, I have a Quadra 605 board that I am going to recap. It's case is just crumbling into pieces, so it may fit. Otherwise, I will have fun. I sort have been toying with the idea of a Pi4 as an A2EServer box in the case. But I may also look out for another IIci board on the internet too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted August 19, 2020 Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 BMOW did an beautiful recase of that board into a laser cut plexi case. Updating that project by incorporating the much smaller mAcTX-LC power supply might be one idea. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 20, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2020 The IIci has arrived! The motherboard is pristine other than some dirt and, of course, the caps needs replacing but it looks like it hasn't done much corrosion. The case though is pretty much BROWN and matches my floor. It also smells horrible, like wet plaster. Smoker's computer? Either way I'm super pleased with the condition. The case has immediately went into the retro Brighting tank. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted August 21, 2020 Report Share Posted August 21, 2020 Nice! Looks like the only somewhat difficult(?) to source part would be the relatively fragile reset button assembly? How goes the Retro Brighting process? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2020 (edited) The top shell went in a tank of some (by then, weak) Peroxid/Water with UVA light, and then an afternoon in strong sun. It's not quite perfect yet, but it's no longer brown. The main shell went into the same peroxide mix but I think by the time that went in the peroxide was pretty much spent. It lightened it a bit, but not much. So I'm trying the Parafractic (Retro Recipes) method of just blasting it with UVA light and UVA light alone. I am stunned that it is actually working. Comparison between the internal speaker assembly and main case, and the lid with my fully retrobrited Classic. Edited August 21, 2020 by benanderson89 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted August 21, 2020 Report Share Posted August 21, 2020 I've got serious doubts about the UV only process. IIRC the original process was developed and documented by real life chemical/materials science types? Further "developments" have appeared to me to be ad hoc experimentation by non-scientists? This places the issue within the Empirical versus Anecdotal Evidence in the realm of materials science. As has been assumed, if UV is the cause of case damage, I have my doubts about it being the cure? So (aside from procrastination) I have yet to try the process at all. YMMV Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2020 I'm certainly seeing some kind of result, but it's been under for 24 hours by this point and it did take an initial dip in some very weak peroxide to start with. If I don't see a noticeable improvement by tomorrow afternoon, bringing it up to 48hr, then I'm buying some more peroxide to finish the job. The lights I'm using are UV-A, rather than B or C and from my limited understanding (last time I touched any kind of materials engineering was 15 years ago in college) it's B and C that you need to avoid. A is is close to the resonant frequency of Bromide (~320nm) thus it starts reacting to it, with peroxide acting as a chemical accellerant. Again, not a materials engineer, but that's what I understand of it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2020 P.S. the Retro Recipes video on the topic wasn't just him doing his own thing. He had help of two lads much smarter then pretty much anyone here. Haha! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benanderson89 Posted August 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2020 48 hours later I've removed the IIci case from it's little UV box and I'm shocked that it's actually working. It's painfully slow, but it's working! The front bezel, which is the section being blasted with UV-A, is much closer in colour to the underside of the case. When compared to the right hand side you can see how much lighter it is compared to the brown mess it once was, and the old Apple Computer sticker that had at one point a very pronounced outline is slowly fading away. Since I'm working on a Macintosh Classic restoration I'm in no rush to retrobrite the IIci so I'm more than happy to leave it a few more days (in total). Once I'm happy with the front, I can then move onto the sides. Maybe point one light either side? Not sure how I'm going to do that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AndersSthlm Posted September 21, 2020 Report Share Posted September 21, 2020 Hi I’ve a drive cage from a Quadra 700 Price ? Give an offer Anders Sthlm Sweden Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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