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SE30 cd 68mb Diimo 50 Radius color Full recap Complete almost..
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-17 14:46:24 Here's my Macintosh SE experience over the years up to now. Long ago I got a mac SE from my school who wanted to scrap it because it was a mac. I always loved these little compact macs and couldn't let them throw it out and took it home and it was quite a project trying to load files from computer to computer using floppy discs to 800k floppy discs and I got it loaded with some games it was incredible to see what this mac could do. Then I found out about the SE30 how much more it could do I found this SE30 with another SE FDHD years ago on craigslist for 30$!, I fixed up the fdhd and sold it and kept the 30 for myself. It powered up but the hard drive didn't work, I put in a hard drive and it started up just fine. But the sound didn't work that's when I found out about the leaky capacitors on the logic board. So Years ago I recapped the motherboard the popular choice back then were Tantalum SMD capacitors I got a set of them I think from someone on here, these days there are soo many choices of capacitors I just wouldn't know what to get. I had the SE30 for a while and pulled it out of the box once in a while to play with, but recently had the urge to pull it out again and mess with it more Then I found on ebay a Radius Color Pivot 030 card going for way too cheap I just had to try for it! So that started this whole thing and I couldn't stop ahah ha.. Then I see this DIIMO 030 50 Mhz card and made some crazy offer Idk why Its just so cool And I never saw one available in the last 10 years, sure I could have got some daystar or some 040 card then Id have to get some adapter or the stratos. but the diimo card is too cool. I got a cd drive for 25$ and put a 12x drive in it. The only thing left to do is fix this problem with the radius card in 32 bit mode, While doing so I decided to upgrade the ram to 68MB and bought the Rominator in hopes that would help. So I went a little nuts Here's some pictors! (sorry some are flipped the wrong way I don't know why they are uploading that way here) So the Diimo I received was Missing a capacitor!! but right under where the mounting bracket is in the mac so I assume while removing it jerked up and it knocked the cap right off, Panicked I found the first 22uf capacitor I could find and threw it on there. Then while I picked up the other caps I put some new ones on for now because I don't know which smd capacitor to choose >< Logic board luckily didnt have much damage, an early socketed cpu and the old blue fuses. It was nice to fill this empty slot with something =) So I find this crushed capacitor On the analog board that there's no way it was damaged afterwards this was installed and glued there like this. So then it got me started just recap Everything! (After recap) Aand I did the power supply too! A couple caps were a little crusty but still okay All of these capacitors I got from circuitspecialists nearby. except for the big 400v680uf I got at mouser. Each capacitor theres hundreds of results so I could sit there all night on mouser I didnt know what to get so I just went down the street and got the best they had =) (also if you see some spillage around the board I don't know what that is doesn't look like it was from the capacitors and really wouldn't clean off it was fairly hardened maybe from the transformers?) BEFORE After This 3300uf 16v was a little wider and it was such a tight fit in there I just raised it up with the leads works great And the capacitor I chose to replace this large 400v is a Cornell Dubilier 400v680uf . The stock capacitor is 40mm high, this one is 45mm high most of them are, there's a nichicon that's 35mm but its twice the price. And also I chose it because I could see the longer thicker snap leads that I could easily bend (not so easily they are very thick lol) to fit into the slots without having to drill holes in the psu board. and it had pretty good specs The added height from the leads and 5mm higher than the stock it BARELY Fits in place and doesn't contact the top plate. And the ram upgrade and Rominator shimmed in there. And some additional photos Doom anyone? and now to get this rom updated hoping it fixes the problems with the mouse freezing =) I'll take more pictures as my adventure continues!
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-17 14:55:22 Oh one last note I forgot to add.. This tool I wish I knew they existed years ago when I did the logic board Check out these tweezer solder smd solder tool Totally worth it! Only 9$ i picked one up it worked okay for a cheap one , makes it easier to Desolder without bending and busting up the pads ! https://www.circuitspecialists.com/Tweezer-Style-Soldering-Iron-For-SMD.html
Posted by: BadGoldEagle on 2016-09-18 03:32:19 You've got a pretty nice SE/30 here. I didn't know you had a DiiMo 50, it seems we have almost the same setup (i have a Daystar PowerCache 50Mhz). Mine's not completely recapped though, the A/B is kinda weak right now. And I don't own a Rominator, yet... Pretty excited to get the Pivot working too!
