4 ms·

I still have my old SE/30. It's still working. Has the Ethernet card installed, so it's even marginally useful. I also picked up my old 512k "Fat" Mac from my

by Bud 5y ago

I still have my old SE/30. It's still working. Has the Ethernet card installed, so it's even marginally useful. I also picked up my old 512k "Fat" Mac from my aunt's house where I had it stored for 20 years. Powered it up. Bright white screen, perfectly sharp, works perfectly. Not bad for a machine that debuted in 1984.

wwweston 5y ago
Would you say it's worth getting an ethernet card and fixing one with screen (likely leaky cap) issues? I've got one that I've wondered might be a good connected-but-not-TOO-connected device.
- Bud 5y ago
  If you're a real Mac lover? Definitely. I used to use mine all the time as a very fancy vt100 terminal for an old Apollo server I had, and also to telnet to a BBS I was running in the late 90s. It's a great conversation piece, too.
- floren 5y ago
  If you haven't already, you should open it up and remove the PRAM battery. I've seen what happens when the battery bursts and then sits for a few years... not pretty. The caps aren't as big of a deal in comparison, they just need to be replaced when you want to use it.
  - zargon 5y ago
    The caps are a big deal, just not as bad as the battery. The caps leak corrosive electrolytic fluid which eats traces and corrodes component legs. Most un-restored SE/30s require trace repairs at this point due to leaky caps. The longer the original caps remain the more extensive the repairs.
- twmiller 5y ago
  Also own a Mac SE/30 and pretty much went through the hoops that the linked article did, only I did all of it myself. I also picked up an ethernet card for it because I had a retro-computer connection who got me one for a really good price (like, an AMAZINGLY good price). Otherwise, the network adapters for the SE/30's PDS slot are pretty rare and usually very expensive. A far less expensive option is to get a Pi Zero, a USB-to-serial adapter, and a Apple-to-9-pin null modem cable. You can set up SLIRP on the pi running linux and then use a PPP modem driver to connect to the internet on the se/30. You're stuck at serial port speeds, but honestly for most of what you want to do on a computer this old (irc, bbsing, file transfers of se/30 sized files) it's actually pretty solid. I use the pi zero / serial interface for a bunch of my old computers that don't have proper network adapters.
chizhik-pyzhik 5y ago
Which ethernet card do you have? I have a saved ebay search but nothing has popped up recently
- ncmncm 5y ago
  You could emulate one with an ESP32 or something and have wifi. The bus is only 16 MHz, slow enough for a modern microcontroller to bit-bang.

by Bud 5y ago

wwweston 5y ago

Would you say it's worth getting an ethernet card and fixing one with screen (likely leaky cap) issues? I've got one that I've wondered might be a good connected-but-not-TOO-connected device.

Bud 5y ago
If you're a real Mac lover? Definitely. I used to use mine all the time as a very fancy vt100 terminal for an old Apollo server I had, and also to telnet to a BBS I was running in the late 90s. It's a great conversation piece, too.
floren 5y ago
If you haven't already, you should open it up and remove the PRAM battery. I've seen what happens when the battery bursts and then sits for a few years... not pretty. The caps aren't as big of a deal in comparison, they just need to be replaced when you want to use it.
- zargon 5y ago
  The caps are a big deal, just not as bad as the battery. The caps leak corrosive electrolytic fluid which eats traces and corrodes component legs. Most un-restored SE/30s require trace repairs at this point due to leaky caps. The longer the original caps remain the more extensive the repairs.
twmiller 5y ago
Also own a Mac SE/30 and pretty much went through the hoops that the linked article did, only I did all of it myself. I also picked up an ethernet card for it because I had a retro-computer connection who got me one for a really good price (like, an AMAZINGLY good price). Otherwise, the network adapters for the SE/30's PDS slot are pretty rare and usually very expensive. A far less expensive option is to get a Pi Zero, a USB-to-serial adapter, and a Apple-to-9-pin null modem cable. You can set up SLIRP on the pi running linux and then use a PPP modem driver to connect to the internet on the se/30. You're stuck at serial port speeds, but honestly for most of what you want to do on a computer this old (irc, bbsing, file transfers of se/30 sized files) it's actually pretty solid. I use the pi zero / serial interface for a bunch of my old computers that don't have proper network adapters.

chizhik-pyzhik 5y ago

Which ethernet card do you have? I have a saved ebay search but nothing has popped up recently

ncmncm 5y ago
You could emulate one with an ESP32 or something and have wifi. The bus is only 16 MHz, slow enough for a modern microcontroller to bit-bang.