68kMLA Classic Interface
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| Planning my "Reloaded" SE/30 build. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-03-16 09:51:54 Would love anyone's help and/or thoughts in planning out my Mac SE/30 Reloaded build. I purchased from @GreenBar0n his purple Reloaded board he didn't need with these parts: (6) PLCC 20 sockets, (4) PLCC 68 sockets and (1) CPU socket, I have a NOS MC68030RC33B, 33MHz CPU, and I have a battery bombed Iivx I can harvest some stuff from. Maybe even use its CPU instead. I might probably do the Quadra conversion on the Iivx some day. But may as well use some of the Custom ICs & ASICs/proprietary, and through-hole components that I already have with this machine I found at the Boise Reuseum e-recycler. Here are is the board and sockets and the NOS CPU.    I will need to decide if I want to try to do this myself, down the road after I do some practice building on easier stuff and improve my soldering skillz, or if I want to send it to someone to build for me. I may also find some help through my local vintage computer club, tvvcc.org the Treassure Valley Vintage Computing Club. I have started to study some threads here, and will study more closely, @schrockwell 's thread on his journey. I don't plan on being in a hurry, and the process and learning is a large part of what I hope to gain from this. I have a working SE modded to SE/30 already anyway. I think I will use a new power supply. And maybe as much new parts/stuff as I can. I think, but have to look and be sure, that I have the analog board to recap also, but may look for a reloaded one. If I don't have an analog board, I will get one. I will want to find a good accelerator, and plan to find and use one day a ZigZagJoe color display kit, with the ability to drive a separate color monitor, if he makes more, or I can find one used, or something similar. As far as ethernet/internet, thinking I might end up using a Zulu SCSI Pico 2 slim as I am not sure I really will care that much about doing that much internet stuff on this machine. I plan on using a SE/30 faceplate I have, and hope someday to find a clear SE enclosure for the back, if I can find one of those at some point. And I plan to max all the rest out over time too. Shoot me your ideas or thoughts if you have any! This is definitely only in planning stages, and will be a work in progress. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by: GreenBar0n on 2026-03-16 23:07:08 Getting the project started, nice! Have you watched the CayMac videos yet? He makes it look easy, but miss a solder bridge on one of those many chip legs, or damage a board trace, and the troubleshooting becomes the hardest part of all 🙂 
CayMac VintageThis channel IS: Drama, Politics, Social Issues and others FREE! Leave those items outside and we can all have fun on a neutral channel. Vintage computer restoration and preservation based in the Cayman Islands. Main focus is on Apple Macintosh computers but others are also included. Complete...
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You haven't said your skill level on PCB repair - which is not to say because you haven't done it before, that you can't do it now. It looks like a fun project, and would be a thrill to succeed in accomplishing the swap. I think the scariest part about doing a Reloaded swap, is not having spare IC's, in case something is wrong on the donor board. If someone handed me a 100% complete and working SE/30 board to do the swap, I'd feel ten times more comfortable doing it. CayMac has stacks of chips to swap in, and the proven knowledge to troubleshoot any problem in a hurry; he has the TechStep too, which is a vital tool in confirming all is well. I still have that TechStep too if you decide to do this, let me know if you need it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-03-17 06:22:27 Well, kind of started. Mostly just planning steel and collecting things. And yeah, let’s call me just a complete noob on computer builds, so this is going to be very much a work in progress. I may still hire some of it out. Planning stages still. I said, I might be able to get some help here locally as well so I’m exploring those options. I would like to learn and do as much of it myself as I can, but I don’t want to screw a bunch of stuff up and ruin parts and things. I have done some soldering, but I would not call myself skilled at all and have not worked with PCB. My experience has been more on Guitar parts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-03-17 06:29:10Getting the project started, nice!And also, I don’t really fully have a donor board yet anyway, other than IIvx bored at my ease for some parts. I’m not that knowledgeable, but that one looks pretty rough so I can see what you are saying. I will go ahead and watch the Caymac vids also. Thanks! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by: GreenBar0n on 2026-03-18 00:26:38 You're welcome! Will be glad to see your Reloaded board put to good use, really like that Purple v5. I've been watching ebay lately, and just the SE/30 logic boards by themselves (socketed model) are going for near $300! Wonder how much a battery bombed board would go for, by itself. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-03-18 10:40:25 Yay! Found a donor board, or rather its current owner, who is relatively local to me, found me! And has built reloaded boards and can assist me down the road. Awesome! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by: Chardonneret on 2026-03-28 08:57:29 Just a tip. When I did mine, it first didn't work because I hadn't placed the PAL chips in the right sockets. Since they all looked the same, I just didn't pay attention. After checking them on another machine, I realized they were good but their markings were not always uniform. I then searched the Internet where I stumbled on this ID sheet, which helped me matching the markings on the PALS with the markings on the board. Good luck!
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| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-03-28 10:13:52 Has anyone posted a Mouser order form for the parts list of late? @trag was looking into using IIcx bits for SE/30 reloaded projects. If those work out, bork'd-n-bombed boards could go Compact? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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