Posted by: techknight on 2016-09-18 06:49:12 The caps on the Diimo need changed anyway, knocking one off probably did it some good.
Posted by: just.in.time on 2016-09-18 12:16:14 There are so many cool upgrades for the SE/30. I'm currently at 20mb ram, scsi2sd, and Ethernet card. The Diimo 50mhz card seems sweet but is difficult to find and expensive when found. Sweet setup you have! 🙂
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-18 15:11:46 You've got a pretty nice SE/30 here. I didn't know you had a DiiMo 50, it seems we have almost the same setup (i have a Daystar PowerCache 50Mhz). Mine's not completely recapped though, the A/B is kinda weak right now. And I don't own a Rominator, yet... Pretty excited to get the Pivot working too! O cool I'm guessing then you have a stratos twin pds adapter? I could have gotten a daystar anything but then I need an adapter. And I kinda only got the rominator for a 32bit clean rom hoping it would fix this problem with the radius thing This is so cool that we can update the rom chip =) can't wait to see if it works. If not I'll have to get a different video card someday.. The caps on the Diimo need changed anyway, knocking one off probably did it some good. Ya I was going to change them anyway but I don't know which type of smd cap to use these days theres so many. I was actually hoping You could help me make a decision There are so many cool upgrades for the SE/30. I'm currently at 20mb ram, scsi2sd, and Ethernet card. The Diimo 50mhz card seems sweet but is difficult to find and expensive when found. Sweet setup you have! 🙂 Had no idea you could jam so much in a little compact computer! I still need the scsi2sd someday , I have a 2g hard drive in there for now. And ethernet is hard to find and expensive too and I don't have room for another pds card. So for now I'm getting a cheap 56k dialup modem for 9$, to which I have a setup for my own dialup connection that I use for my Dreamcast to play games online using a Pi and usb modem and some trickery. I don't know how fast an ethernet would really be on the se30 anyway?
Posted by: just.in.time on 2016-09-18 20:17:04 Had no idea you could jam so much in a little compact computer! I still need the scsi2sd someday , I have a 2g hard drive in there for now. And ethernet is hard to find and expensive too and I don't have room for another pds card. So for now I'm getting a cheap 56k dialup modem for 9$, to which I have a setup for my own dialup connection that I use for my Dreamcast to play games online using a Pi and usb modem and some trickery. I don't know how fast an ethernet would really be on the se30 anyway? I got lucky on my Ethernet card as it happened to come with the machine. Seller said there was no ethernet present when I asked prior to purchase, so I was quite surprised and happy to see it when I unpacked the system. As to its speed, not exactly the fastest thing in the world... when pushing 1.4mb .img files from my MacBook (using filezilla) to an FTP host running through NetPresenz w/MacTCP it takes about 2 minutes. Definitely great for loading software, but it won't be winning any races against my LC 575 board with its ethernet card. Going to be trying OpenTransport instead soon to see if there is any improvement. How do you do that using the raspberry pi?! I have an original Model B laying around doing nothing. Assuming I can get my Portable up and running, it has a dial-up modem already installed. That would be a great way to join it to the rest of my network. Do you by chance have a link to a guide with instructions? I would love to set that up.
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-18 21:13:11 How do you do that using the raspberry pi?! I have an original Model B laying around doing nothing. Assuming I can get my Portable up and running, it has a dial-up modem already installed. That would be a great way to join it to the rest of my network. Do you by chance have a link to a guide with instructions? I would love to set that up. ya A lot of people are starting use this setup and over the years it used to be more difficult, now this pi setup is all automatic. this can probably be used for any dialup connection! Here's a link to a video tutorial I guess would be most helpful The only weird thought I have is that the software that runs is meant for dreamcast so it might route to different things like its own dns but if you have to you can specify your own DNS for general internet access and so on. it should access the internet and all your network just fine. It also reports to a site called dreamcastnow that shows what games were playing and whos online. you can disable it if you want. Also a note on the phone line it used to be difficult but now all we need is a simple voltage on the phone line using a line voltage inducer you can make yourself or buy them too , they even have usb powered cables and i even found a way to make it built into the usb modems which might be available soon.The dreampi software actually picks up the line and plays a dialtone while it listens for number tones to dial then switches to connect. the preferred usb modem is any connexant rd02-d400 Here's the site with more info and a shop where the cables are available www.dreamcastlive.net
Posted by: just.in.time on 2016-09-18 21:36:19 Thanks, I'll have to look into this after I get my Portable recapped.
