Starting my Compact Mac Vintage Journey with this SE modded to SE/30 project.

[sunvalleylaw]

Just getting into the vintage scene, after using Macs basically my whole life, and the life of that line too. Starting in 1984. I did an intro thread in the appropriate place also! Got this machine to start with. It has been recapped and upgraded as listed below. The SE?30 board was purchased already recapped from eBay by the Seller, and Seller also recapped the analog board. It should arrive in a week or so.

I had an SE in 1988 I used for my legal work at that time, and this one was not too expensive, and looked up and running enough for me to learn and mod from a starting place. would like to add something akin to the old ScuzzyGraph II SCSI mods that allowed the machine to drive a color display. Learned about that watching a video interview of Rand Miller and how they developed Myst. Would use it for displaying family photos, messing around with old games, etc. And for grins. Just developing my knowledge and ideas now. If anyone has any ideas of directions to pursue, chime in. . I think I would like to avoid putting in a flat screen LCD or such and would rather have a good working machine, with the capability to run a color external drive, rather than a lot of the mods I have seen on Youtube and the forums. We'll see.

 

[Nixontheknight]

Congrats, dude, this seller sounds like they know their stuff, so they may pack it well

 

[sunvalleylaw]

This should get here Thursday!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

OK, here it is! I have been excited about this. Figured out from the UPS store today.

First a little unboxing. It was packed very well, in my opinion. Hooked everything up. The newer keyboard that doesn’t have the rainbow apple seems to work better as the Q key seems to be stuck on the one with the Apple. I’m going to see if I can clean that one up and take care of some of the yellow and get it working again.

And here is the first start up and a little brief exploration. I had to stop after firing it up to change out the keyboard because as I said, the one with the rainbow apple on it wasn’t working properly. The other one works just fine though! And this thing seem super fast for what it has on it right now.

I did check in with the seller and the PSU has not been recapped so I will either do that or install a different one. And then my next plan is to secure one of the 30Video HC greyscale kits or equivalent and hook up an external monitor. After messing around on this old monochrome monitor, I just can’t bring myself to put the LCD color screen in instead.I’m also going to see how I can figure out to add some (limited) Internet.

 

[JDW]

Nice photos and video!

To continue our conversation from the YouTube comments, you were saying you want some vintage upgrades and are considering offerings from @Bolle or @zigzagjoe , both for an accelerator and for grayscale (or possibly the color LCD kit).

You also mentioned Ethernet. If you have a BlueSCSI with WIFI though, you can skip Ethernet and connect to the internet that way. Whether you have Ethernet or WIFI though, you're kind of limited at what you can do, so most of use tend to use FrogFind:

https://frogfind.com/

You'll also find the RetroProxy by @eric being discussed here:

https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/testing-tinkerdifferent-com-retro-proxy.4939/#post-43221

You basically just need to make sure that whatever accelerator you are ponding is compatible with your grayscale or color LCD solution. I have a vintage CPU-socketed Daystar PowerCache (I think Bolle makes a recreation), and it works with my ZZJ Color LCD kit just fine.

You also need to beef up your main wiring harness with 16AWG wires as I describe below to avoid voltage drops on the 5V line:

• Pre-crimped BLK 16AWG wire (2153401223, L=22.5cm)
• Pre-crimped RED 16AWG wire (2153402223, L=22.5cm)

 

[Bolle]

You basically just need to make sure that whatever accelerator you are ponding is compatible with your grayscale or color LCD solution.

Both of our video cards are pretty much compatible with every accelerator that you can throw into a SE/30 in one way or another.
My grayscale card is working fine when combined with PowerCache (socketed and universal), Diimo, Turbo040 or Carrera040 - vintage or cloned cards. The same is true for @zigzagjoe's card. For IIci-slot accelerators it can make a difference what kind of adapter is used. All my testing happened with my own ethernet/adapter combo card and as far as I remember that's also what zigzagjoe recommends to be used with his video card when used together with a IIci-style adapter.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Nice photos and video!

To continue our conversation from the YouTube comments, you were saying you want some vintage upgrades and are considering offerings from @Bolle or @zigzagjoe , both for an accelerator and for grayscale (or possibly the color LCD kit).

You also mentioned Ethernet. If you have a BlueSCSI with WIFI though, you can skip Ethernet and connect to the internet that way. Whether you have Ethernet or WIFI though, you're kind of limited at what you can do, so most of use tend to use FrogFind:

https://frogfind.com/

You'll also find the RetroProxy by @eric being discussed here:

https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/testing-tinkerdifferent-com-retro-proxy.4939/#post-43221

You basically just need to make sure that whatever accelerator you are ponding is compatible with your grayscale or color LCD solution. I have a vintage CPU-socketed Daystar PowerCache (I think Bolle makes a recreation), and it works with my ZZJ Color LCD kit just fine.

You also need to beef up your main wiring harness with 16AWG wires as I describe below to avoid voltage drops on the 5V line:

• Pre-crimped BLK 16AWG wire (2153401223, L=22.5cm)
• Pre-crimped RED 16AWG wire (2153402223, L=22.5cm)

Both of our video cards are pretty much compatible with every accelerator that you can throw into a SE/30 in one way or another.
My grayscale card is working fine when combined with PowerCache (socketed and universal), Diimo, Turbo040 or Carrera040 - vintage or cloned cards. The same is true for @zigzagjoe's card. For IIci-slot accelerators it can make a difference what kind of adapter is used. All my testing happened with my own ethernet/adapter combo card and as far as I remember that's also what zigzagjoe recommends to be used with his video card when used together with a IIci-style adapter.

Thank you! that helps me confirm what I have been researching. And thanks also for the heads up on the main wiring harness. I was planning on replacing my PSU as it has not been recapped. As far as video/greyscale cards and accelerators, will be keeping my eyes open for units available to purchase.