68kMLA Classic Interface

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SE/30 worth repairing ?
Posted by: plb007 on 2020-07-30 19:25:51
Hi, 

I recently acquired a SE/30 with just a white horizontal line on the screen. 

When opening, I found the Maxwell battery has leak (usual). Is it worth repairing it ? Do you think it's possible to make it alive again ? I will clean the board and post pictures when it's clean. 

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Posted by: plb007 on 2020-07-30 19:35:20
First clean ....

How does it look ?

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Posted by: BadGoldEagle on 2020-07-30 19:46:18
Real bad unfortunately. The RTC chip is completely corroded. Even if you fix all the traces to the ROM SIMM, all VIAs, all the chips, you'll never be able to start up from a SCSI disk again until you get a new RTC chip (and for the time being you need to get one from a donor board, so it's not very practical). And that ROM may be bad too. 

I'd try to neutralise the acid as much as possible (on the board and probably on the chassis as well) and store it until you get your hands on a new board (either second hand, or a reproduction one when and if they are ever made).
Posted by: LaPorta on 2020-07-30 21:12:35
Here’s a question that could be relevant here. I know the RTCs between the Classic, SE, and SE/30 all appear to be different sizes, but are they in any way compatible? Could one be used in place of another?
Posted by: plb007 on 2020-07-30 22:10:52
Second cleaning, does it looks still bad ? I guess not that much but still too much !

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Posted by: Bolle on 2020-07-31 01:23:04
RTCs between the Classic, SE, and SE/30
I swapped them around between SE and SE/30 and it seems everything works just fine both ways.

You can also use a ATTiny to replace it.

Somewhere around here someone linked to the code you’d need for that but I haven’t tried it yet in a SE/30.
Posted by: ScutBoy on 2020-07-31 09:53:31
Reviving that board looks like a "Hail Mary" to me, but I'm still fairly novice at repairing things at this level.

I know I'd walk away from this one. Even if I got it to work, I'd never trust it. These boards aren't that rare that I'd put the time into this one, others here are likely up to the challenge!
Posted by: quorten on 2020-08-01 14:51:04
Somewhere around here someone linked to the code you’d need for that but I haven’t tried it yet in a SE/30.
Oh wow!  Not sure why I had trouble linking across the forum in a durable means before, but in any case looks like 68kMLA now has a reliable means to do so.  This is what I found chasing around.
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