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Gottsey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2015
22
2
Interesting seeing as it isn't very portable. Very bulky and weighs a ton. Keeping it stock would have been more portable I think lol
 

MacTech68

macrumors 68020
Mar 16, 2008
2,393
209
Australia, Perth
It does beg the question why somebody would do this, unless either their original case was damaged, or they were to embarrassed to carry around a MacPlus in the old classic carry bags. Admittedly, the keyboard and mouse/trackball are built in.

As for portable, the PC portables of the same era were just as big and weighty. We used to call them "luggables". ;)
 

MacTech68

macrumors 68020
Mar 16, 2008
2,393
209
Australia, Perth
I am sure it was to be able to lug it around without buying a portable. No extra cords and such.
Well, there were some crazy upgrades for stock machines back then, I guess (if you had the $$$).

EDIT - not that this WAS, but some people might just do that. :)
 
Last edited:

Gottsey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2015
22
2
Ok I've got the capacitors. Had my appendix out last week so haven't had chance do anything to it yet. The new capacitors don't have any indication on them as to wether they go a specific way. Does it matter or are they the same either way?
 

Gottsey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2015
22
2
Status update. New capacitors fitted and the computer now stays on and doesn't trip the circuit in the house.
The monitor to start with just showed a series of stationary lines but now is flickering and something inside is making an electrical buzzing sort of noise so I take it another component is failing.

I take it the os is not on the hard drive and I will have to find some discs from somewhere too.
 

Gottsey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2015
22
2
Been switched on and off a few times now and the noise has stopped so has any display output to the screen.
Any ideas where to go now?
 

MacTech68

macrumors 68020
Mar 16, 2008
2,393
209
Australia, Perth
Jeepers :eek:

Well, first check the earthing of the analog board. There are two earths that need to be connected. One comes from the resin potted choke near the power inlet, the other is the silver exposed part on the bottom (rear in your setup) corner of the analog board. There is a third black wire with a white stripe that should be anchored to one of the picture tube's mounting ears.

Also make sure you reconnected the anode cap securely to the picture tube. It's the transparent cap with a thick red wire.

Perhaps a picture of the analog board with the insulator card removed would be advantageous. If you need to take two pics showing half at a time, then do so.

It's possible there are dry/crack solder joints on the yoke connector.

Does the machine chime at all when first turned on?

Other more serious problems might be a bad 3.9uF HF capacitor near the yoke connector, a bad flyback transformer, or a bad horizontal output transistor.

I'd really like to see how the mains power is wired in - with particular attention to the earth pin.
 

Gottsey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2015
22
2
Thanks. I'll see what I can do but I'm far from and electrician, keen though lol.
 

havokalien

macrumors 6502a
Apr 27, 2006
649
51
Kelso, Wa
Analog board definatly needs help. look up online as there is a "set" of caps to be replaced on the plus. The plus did not come with a hard drive so if it has one that is new. A plus boots and runs off of floppy, but you wont see that until the video is fixed (which is an analog issue).
 

Jon42

macrumors newbie
Oct 3, 2023
1
1
I bought this computer recently and have been trying to find out more about its background, who made it, what it was used for.

I posted on the Applefritter.com forums and had a couple of helpful reply’s including the link to this post on MacRumors.

The other link shared on the forum was to a deskthority.net post about a similar looking computer, almost certainly made by the same manufacturer though without the Apple keyboard or Apple logo on the front. That post mentioned that that this similar computer was made by a French company, Siema, as a Portable Terminal for use with an oscilloscope.

I’m not sure if my Apple based computer, which also has a Macintosh Plus motherboard, was intended for the same purpose. One of the previous owners, Gottsey, who created this post, carried out repairs as detailed above, however the computer is currently not working.

I’m just wondering if anyone recognizes this computer and would have any information about its history.

Thanks

Jon42
 
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tenthousandthings

Contributor
May 14, 2012
50
58
New Haven, CT
What is your hardware setup for handling early Macs? I think I would remove the hard drive and put it into an enclosure, and see what’s on it. Has that been done? Make a disk image of it and work with that, to preserve it. Assuming there’s anything on it…

68K Macintosh Liberation Army is a good community, it’s been years since I was active there, but that’s where I’d start: https://68kmla.org/
 
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