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Just some post-repair notes in case it's helpful for others. I had a PowerBook 500 series AC adapter that had 16V for VBATT but ~2V for VMAIN when it should have been 16. I found the two 100uF caps noted below were way out of spec. The one next to the bulk caps was the ultimate culprit. The...

I found it on Archive.org by doing a text search :)

I'll take a shot at answering but get a second source since I'm not an expert and safety is a factor. An X capacitor is meant to be used line-to-line (i.e. between live and neutral) and is designed to fail short. If one fails, your fuse or circuit breaker would pop, preventing risk of shock. A...

I successfully updated to 1.55 but needed to modify the files @SuperSVGA posted since they had a bunch of extra blank space at the top. Once trimmed down, they worked fine. Reposting here with the adjusted files. For those new to this stuff, I used a TL866II+ programmer and minipro. minipro can...

Awesome. Thank you!

Agree the TL866ii+ is common and inexpensive. You can find them bundled with a bunch of adapters too. There weren’t many people involved in that company but I’ve been trying to track someone down to see if they might be willing to help get some info and software put out for hobbyists. Not...

@JustG would you be down to back up your ROM and attempt to update with the one I posted? It couldn’t hurt to post yours even thought it’s older.

Here's a dump of ROM 1.52 from my unit, including the discrete even/odd dumps and a merged version.

The SIMCheck series of testers can be very helpful in quickly and thoroughly testing RAM SIMMs/DIMMs, but is very expensive for even very old examples. Unfortunately the inventor of the device, David Y. Feinstein, passed away in 2019 and the company now seems to be defunct. Their website is...

FWIW, the only special gear needed for casting other than a 3D printer is the vacuum chamber, but you can get those quite cheap. I got this tiny little one for about $40 which was a good size for making a dixie cup of polyurethane for casting. A new pump for that would be about $60 but I'd guess...

Last year I did some experimenting with recreating rubber feet. I used an SLA printer to make mold positives. Then cast those into silicone negatives and cast polyurethane parts in those. The benefit is that you end up with parts that have an original look and feel. But it's a lot of work and...

This sounds a little different from your issues, but maybe worth checking D12 just in case. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/metcal-mx-5000-repaired-for-not-heating-up/msg1343323/#msg1343323 Also this thread mentions there's a hidden factory reset you could try. Sounds like you need to hold...

Since I don't think this is documented on the site yet, here's the list of caps for both the logic and power supply boards on the StyleWriter 2400 printer. In my case they were all fine, so I ended up not replacing anything, but good to have the reference if something fails in the future. All...

I’d keep testing components downstream from that port. Maybe a leaky diode or bad transistor? Also it’d be good to make a post about this on EEVblog forums as well since there are some folks there familiar with repairing Metcal stuff.

Does it do that with any cartridge installed? I had a cart go bad and it would similarly ramp power then say something like “incompatible cartridge”.

It looks like a JST connector of some sort. Maybe XA or one of its variations? You can browse through their wire to board catalog here which is sorted by pitch to find the exact match. https://www.jst-mfg.com/product/index.php?type=2&key=1&page=4

Fo years I've been using a generic 10 liter ultrasonic cleaning tank I got from Amazon. It's been fine, but a little cramped for some boards and its build quality is mediocre. I'd heard of Crest ultrasonic cleaners via Louis Rossman's videos and they seemed to be very well made and performant. I...

Beautiful photoshop work. Check out that hand!

I was recently repairing a backlit portable that does not have a hybrid board. In that area however was RP201 which had multiple rotten legs due to capacitor leakage nearby. Unfortunately, that SOIC resistor pack is custom to Apple, so there's no direct replacement. In my case, grinding back...

That's a noble crusade. We get used to the quirky nature of this stuff, but it can be daunting to someone new to the hobby. Nice work!