So, not sure if I actually ever posted it here, but around March of 2022, my nephew brought over a Mac Plus he found at a flea market. It only took a glance to see that this thing had…issues…considering the noticeable dirt/rust I could see in the floppy slot. Opening the thing revealed the real story – that this thing likely spent a decent amount of time in someone’s flooded basement, or perhaps even a pond somewhere. Literally! The internal steel frame was so rusted it was literally crumbling.
Other than the plastic case itself, the only salvagable part, oddly enough, was the motherboard. At least I thought so “for science”. Can a motherboard that spent serious time under water ever work again?
(The tube and yoke were likely fine, however the implosion strap around the perimeter of the tube was rusted enough that it popped open, so technically even the tube needs work to ever be used again).
Since then, I’ve been given a “motherboardless” Mac Plus, and started tinkering with the cursed mobo “for science”, at least until not only the RIFA exploded, but some other caps as well, leaving it dead again.
Fast forward to a few days ago, I got a cap kit from Consoles.com, and recapped the analog board, including all fresh new RIFAs, so the tinkering can continue. I’m not sure how much more effort I’ll really put into it; I have plenty of other more fun projects, and really this is just to see if this mobo would ever really boot again. (I found a working mobo on Ebay to bring the Plus back to life either way).
Anyway, I’m trying some WordPress-Twitter features, so here’s a few recent updates with Tinkering:
Well I recapped the analog board so the Mactanic motherboard is back to this. Re-fried the roms, same thing. Need to find some ram. I also replaced the 7905 reg as it was bad.
Im amazed this board works at all, it spent some time under water.
The mactanic mobo shows life…ish! I had the roms backwards, and I also swapped the ram with some sticks I found. It really appears to try to boot but its initializing something causing it to wig out, likely a shorted bus somewhere. Not sure how much effort will go into it.
Ps this is where this board came from: #mactanic
Originally tweeted by Jeff G @orion3311@mastodon.social (@orion3311) on January 31, 2023.