first job out of university I got hired to do software development that targeted the Macintosh Plus. I had self taught myself Mac programming on my 138K Mac that I did the chip soldering to upgrade to a fat Mac. I had Lightspped C compiler and Macsbug monitor. But when hired to work on the Mac Plus, I used MPW C compiler, Object Pascal, and its assembler. I was developing an embedded app to where the Mac was to be the operational console of a laser photo imager that printed PC boards on to sheets of film taking conventional Gerber files. I worked with mostly EE engineers and they would let me borrow the MC68000 logic analizer to debug memory corruption bugs. Went on to work for companies like Aldus where worked on Persuadion and Pagemaker, and worked at Microsoft, but this engineering startup working on the Mac Plus was one of the best job - the coolness factor of hardware merged with software.
@@RetroHackShack Joined the project in 1987 - when the very expensive Gerber machines were still primarily used to image PCBs. This film imaging machine that I was part of development team for, used about three MC68K CPUs and rasterization was done with one of those, so by using the Mac we could port the rasterization code easily to the Mac and allow a user to preview a gerber file graphically on the screen (which black and white was adequate for) prior to printing it. The user would put a floppy disk of gerber files into the Mac and use its kiosk UI to select which file to print, etc. Could preview the gerber file, and preview its "tray" and customize it, etc. Probably one of the reasons I got the job is because at university a computer sci hacker buddy and I (I was in engineering dept) were showing off a TeX port to the Mac where we had a preview capability of TeX documents so all the academics using TeX could check what they were about to send to a department printer. This was before any commercial ports of TeX for the Mac started showing up. Professors were impressed as they all tend to write their papers and books using Donald Knuth's TeX (and LaTeX). Back to the PCB photo imaging device - the Mac Plus was mounted into the machine to where it was operated with a track pad (no keyboard). I wrote a new kiosk desktop UI that replaced the normal Mac desktop. Of interest is that what I came up with worked very much like the Windows 95 desktop UI that would come out 8 years later. I had something similar to the Start menu down in the bottom, left corner of the screen, which would click on to access hierarchical menus. Used fonts sized much larger and so forth. Very kiosky. So I worked at Microsoft when Windows 95 came out - it was satisfying to see that I had come up with similar take years prior, which Win 95 tended to be accepted as a very successful UI paradigm - seems like a lot of Windows users prefer its approach to this day. (that earlier company was hardware focused so there was never any thought about copyrighting or patenting the kiosk UI - they had hardware patents instead).
These original macs (128k, 512k, Plus) are rugged machines. The SE, SE/30, Classic, Classic II, LCs etc all struggle with battery bombs, bad caps etc and yet they're the most popular machines amongst collectors.
We repair a lot of macintoshes. We reflow every header on SE/plus/512s. We replace the rifa's. Those yoke connector joints love to break. The yoke connector WOULD not have resulted in a non-functional system. You might have a bad speaker, since you SHOULD get a deeeeet noise when powering on. That's it from me. Great little video!
Yup, after you do a few of these you recognize the analog board clicking. But i also had one where the plug was completely fried and i actually had to get a new connector. Luckily that's all it was, sometimes people love to mess with the voltage settings on the board also when it doesn't work.
I would have made a way more complicated attempt at fixing that broken solder pad. Scrape the lacquer off, try to solder to the trace, etc. Just bending the component lead over to the next solder point is an elegant solution that may not be as obvious as it seems.
Soldering to another soldering point is stronger than scraping and soldering to the trace. If there wasn't a solder point so close, your method would've been preferred.
Yikes. Not sure if that qualified as "just came off". It looked like a big yank. Other than that comical moment the video isn't bad at all. Thanks for posting it
Wouldn't it be possible to 3D print a new plastic piece for those mice if you find another one without it? I'm sure the balls are easy to find elsewhere, too.
Look man, I don't know where you live buy here there is no ewaste places that allows you to take stuff. I gotta pay a lot for broken stuff here most of the time... any tips on how to get some cheaper macs?
@Retro Hack Shack this is Netherlands. All macs come from old people rummaging through their attic. If you wanna check Dutch prices check marktplaats, euro is about a dollar
Haha, not everyone has a RUclips channel or wants to make videos... I know i don't, so all of my repairs are done incognito... It's nice that Aaron repaired it on camera for us.
I ended up fixing the mouse and including it in the bonus content available for my Patrons at the $2+ levels!
first job out of university I got hired to do software development that targeted the Macintosh Plus. I had self taught myself Mac programming on my 138K Mac that I did the chip soldering to upgrade to a fat Mac. I had Lightspped C compiler and Macsbug monitor. But when hired to work on the Mac Plus, I used MPW C compiler, Object Pascal, and its assembler.
I was developing an embedded app to where the Mac was to be the operational console of a laser photo imager that printed PC boards on to sheets of film taking conventional Gerber files.
I worked with mostly EE engineers and they would let me borrow the MC68000 logic analizer to debug memory corruption bugs.
Went on to work for companies like Aldus where worked on Persuadion and Pagemaker, and worked at Microsoft, but this engineering startup working on the Mac Plus was one of the best job - the coolness factor of hardware merged with software.
That's so cool. What year was this? And why the Mac? I assume it was because of the speed of the 68k.
