After many hours, many wires, it has come alive, my hardest project.
Posted by EasternPrommises@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 20 comments
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/s/1LEXajZG4m
I Spend days repairing this thing, finally received checkboard image (which I had no clue what it meant, it's my first apple repair), to realise I am not done
Then spend more hours fine tuning everything, looking for more broken traces to finally get to near end.
It's not over, this oldie is gonna get a new paint job as well.
ultrafop@reddit
Nice! Does look like you’re running into a ram expansion issue now though. Hopefully you can get that squared away
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
Yeah, it's been fixed , some of the pictures posted are from before ✌️
ultrafop@reddit
Nice 😄
jblakey@reddit
Congrats!
hay_den9002@reddit
Jeez
Now I really don’t want to fix my classic
thomasthe10@reddit
Well done. I looked at your board on the other post and I'm surprised! I have the same board with the same sort of issues and I've decided it's more than I'm getting into because I have a history of damaging the rest of my life when I'm tinkering with something like that! I know completely what you mean about getting up in the night, mind whirling, to try one thing or another which has just come to you.
Hope you can get some rest soon. :)
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
Your comment is so true, I can relate so much. I feel like I made my self sick while at the same time fixing this "unfixable" thing. I am usually very active but this thing made me sit in the chair for hours and hours, I can still feel the pain in my ribs and hips.
thomasthe10@reddit
I've been there! If I get into something like this then it's all I can think about, I stop sleeping properly and most of my time is spent scouring ancient forum posts, peering at schematics or staring at whatever I'm working on. I have a project on the go now which I'm trying to limit my involvement with but it's still all I can think about when my brain's meant to be resting so I'm just doing my best to finish it ASAP in short bursts, without wrecking my life/ body / brain or neglecting anything else too much!
One thing got to me so badly- a digital synthesizer repair- that when I found myself lying awake at 3am with a diagram of the key sensing matrix dancing around my head I hopped out of bed, went to my workroom and swept the whole project off my desk and into a box, then threw the box in the loft. And I've left it there and may never return to it!
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
Yes I understand , you become obsessed by it, like a tunnel vision that's how I experience it.
For me it's like I have periods that I love to repair electronics and I would do that for 2-6 months and then completely stop and I would focus on things outside my work repair room, I would maybe go fixing cars, bikes or anything mechanical until I feel like I wanna step back in my room again. Totally depends on my mindset , because if I don't have an idea or purpose I just can't do it
thomasthe10@reddit
Ha ha ha this is so like me it's amazing. I do exactly this - intense electronics repairs for periods of time, usually working on one or two projects max, and then it's like I forget the whole thing exists. It's usually a winter thing for me, which makes sense.
Last time I restarted electronics after 8 months+ off I realised that I could hardly solder any more because my near vision had crossed some threshold and I had to get some reading glasses!
imactheknife73@reddit
Good job! Have recapped many classic / classic ii boards, but none that have had battery damage. That takes patience!
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
I wish it was just recap, the visible /invisible damage on this board was insane even simple soldering was painful cause of the oxidation on the pins which had to be manually cleaned one by one, not taking into consideration wel maybe over 50 traces fixed + extra wires and way more then +100 ic pins that had to be checked for continuity / shorts.
I suspect this thing was soaked onder water as the metal frame underneath was full of rust as wel
Lopsided-Doubt-2741@reddit
Congratulations, well done. That is certainly a lot of patch wires. It will be well worth the effort soon.
Away-Squirrel2881@reddit
I admire your optimism
Away-Squirrel2881@reddit
The "Sad Mac" on picture 7 is not a good sign
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
That was before picture, it is fully operational now.
Just_to_rebut@reddit
This is really cool. I feel like projects you never would’ve started if you knew how hard they were are the most impressive.
What kind of projects did you do before? What the second most difficult?
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
I did a lot of modern laptop repairs before, it's only been recently that I started doing vintage stuff, like Sega Dreamcast, Gamegear and basically anything I get my hands on, Boom boxes etc.
I was planning to repaint this Macintosh, but now I am doubting if I should do it cause if I sell it cause of lack of space it might be that collectors prefer the old vintage look. I am still thinking if I should do it or not.
It's now in full working stats, booting to the OS, screen position fixed this morning as well, really happy with how it turned out .
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
Thank you so much😇
EasternPrommises@reddit (OP)
One thing is for sure, I would never do this again. I would wake up in the middle of the night , 2am - 3 am just to finish it, so many times that I almost gave up. It would been far easier to buy empty pcb and transfer everything over but then it wouldn't been original 🤣