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Apple /// restoration
Posted by: jessenator on 2022-11-13 09:09:05 I have nothing of substance to add 🙂 I just want to say this is wonderful and ambitious. Nice work!
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2022-11-13 09:39:17 I have nothing of substance to add 🙂 I just want to say this is wonderful and ambitious. Nice work! Same, keep it up! That's a rough rough system, and I applaud you for taking the effort and time to restore it.
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-13 13:12:42 I think you should repaint it, you’ve gone this far… spray a primer and matt black paint Say the word and it shall be done. First layer on! (hopefully I didn't spray too much) sanded photos:
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-13 13:14:55 I have nothing of substance to add 🙂 I just want to say this is wonderful and ambitious. Nice work! Same, keep it up! That's a rough rough system, and I applaud you for taking the effort and time to restore it. Thank you both for the very kind words! It's uh.. quite the project.. I enjoy it, but holy cow.. it's been quite the project..
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-13 14:48:24 Floppy progress is being made, slowly but surely. One at a time. There was a crack in the plastic on the internal plastic. It currently has a dab of super glue and the piece back on there. Cleaned vs just taken out of case: The one on the left if the cleanest I can get the damn thing. I got most of the white stains out with CLR scrubbings, no more rust on it. Just some discoloration in general now. Never owned a disk ii or iii so really anything older than a 3.5 inch floppy and have never really worked on them. I don't even use them in my IBM 5150, I just use compact flash so I didn't know this thing was supposed to move till I watched a video on deconstruction/lubricating a disk ii. This was entirely stuck in there. After moving it around, and letting it sit in wd40 for a solid 1+ along with just moving it as it was oiled (back and forth back and forth) rust finally fell off and out came the rod. Into the rust removal it goes for the next day. This sat in the rust removal for over a day, then got scrubbed for a solid 10 minutes with some sand paper and washing it. Finally! Completely smooth and no more rust. Scrubbed with barkeepers friend to try and remove any marks from sand paper About to use some white lithium grease in the suspecting places that might see movement. When I first started on this floppy everything was *STUCK* not the single bit of movement. Everything is now moving with ease even before greasing.
Posted by: bibilit on 2022-11-14 00:49:04 white lithium grease Don't use this on the rod, just a drop of silicone if you have access to it.
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-14 03:14:30 Don't use this on the rod, just a drop of silicone if you have access to it. Saw that in a video also for disk ii cleaning, I might have to buy some if needed. I'll see how well the movement is once out of the rust bath
Posted by: bibilit on 2022-11-14 05:07:33 at some point i had a sand blasting cabinet...making things look as good as new once done.
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-14 05:39:20 Power supply will be here today according to USPS. Anything I need to test or do besides plug in new power supply into freshly cleaned board and see if I get anything out of it? Going to see if I can get my floppy together today too and test that (might not be possible, slowly moving!). If not I'll see if I at least get ERROR on the screen or whatever it's supposed to throw if it doesn't have anything to boot from. The IC that had a broken leg had another one fall off just by being out of the case. Got 2 new legs soldered on. God have mercy am I not good at putting those little tiny legs on. But they're on. No bridge. Back in the case and sturdy now. Going to test continuity of the switches tonight (thank you for the idea) before getting the keyboard back together sometime this week. Thank you again everything for all the ideas, help and confidence boosts along the way! It really has gone a long way as when I first brought this home and opened it up my first thought was "oh no, that's a lot of damage and work..."
Posted by: LaPorta on 2022-11-14 06:12:33 It has been a lot of work, but you’re really ploughing through it!
Posted by: bibilit on 2022-11-14 07:12:53 IIRC, the Apple III doesn't work if the light bulb fails...
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-14 07:14:52 IIRC, the Apple III doesn't work if the light bulb fails... The light on the keyboard? Or elsewhere? If so.. man that's a terrible design lol
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2022-11-14 08:07:29 I remember hearing the same about the keyboard light. I believe it boots but goes right into diagnostic mode if that’s the case.
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-14 08:17:36 Apple III : Powers Up Into RAM/ROM Diag (But No Inverse "1"s) Found this doc on it, looks interesting.. I'll test my luck!
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-14 19:05:57 This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. I got 3 lights and no video output. The keyboard light works, I have a red light on the logic board and my new power supply is clean and working sharp. Time to start down the rabbit hole of "why don't I get anything from video.." Does anyone know if it'll at least display SOMETHING if nothing is connected besides keyboard and psu? Just error? I tried every setting on the montior and couldn't get anything readable out of it. Plugged in c64 again to make sure and it works fine as expected.
Posted by: bibilit on 2022-11-14 23:52:57 Never owned a III myself, but yes you should at least see a message of some sort. IIRC "RETRY" is the message you have with nothing connected.
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-16 05:18:46 Okay a little update here, took the night off last night and didn't do anything with it. But I worked a bit on it before going into work this morning. The floppy motor kicks on when plugged in (floppy still not assembled entirely yet). The speaker didn't work yesterday but magically started beeping today. I get a different beep each time I turn it on though.. Sometimes 5 beeps, pause, 4 beeps, sometimes 1 beep then 16. I couldn't find anything about this besides "Probably diag" Unfortunately I still get no video but everything I plug into the damn thing works. I haven't re-seated the RAM yet (forgot) will later though. I followed through (page 315) https://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ftp.a...ple III Service Reference Manual-OCR-1982.pdf This morning: "By far, the most likely candidates, are the 74LS374'a, located at E2, F3, F2, F3, G2, & C10. These IC's are the cause of >70% of the video problems. It is also a good idea to check the two 2114's located at E4 and E5. The next moat frequent failure is the 74LS153 at LB. This is U90 as shown on sheet 5 of the schematic. Video problems are also very likely to be misdiagnosed timing problems. For these check the 64Sl95 at D10 and the 74LS374 at D11." Took out, tried to clean them off again and re-seat them firmly. About to go down the next rabbit hole of schematics "sheet 5 of the schematic were 80% of the problems occur" Video attached of beeping if anything wants to hear that beautiful beep.
Posted by: bibilit on 2022-11-16 05:44:05 Have you got a Logic analyser ? even a tester pen ? troubleshooting the board is not an easy task without some tools. At least you know the board is doing something
Posted by: pball52998 on 2022-11-16 06:00:42 Have you got a Logic analyser ? even a tester pen ? troubleshooting the board is not an easy task without some tools. At least you know the board is doing something All I have is a fluke mutli meter at the moment, if needed I can get a tester pen. Have a recommended one? Was looking at the fluke 20-90 ones (https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-1AC-A1...refix=fluke+voltage+tester,aps,77&sr=8-5&th=1)
Posted by: bibilit on 2022-11-16 06:28:04 Was looking at the fluke 20-90 Not really what is needed here, more something like that : DSO138
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