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-19 15:35:51 I just got a 56k global transport in the mail today =) It got a little dinged during shipping to puerto rico and back.. but it works! After a pain of Finding macPPP and getting it to the se30 and Finally getting it configured. Successfully connected to the internet! with the pi setup! I simply set my dns to the same as my isp dns supplied to my modem to connect to the internet. It took just about a minute to load these images on google not bad. here's the dreampi setup that's hanging on my wall
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-19 23:44:38 now that i have my macintosh on the internet what can I do ? what kind of sites can I go to and How can I send files to my macintosh? I can't stand searching for useful information anymore , thousands of websites with tons of useless comments nothing ever works I've got a really bad headache just looking for crap lol so what can I do on the internet anyway? lol
Posted by: techknight on 2016-09-20 12:34:50 And there in-lies the the problem. My suggestion? browse the floodgap gophernet and see if theres anything fun in there to do. or go BBSing.
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-20 13:23:34 I did find some sites that work okay on netscape3.0 and downloads work okay. sadly I can't get on this forum tho some kinda error lol And for now to use all my ram in 32bit mode I'm still currently limited to the b&w screen but it works surprisingly well. at least until we get this radius card updated =)
Posted by: tact on 2016-09-22 15:22:14 It won't let me edit I forgot this one picture showing the extra height with the leads on the big capacitor in the PSU Course I have more and more pictures to post later I don't know if this will ever be Complete =)
Posted by: tact on 2016-10-26 23:38:54 So i finally got around to see if this low profile pivot card Barely fits in the SE30 on the diimo slot. Only temporary I don't like how its jammed in there.. This card has the v2.5 ROM and it seems to work fine no problems with the mouse freezing in 32bit. Hoping the updated chip will work without any problems =)
Posted by: tact on 2017-11-02 21:13:42 Sooo I get my mac out again finally boot it up and start playin around after a while started having problems with my hard drive.......... > 🙁 good ol 2gb hard drive with all my best files will not boot now!! can hear it start up like normal sounds then as it starts to boot can hear it click and restart .... I can still boot to the Rom drive on the rominator and the hard drive stops doing its thing as its not being accessed. But.. I loaded some Floppy discs in and the hard drive started making noises again . sounds like its restarting. Anyone have any ideas what to do or troubleshoot this? Maybe I should check my voltages? May be a bit low with the Diimo, Pivot card, And this big 2gd scsi drive might be sucking up all of the 5v? or 12v? Fyi This mac is Completely recapped Power supply Analog board and logic board obviously, It never had any problems or damage that specifically needed repair. I did check my voltages months ago when I completed the recap I had them written down somewhere.. They were stable and fine within range. Ill open it up later and check it out I'm too worried right now >< Any help or recommendations for things to check would be great. or anyone know a way to fix or recover this drive ? =) I'll have to get a scsi2sd then i guess [🙁] ]'>
Posted by: tact on 2017-11-03 09:58:44 I checked the voltages are great at 4.94v and 12.4v stable. Also the drive worked this time showed up when I booted to the rom drive. Seems it only had a problem once it got warmed up... or maybe a loose wire i hope. Or perhaps the drive is suffering Sticking on those rubber pads but i thought it wasn't that old of a drive. its a newer 2gb quantum drive i thought only certain older ones had the problems with the rubber stoppers. But I finally ordered a SCSI2SD adapter and hopefully will get one last good boot long enough to get my files from there before the drive might fail forever ... > 🙁 I'm so sick of losing my backup files... Not touching it again until i get the SD setup !
Posted by: 68krazy on 2017-11-03 12:09:49 You’ll love the SCSI2SD. It makes the Vintage Macintosh life a lot easier! I hadn’t seen this thread before now, but I’m loving your SE/30 setup. Great work!
Posted by: olePigeon on 2017-11-03 14:02:53 We need to get a large game of Bolo going with all our internet connected Macs. 🙂
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