68kMLA Classic Interface

This is a version of the 68kMLA forums for viewing on your favorite old mac. Visitors on modern platforms may prefer the main site.

Click here to select a new forum.
Scored a PB180 via CL
Posted by: 4seasonphoto on 2014-12-27 17:16:23 My first new/old Mac in years! Ended up paying too much ($55) but it was local, and has the rear door (though on second glance, the latch seems to be missing--oh well!). Current plan is to SSD it and use it as a replacement for the Mac Portable which I will finally be listing on That Auction Site. http://denver.craigslist.org/sys/4789137409.html
Posted by: TheWhiteFalcon on 2014-12-27 17:40:20 I like the 180. Probably because I have one, but it's still a nice machine. What SSD do you plan to use?
Posted by: Elfen on 2014-12-27 17:54:44 Congrats on the score! The PB180 is one that has an IDE port on it? And like WhiteFalcon asked, what name brand/kind SSD are you putting in?
Posted by: TheWhiteFalcon on 2014-12-27 18:45:46 180 is still SCSI, the 190 and 150 had IDE I believe.
Posted by: Macdrone on 2014-12-27 19:48:35 The 150 was an oddball and had ide also.
Posted by: 4seasonphoto on 2014-12-27 19:49:28 Thanks guys, I plan on trying the SCSI/Compact Flash SSD sold by eBay member "Artmix".
Posted by: CelGen on 2014-12-28 09:35:21 180's are great. Their LCD is nice, they have a lot of I/O and internally they have a decent amount of expansion and a fast CPU.
Posted by: TheWhiteFalcon on 2014-12-28 09:40:26 Let us know how that adapter works, I'd be interested in it for mine.
Posted by: 4seasonphoto on 2015-01-01 18:36:47 180 has arrived, and what a 180 it is: It looks almost new! No yellowing, no shiny spots on the keyboard, no fossilized muffin crumbs or cat hair. There's one case crack around the modem slot, but a little bit of plastic welding should make it vanish. Has a Global Village modem, 8 megabytes of RAM and a 120 MB hard drive. I was going to re-cell the battery pack, but on second thought decided that I'd be better off just getting a working NIMH pack for $43, which is probably less than I'd pay for a bunch of nicads. Less messy too. Maybe if it were an OEM Apple part, but it's just some generic 3rd party item. Opening it up revealed no nasty surprises: plastics look great there too. Needed to clean up the nicad ooze which fortunately didn't touch the electronics. While I was at it, I removed the UL2320 PRAM battery and will see if I can pick up another this weekend. Artmix SSD is on it's way!
Posted by: techknight on 2015-01-01 19:08:32 Nice! Hopefully that one doesnt have the dreaded tunnelvision. Plus that battery I believe is 3rd party/aftermarket. On my 180, I removed the battery but kept the battery door. That way there wasnt a gaping hole. With bbrauns new localtalk/ethernet solution, I may re-purpose the battery bay to shoehorn a localtalk to ethernet/wifi bridge.
Posted by: 4seasonphoto on 2015-01-01 20:01:50 With bbrauns new localtalk/ethernet solution, I may re-purpose the battery bay to shoehorn a localtalk to ethernet/wifi bridge. Got a link? I saw something about a PB540 wifi solution, but that assumes the presence of an AAUI connector. I did find his site and (ouch) if I had known he had a SCSI->SD solution, I might've gone that route instead of the Artmix CF adapter.
Posted by: techknight on 2015-01-02 08:16:36 Its over at mac68k.info in the hardware thread. Its still in alpha development stage and requires a beaglebone black.
Posted by: RickNel on 2015-01-02 19:49:01 Nice - I have one, but yours is better condition. Depending how yours has been used/stored, you might find some of the electrolytic caps in the LCD display are nearing end of life and need replacing. I got a set of caps for mine, but the replacement job is not yet top of my to-do list. Rick
Posted by: 4seasonphoto on 2015-01-02 20:52:57 Its over at mac68k.info in the hardware thread. Found it thanks. Beaglebone must have more computing horsepower than the entire vintage Mac it's supporting!
Posted by: 4seasonphoto on 2015-01-02 20:55:32 Nice - I have one, but yours is better condition. Depending how yours has been used/stored, you might find some of the electrolytic caps in the LCD display are nearing end of life and need replacing. I got a set of caps for mine, but the replacement job is not yet top of my to-do list. I haven't opened the screen frame yet, but perhaps I should. I did check the two small aluminum electrolytics on the inverter board, but both checked out okay with low ESR.
Posted by: 4seasonphoto on 2015-01-03 13:54:21 RickNel, does your 180 have aluminum electrolytic caps in the LCD housing? I had a look at mine, and didn't see a single one, only tantalum chip capacitors, and all of those check out with good ESR values. In fact, the only 2 aluminum cans in the whole computer seem to be on the inverter board.
Posted by: Macdrone on 2015-01-03 15:40:42 I have yet to pull my 180 apart but all the others do in the 1xx series. Maybe not aluminum but leaky caps for sure. Like 9 2.2uf and a couple bigger ones. My 160 I'm waiting for caps from mouser now before it gets done.
Posted by: Juror22 on 2015-01-03 16:37:31 I just took apart a 150 (thanks letni) and it has a different screen setup from the others (kinda like an ibook in layout, with the backlight connector on the side of the screen) the caps look like tantalums in there too.
Posted by: techknight on 2015-01-03 18:19:14 Found it thanks. Beaglebone must have more computing horsepower than the entire vintage Mac it's supporting! probably 50 times more. Just to be the slave to a slower machine. muaahahahaa.
1