@@RetroHackShack Joined the project in 1987 - when the very expensive Gerber machines were still primarily used to image PCBs.
This film imaging machine that I was part of development team for, used about three MC68K CPUs and rasterization was done with one of those, so by using the Mac we could port the rasterization code easily to the Mac and allow a user to preview a gerber file graphically on the screen (which black and white was adequate for) prior to printing it.
The user would put a floppy disk of gerber files into the Mac and use its kiosk UI to select which file to print, etc. Could preview the gerber file, and preview its "tray" and customize it, etc.
Probably one of the reasons I got the job is because at university a computer sci hacker buddy and I (I was in engineering dept) were showing off a TeX port to the Mac where we had a preview capability of TeX documents so all the academics using TeX could check what they were about to send to a department printer. This was before any commercial ports of TeX for the Mac started showing up. Professors were impressed as they all tend to write their papers and books using Donald Knuth's TeX (and LaTeX).
Back to the PCB photo imaging device - the Mac Plus was mounted into the machine to where it was operated with a track pad (no keyboard).
I wrote a new kiosk desktop UI that replaced the normal Mac desktop. Of interest is that what I came up with worked very much like the Windows 95 desktop UI that would come out 8 years later. I had something similar to the Start menu down in the bottom, left corner of the screen, which would click on to access hierarchical menus. Used fonts sized much larger and so forth. Very kiosky.
So I worked at Microsoft when Windows 95 came out - it was satisfying to see that I had come up with similar take years prior, which Win 95 tended to be accepted as a very successful UI paradigm - seems like a lot of Windows users prefer its approach to this day. (that earlier company was hardware focused so there was never any thought about copyrighting or patenting the kiosk UI - they had hardware patents instead).
So cool. Thanks for sharing!
These original macs (128k, 512k, Plus) are rugged machines. The SE, SE/30, Classic, Classic II, LCs etc all struggle with battery bombs, bad caps etc and yet they're the most popular machines amongst collectors.
What a score! My first computer which launched a career at Apple + Sony.
Great job! Watching videos like this gets my fix in. I LOVE working on old electronics but I haven't had time in a while. Thank you!
Thanks
I really enjoyed this! Keep up the good work Aaron!
Thanks!
We repair a lot of macintoshes. We reflow every header on SE/plus/512s. We replace the rifa's. Those yoke connector joints love to break. The yoke connector WOULD not have resulted in a non-functional system. You might have a bad speaker, since you SHOULD get a deeeeet noise when powering on. That's it from me. Great little video!
Yup, after you do a few of these you recognize the analog board clicking. But i also had one where the plug was completely fried and i actually had to get a new connector. Luckily that's all it was, sometimes people love to mess with the voltage settings on the board also when it doesn't work.
Yeah the speaker was shot. I replaced it we a spare. They are a weird ohms rating though. Like 36 ohms or something.
That would suck.
Another common fault is the fuse in the power cable. Always check blue wire has continuity. There's a 5amp fuse inline
I never realized that. That could cause a bit of confusion when troubleshooting for sure.
I always hit like, and contrary to what you seem to think, each little fix that you do is interesting to a lot of us I believe. (speaker)
Thanks!
Good repair, nice old mac 😊
7:06 bow chica bow wow
that's so useful for beginners!
I could have sworn that was a screwdriver but you're calling it a torque wrench. ok, that's interesting. 🤣
The "O" and the "L" on the bottom of the mouse are for "Open" and "Locked".
Great job and video
Nicely done! You already know I'm not a Mac fan, but this was good work. I'm sure your friend will enjoy using the keyboard and mouse.
I would have made a way more complicated attempt at fixing that broken solder pad. Scrape the lacquer off, try to solder to the trace, etc. Just bending the component lead over to the next solder point is an elegant solution that may not be as obvious as it seems.
Good to know. I often overlook the simplest solution or go down some rabbit hole.
Soldering to another soldering point is stronger than scraping and soldering to the trace. If there wasn't a solder point so close, your method would've been preferred.
Yikes. Not sure if that qualified as "just came off". It looked like a big yank. Other than that comical moment the video isn't bad at all. Thanks for posting it
Wouldn't it be possible to 3D print a new plastic piece for those mice if you find another one without it? I'm sure the balls are easy to find elsewhere, too.
Look man, I don't know where you live buy here there is no ewaste places that allows you to take stuff. I gotta pay a lot for broken stuff here most of the time... any tips on how to get some cheaper macs?
Start a collectors group where you can trade and share good funds.
@Retro Hack Shack this is Netherlands. All macs come from old people rummaging through their attic. If you wanna check Dutch prices check marktplaats, euro is about a dollar
You should just give the keyboard and mouse as is and let him test and fix it in a video on his YT channel.
Haha, not everyone has a RUclips channel or wants to make videos... I know i don't, so all of my repairs are done incognito... It's nice that Aaron repaired it on camera for us.
"Torque wrench"??? I think you mean a 'torx screwdriver'.
Mac Plus "1Mb" ?? so 128KB in disguise?? (lowercase b=bits, uppercase B=bytes, for those who actually don't know)
Thumb down for putting up paywalls.
EWWWW a mac haha I will watch a mac repair but I will be thinking about a PC repair