RadRacer203 Posted October 30, 2020 Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 So I'm mainly a PC guy, collecting 80's and 90's stuff but these little Macs are starting to grow on me. I've picked up a few in the past couple months starting with a Mac Plus but now I also have an SE and 2 unfortunately dead SE/30's that seem to have analog board and/or power supply failure along with really bad burn in. I have 0 experience replacing smd caps so I'm having someone with a little more experience go over the logic boards. What I'm wondering is what I can do as far as expansion. I'd really like to get a cpu accelerator if I can find one for a decent price, and also probably ethernet. What options would I have for that? I do have a Daystar Turbo 601 but I've heard there's no way to use that in an SE/30, at least not yet. Also, the SE should have the same power supply, analog board, and screen right? I'm thinking I might get a couple of those as donors because the originals in my SE/30's seem pretty screwed up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
68kMLA Supporter Crutch Posted October 30, 2020 68kMLA Supporter Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 welcome to the hobby! Also always happy to see a fellow boxed software collector I confess they’re pretty useless but I can’t help myself ... those non-logic board internals are indeed interchangeable. (the SE/30 has a better floppy drive than a stock original SE, of course.) SE/30 accelerators are unfortunately just expensive. Best way is to troll eBay or randomly find one inside a machine hiding. I think the MicroMac Diimo 50MHz 030 is the best bet personally for speed and all around compatibility. People around here also like the DayStar PowerCache I believe it benchmarks just a tad slower. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bolle Posted October 30, 2020 Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 Feels like cheesy advertising but this might be relevant to your interest: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted October 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 15 minutes ago, Bolle said: Feels like cheesy advertising but this might be relevant to your interest: Actually yeah, I'd definitely be interested in one of those! Do the Powercache ones need one of those risers to fit in an SE/30? I'm just starting to learn the very basics of these things, I grew up only ever using PC's except at my school but they only had iMac g3's and eMacs so completely different. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bolle Posted October 30, 2020 Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 Correct, you need some sort of adapter to run the PowerCache in the SE/30. There are adapters which were made by Daystar back in the day. You come across those on eBay from time to time. Another option would be the Artmix Twinspark - this will let you use the accelerator and another PDS card like a video or ethernet card. And to continue with the bad advertising... I am making adapters as well that already include an ethernet card and will let you use even another PDS card on top of that, so you can get ethernet, a video card and an accelerator all inside your SE/30. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted October 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Bolle said: Correct, you need some sort of adapter to run the PowerCache in the SE/30. There are adapters which were made by Daystar back in the day. You come across those on eBay from time to time. Another option would be the Artmix Twinspark - this will let you use the accelerator and another PDS card like a video or ethernet card. And to continue with the bad advertising... I am making adapters as well that already include an ethernet card and will let you use even another PDS card on top of that, so you can get ethernet, a video card and an accelerator all inside your SE/30. I actually appreciate the advertising, I'd definitely be interested in one of those adapters too! Is anyone making ethernet cards? I've heard those are hideously expensive... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
68kMLA Supporter cheesestraws Posted October 30, 2020 68kMLA Supporter Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 10 minutes ago, RadRacer203 said: Is anyone making ethernet cards? I've heard those are hideously expensive... @Bolle's adapters also have an ethernet card on board. Or, to look at it another way, @Bolle makes ethernet cards that also happen to adapt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted October 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 1 hour ago, cheesestraws said: @Bolle's adapters also have an ethernet card on board. Or, to look at it another way, @Bolle makes ethernet cards that also happen to adapt Well, I guess I'm gonna want one of those too! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
desertrout Posted October 30, 2020 Report Share Posted October 30, 2020 Welcome! And Congrats - the SE/30 is beloved! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
68kMLA Supporter joshc Posted October 31, 2020 68kMLA Supporter Report Share Posted October 31, 2020 Welcome, and those SE/30s look lovely. The SE and SE/30 do share power supplies, analog boards and CRTs/video cards (the card that attaches to the CRT neck), so if you're in need of spare parts, you can buy an SE to fulfill that need. The differences are the SuperDrive, logic board and the front/rear case. You really should either learn how to replace SMD caps, or pay someone to do it for you - all Macs of this age, even if the caps look OK, should be redone if you don't know for certain that they've already been recapped. I learnt how to replace SMD caps by watching Branchus creations videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy8pDuiwZoY8_bNISGQ_Cw As for accelerators, they are hard to come by and expensive - depending on what you want to do with the SE/30, the stock CPU is fast enough, especially if you run System 6. Good luck! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted October 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2020 (edited) 10 hours ago, joshc said: Welcome, and those SE/30s look lovely. The SE and SE/30 do share power supplies, analog boards and CRTs/video cards (the card that attaches to the CRT neck), so if you're in need of spare parts, you can buy an SE to fulfill that need. The differences are the SuperDrive, logic board and the front/rear case. You really should either learn how to replace SMD caps, or pay someone to do it for you - all Macs of this age, even if the caps look OK, should be redone if you don't know for certain that they've already been recapped. I learnt how to replace SMD caps by watching Branchus creations videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy8pDuiwZoY8_bNISGQ_Cw As for accelerators, they are hard to come by and expensive - depending on what you want to do with the SE/30, the stock CPU is fast enough, especially if you run System 6. Good luck! Looks like I've got someone who's going to do both logic boards, and the one analog board and psu that aren't destroyed, and I'm going to be looking for an SE as a donor for the other analog board and psu. Seems like it has a bad flyback and other damage so not worth repairing. I definitely am going to get ethernet and an accelerator. I may never use the extra power but I like maxing out everything I own. I'd also like to get one of those video cards that can show grayscale so I can play Dragon's Lair on it Edited October 31, 2020 by RadRacer203 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LaPorta Posted October 31, 2020 Report Share Posted October 31, 2020 I have a few spare SE analogs. I'd have to test them but would be willing to get one to you. If there was one that no longer works because of a bad flyback, I'd harvest the other parts, like the ICs that cannot be easily duplicated. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted October 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2020 28 minutes ago, LaPorta said: I have a few spare SE analogs. I'd have to test them but would be willing to get one to you. If there was one that no longer works because of a bad flyback, I'd harvest the other parts, like the ICs that cannot be easily duplicated. That would be awesome, thanks! I wasn't going to throw anything away, just keep the old one around as spares. The power supply I'm pretty sure is dead too, the hard drive and fans fluctuate as if the power is dipping and coming back up constantly Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted November 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2020 Ok now I'm getting excited to have this SE/30 repaired. My keyboard, mouse, and cd drive that I had on the shelf just happen to match it perfectly, along with my desk that's perfectly sized for it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
techknight Posted November 2, 2020 Report Share Posted November 2, 2020 your probably gonna need a replacement CRT, that one there isnt looking too hot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted November 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2020 6 hours ago, techknight said: your probably gonna need a replacement CRT, that one there isnt looking too hot. I've got a friend with some dead Classics I'm gonna take a screen from. That's number one on my list after getting all the boards recapped! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted November 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 Made some progress on the SE/30, I actually got a 3rd one with a recapped logic board so I've been setting that up with a scsi2sd and Bolle's ethernet riser and cpu accelerator. Works excellent and I was able to pull files from an ftp server I made on a linux machine for drivers and everything. I'm still looking for a Micron Xceed if anyone has a spare, I really want greyscale for the programs I'm planning on using. System 7.5 is installed and I have a Rominator on the way to use more than 8mb ram but it's all set and ready to go. The plan is to use this until I get my boards back for my much cleaner one and then transfer the scsi2sd, ethernet, and accelerator into the nicer one and set this one back to stock. I also got 2 almost new CRTs, one of which is swapped into my nicer se/30 already. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted December 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2020 (edited) Just got my Rominator in the mail and I threw 20mb into my SE/30 because that's what was on the shelf. I get the Rominator startup chime, I can choose between rom boot, ram boot, or just wait until that screen disappears so it will boot from the hard drive. But it seems like no matter which of those options I choose it refuses to boot. For the rom or ram disk options it freezes on a grey screen with the mouse cursor in the corner that I can't move. If I wait and let it try to boot from the hard drive it gets stuck on the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen. Any ideas? I'm not really sure where to start, maybe the ram I put in is iffy? It worked perfectly before with 8mb ram, the cpu accelerator, and ethernet riser. Update: I removed the accelerator, ethernet riser, and swapped the old ram back in and same issue. Seems to be stemming from the Rominator itself Edited December 6, 2020 by RadRacer203 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
techknight Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 (edited) I just noticed. curious what TV is on the left there in your top picture. looks to have a 21" black and white CRT, like a 21YP4 or 21BP4 Edited December 7, 2020 by techknight Quote Link to post Share on other sites
68kMLA Supporter cheesestraws Posted December 7, 2020 68kMLA Supporter Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 19 hours ago, RadRacer203 said: Just got my Rominator in the mail and I threw 20mb into my SE/30 because that's what was on the shelf. I get the Rominator startup chime, I can choose between rom boot, ram boot, or just wait until that screen disappears so it will boot from the hard drive. Does the extra RAM work with the stock ROM and MODE32? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dochilli Posted December 8, 2020 Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 Did you run the software patches for System 7.5? https://www.bigmessowires.com/mac-se30-with-upgraded-rom/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RadRacer203 Posted December 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2020 On 12/7/2020 at 7:41 AM, techknight said: I just noticed. curious what TV is on the left there in your top picture. looks to have a 21" black and white CRT, like a 21YP4 or 21BP4 That's my Philco, not entirely sure what model but it's early 50's. On 12/8/2020 at 2:25 AM, dochilli said: Did you run the software patches for System 7.5? https://www.bigmessowires.com/mac-se30-with-upgraded-rom/ That'll do it, I'll try that now Quote Link to post Share on other sites
68kMLA Supporter ttb Posted December 20, 2020 68kMLA Supporter Report Share Posted December 20, 2020 I'm just here to say that your desk/chair combination is a perfect match for the SE/30, great looking setup! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CharlesT Posted December 20, 2020 Report Share Posted December 20, 2020 Have you been able to get the Rominator to work yet? I have one in my SE/30 as well. It's a common problem with the Rominator, not sure if it's board thickness or some other alignment issue, but very likely you'll have to play with the positioning of the thing in the rom socket. At least that's what I had to do with mine and others had to do so as well. Big Mess mentions it on his website. I thought he might have had it fixed in the newer versions since he mentions going to a thicker PCB, but maybe not. In any case, I can 'fix' mine either by placing small strips of card board in the hold down bracket to tension the board in the socket a bit more. Alternatively a rubber band around the top of the rominator and then to the edge of the main logic board, again to put a little extra pressure on the pins in the socket. Worked for mine, could never boot without doing one or the other. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
techknight Posted December 22, 2020 Report Share Posted December 22, 2020 On 12/19/2020 at 5:43 PM, RadRacer203 said: That's my Philco, not entirely sure what model but it's early 50's. Nice! I used to have an RCA blond about that size, mid 50s. Still had its showroom floor tags on it. Sadly, it got left behind in the move. I still have my Motorola VT71, zenith porthole tabletop, and zenith color roundie though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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