General Stuff(tm)

[rubber_jonnie]

The BBC was way out of our price bracket too, at £399. I started the same way as you.

I think it was for many people, none of my friends had either an Apple ][ (The other school computer round our way) or a BBC, it was a mix of ZX's, a TRS-80 (Only one friend had that and that wasn't cheap IIRC), Dragons, VIC-20s and some C64s.

Most, like me, had 48k Speccys. Later I had Atari 8 bit machines as their prices plummeted.

[stephen_usher]

The last of the surface mount capacitors and the 68882 have arrived for the Mac LCII, so I can start on the recapping tonight.

I'll first have to desolder the power connector and one of the audio connectors as they're too close to use hot air and not melt them. I'll not desolder the SIMM slot though. I'll just have to use plenty of Kapton tape to protect it.

P.S. Oh, it's not the 68882 arrived, it's a 4MB SIMM. No matter.
P.P.S. The 68882 also arrived, but I didn't notice the jiffy bag in the pigeonhole.

[stephen_usher]

Well, the 4MB SIMM doesn't work. Eight chimes.

[rubber_jonnie]

Well, the 4MB SIMM doesn't work. Eight chimes.

Rubbish!

[stephen_usher]

Yeah. Unfortunately I've nothing else I can test it in.

Anyway, things have conspired tonight to mean that I don't have time to start on the recapping. Probably tomorrow now.

[rubber_jonnie]

Anyway, things have conspired tonight to mean that I don't have time to start on the recapping. Probably tomorrow now.

I know that feeling for sure.

[stephen_usher]

Off-topic but only sort of as it's DCC controlled...

Something arrived which I pre-ordered a year ago...

IMG_2642.jpg (200.57 KiB) Viewed 1848 times

IMG_2645.jpg (132.71 KiB) Viewed 1848 times

It's a pity that due to planning issues I have nowhere to run it yet.

I used to see the original doing trials up and down the Midland Mainline in the mid-70s.

[stephen_usher]

Back to the old computers...

This evening I re-capped the Mac LCII.

Although all but a couple of the capacitors showed no signs of leakage all of them had actually leaked slightly underneath. Thankfully the solder resist on the LCII seems bulletproof, or at least capacitor juice-proof as a quick wipe with an IPA soaked cotton bud got rid of everything. Well, other than on one pad which needed a small amount of work.

I also fitted a PLCC-68 socket for the FPU, and I fitted that as well.

IMG_2646.jpg (92.71 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

I tentatively turned the power on and... Bong! Happy Mac.

So I put it all together, fitted the battery and set it up properly. Then ran Speedometer to make sure it could see the FPU...

IMG_2647.jpg (66.71 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

Success!
Anyway, here are the benchmarks relative to a Color Classic, which is the most similar machine to this.

IMG_2648.jpg (99.28 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

[rubber_jonnie]

Off-topic but only sort of as it's DCC controlled...

Something arrived which I pre-ordered a year ago...


IMG_2642.jpg
IMG_2645.jpg


It's a pity that due to planning issues I have nowhere to run it yet.

I used to see the original doing trials up and down the Midland Mainline in the mid-70s.

Wasn't this the infamous tilting train that was eventually cancelled?

[rubber_jonnie]

Back to the old computers...

This evening I re-capped the Mac LCII.

Although all but a couple of the capacitors showed no signs of leakage all of them had actually leaked slightly underneath. Thankfully the solder resist on the LCII seems bulletproof, or at least capacitor juice-proof as a quick wipe with an IPA soaked cotton bud got rid of everything. Well, other than on one pad which needed a small amount of work.

I also fitted a PLCC-68 socket for the FPU, and I fitted that as well.
IMG_2646.jpg

I tentatively turned the power on and... Bong! Happy Mac.

So I put it all together, fitted the battery and set it up properly. Then ran Speedometer to make sure it could see the FPU...
IMG_2647.jpg
Success!
Anyway, here are the benchmarks relative to a Color Classic, which is the most similar machine to this.
IMG_2648.jpg

Very nice, plus the picture on it is super crisp on that display

Did you replace the Maxell bomb? I hate those damn batteries, they seem to have molecular acid for blood that eats through everything!! (That's my film reference for the evening )