68kMLA Classic Interface

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Color Classic x2, Classic, SE/30, PB180 x2, PB3400, etc
Posted by: netfreak on 2017-10-14 13:34:09 I picked this lot up few weeks ago for $100. Had to drive a few hours to grab everything but I wanted to make sure it didn't end up thrown out or something. Lots of goodies were included such as a box of SCSI drives, stacks of floppy disks, Apple IIe cards for LCs, spare components (LC575 boards, CC board, RAM sticks, 040 CPUs). The PowerBook 3400 came with a bootable CF card, max RAM upgrade, floppy/CD/ZIP modules. Both Color Classics work but one seemingly has a dead drive. The Classic also had a dead drive. The SE/30's drive is good but doesn't appear to be bootable for that system, so I'll be hooking up a CDROM and doing an A/UX install or something. The PowerBook 180s both work. One has a 40mb drive and maybe ~10mb RAM, the other has an 80mb drive and 12 or 14mb RAM. The 3400 is probably my favorite part of the haul since I used to own one a long time ago and regret selling it. It's also the most convenient for going through the endless stacks of drives and disks to archive and add to my software collection. Also included a StyleWriter II and StyleWriter 1200 but I'll probably give one of those away as I don't have any real intention of buying ink to use them.
Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-15 09:03:36 Very nice find! $100 is reasonable for that haul, perhaps even a bargain given how valued the Color Classic is despite it's anemic performance. Your lucky both PB180's still have workable hard disks. My PowerBooks are slowly rotting away due to failing SCSI drives. It's probably worse to let them sit than it is to occasionally power them up. I've always wanted an SE/30 since I encountered two way back in Middle School. By that time they were sitting abandoned but attached to obsolete CNC machines in the shop room, hopelessly waiting for a project. Those machines are probably long gone by now. Software archival takes a lot of patience. I did most of my floppy imaging on the IIfx because the system doesn't lag up when performing floppy disk operations. A PPC Mac is probably the smarter choice for that because compressing the images will be quicker.
Posted by: Juror22 on 2017-10-16 18:07:23 That is an awesome collection of items. The disks, cards and such are as great as the macs and I'm very happy for you, since it looks like there will be plenty there for you to play with for quite some time.
Posted by: PB145B on 2017-10-16 19:17:09 $100 is an absolute steal for all of that! And please remove the PRAM batteries from those compacts! I’d also go ahead and remove them from the PowerBooks too.
Posted by: james_w on 2017-10-17 10:24:15 Great haul... and a bargain one at that!
Posted by: EvilCapitalist on 2017-10-17 12:31:45 Sounds like you've got at least one Mystic CC in the making, with IIe emulation tossed in as well. Certainly a very nice haul and quite the steal of a deal.
Posted by: 68krazy on 2017-10-17 18:39:09 Amazing haul, I would have considered $100 a fair price for just the SE/30 or one of the Color Classics alone!
Posted by: netfreak on 2017-10-17 21:49:14 Yeah I checked the compact Mac internals already and zero battery leakage but the SE/30 and probably the Classic will need to be recapped. They don't LOOK bad but there's some glitches in operation. I'll probably pop open the PB 180s at some point and I'm currently using the 3400 as a floppy ripping system going through all these old disks I've got.
Posted by: re4mat on 2017-10-20 18:39:16 Amazing find! Can't tell from the pics, but are the name plates on the CCs spelled "color" or "colour"? If the latter, I'd be willing to buy or trade one of those name plates!
Posted by: netfreak on 2017-10-23 11:32:21 I think they were just "color" but I'll check when I get a chance. I also sold one to a friend but didn't really notice what the spelling was.
Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-23 14:32:45 I took out my Color Classic to test it and the caps have leaked onto the logic board, to the point that it will not boot. There is no corrosion yet. I would strongly suggest taking care of your Color Classics before they leak and fail. The CRT/PSU seems to be fine as it turned on with an LC550 board inserted. The CC logic board seems like an easy recap. Everything is spaced out pretty well.
Posted by: netfreak on 2017-10-23 22:05:28 Amazing find! Can't tell from the pics, but are the name plates on the CCs spelled "color" or "colour"? If the latter, I'd be willing to buy or trade one of those name plates! Just checked the one I have left and it's with "color" on the label. I took out my Color Classic to test it and the caps have leaked onto the logic board, to the point that it will not boot. There is no corrosion yet. I would strongly suggest taking care of your Color Classics before they leak and fail. The CRT/PSU seems to be fine as it turned on with an LC550 board inserted. The CC logic board seems like an easy recap. Everything is spaced out pretty well. Yeah I plan on recapping a bunch of my boards over the winter. I also have a local guy who has done solder work for me before in case I end up being real bad at it. Might just pay him to do the more valuable boards like the SE/30.
Posted by: just.in.time on 2017-10-27 20:51:07 The first board I did was a Mac TV. Probably a bad idea to learn on a rare board like that. I’d start on a color classic board (especially since you got a 575 as well), and get your method squared away there first. How many Apple IIe LC cards did you get? Did they come with the breakout Y cables?
Posted by: netfreak on 2017-10-27 22:57:36 The first board I did was a Mac TV. Probably a bad idea to learn on a rare board like that. I’d start on a color classic board (especially since you got a 575 as well), and get your method squared away there first. How many Apple IIe LC cards did you get? Did they come with the breakout Y cables? Yeah I've got a lot of Macs I should recap at some point so I'll try on the less rare ones. I have two of the IIe cards but it doesn't look like I've got the cables. I'll probably look into buying one at some point.
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