Macintosh Portable horror story

[JDW]

Now that I have a 5126 Portable, I am finding my trackball to sometimes work and other times not, the culprit being those nasty Rubber Rollers.

Using my Mitsutoyo Digital Calipers, I measured the following:

1. Metal Shaft Diameter: 1.0mm
2. Rubber Roller Thickness: 3mm
3. Rubber Roller Diameter: 4mm

Since the Shaft Diameter is 1.0mm, I would assume the diameter of the Hole in the center of the Rubber Rollers should be slightly less than that, say 0.8mm or so.

I wouldn't think that anything 3D printed would be good enough. The material should be Rubber or Silicone for the best grip.

 

[Sideburn]

Now that I have a 5126 Portable, I am finding my trackball to sometimes work and other times not, the culprit being those nasty Rubber Rollers.

Using my Mitsutoyo Digital Calipers, I measured the following:

1. Metal Shaft Diameter: 1.0mm
2. Rubber Roller Thickness: 3mm
3. Rubber Roller Diameter: 4mm

Since the Shaft Diameter is 1.0mm, I would assume the diameter of the Hole in the center of the Rubber Rollers should be slightly less than that, say 0.8mm or so.

I wouldn't think that anything 3D printed would be good enough. The material should be Rubber or Silicone for the best grip.

This has been resolved. I tried 3d printing some TPU first and it didn’t work. The final solution that worked is a .8 inner diameter silicone tubing but it is hard to find with the required 4mm outer diameter. But I eventually found some and I have plenty.

if you want to send more your info I will snip some off and send to you.

 

[Sideburn]

Here’s a link to what I purchased: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2337432295...Q425jH5TBq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Had to buy 10 feet of the stuff so ya. I have a lifetime worth looks like it’s still available though…

 

[Kai Robinson]

That looks like it could be reverse engineered from the image alone...

 

[wottle]

Here’s a link to what I purchased: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2337432295...Q425jH5TBq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Had to buy 10 feet of the stuff so ya. I have a lifetime worth looks like it’s still available though…

I do as well.

Unfortunately, I also have 3m of the 1.0mm ID tubing that does not grip the shaft well enough to work. but if anyone needs any, I have plenty of supply as well.

 

[JDW]

Here’s a link to what I purchased: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2337432295...Q425jH5TBq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Had to buy 10 feet of the stuff so ya. I have a lifetime worth looks like it’s still available though…

I was hoping to just buy using your EBAY link, but despite the seller being in China, they refuse to ship to their next door neighbor! What the...!?

I will send you a PM shortly.

 

[Kai Robinson]

Yeah China still doesn't like Japan from what happened in 1934...China uses that period to justify a lot of their behaviour.

 

[Sideburn]

I do as well.

Unfortunately, I also have 3m of the 1.0mm ID tubing that does not grip the shaft well enough to work. but if anyone needs any, I have plenty of supply as well.

I have that also! I bought the 1mm first since it was all I could find and quickly learned that it doesn’t work. I glued it and then that made things even worse. Eventually that .8mm one showed up and I redrew it Now so I have like 20 feet of .1 and .8 tubing now.

 

[Sideburn]

That looks like it could be reverse engineered from the image alone...

If you mean made some of your own silicone tubing, ya I’ve make a ton of replicated parts using that Smooth-On mold making silicone to make the molds and then cast in resin. You could use a hard shore silicone as the mold and then a softer shore to cast in. Could probly even 3d print one to use to cast the mold with. That probly woulda been my next route if I didn’t find that tubing online.

 

[Kai Robinson]

If you mean made some of your own silicone tubing, ya I’ve make a ton of replicated parts using that Smooth-On mold making silicone to make the molds and then cast in resin. You could use a hard shore silicone as the mold and then a softer shore to cast in. Could probly even 3d print one to use to cast the mold with. That probly woulda been my next route if I didn’t find that tubing online.

I was meaning the Backlight card - browser took me to the first page.

 

[Sideburn]

I was meaning the Backlight card - browser took me to the first page.

OH that makes more sense! I was a bit confused there lol

 

[JDW]

I spoke with @Sideburn privately. USPS are real stinkers, wanting $19 to ship something super tiny and feather light to Japan. So I did a lot of searching and found clear 0.8mm x 4.0mm silicone tubes in 1 meter lengths for $1.17 + $2.56 in shipping to Japan. (They offer free shipping, but that would take a month.)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001917803982.html

You never know what the quality will be until you get the item, but the same is true of Chinese sellers on EBAY. Considering the price, I'll take a chance and see what happens.

 

[JDW]

By the way, I didn't notice it at first because I only received my 5126 Backlit Portable a couple days ago, but the lower left corner very slightly darkens after a few minutes of the machine being on. It seems that is called tunnel vision. Supposedly it is moisture that has gotten inside the LCD and is impossible to get out. (Realistically, you're not going to bake your LCD and have success.) Quite a shame. There's also a single dead pixel, but it's not too noticeable.

Even more than the rollers though, the thing that gets me is the soft pop sound coming through the speaker and headphone jack, once every 10 seconds, even with the HDD spun down and even with the RAM card removed. Yes, the motherboard has been recapped. I'd love to hear your thoughts in my thread about that here:

https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/macintosh-portable-pop-noise-every-10s-from-speaker-headphones.3425/

 

[Kai Robinson]

@TheBasement had a fair bit of success baking the LCD from his Powerbook - check out the video here:

 

[JDW]

Thanks, Kai.

Hmmm... Setting the oven to 85°C isn't too bad, but 9 hours! His before/after looks promising, and I see a comment made under his video several months ago asking how the LCD is today, and he replied it is the same.

Of course, his PB170 LCD type isn't 100% the same on the Portable's LCD, so I think the safer route for me would be to try silica gel packs instead. Not that such would do much good here in Japan where humidity is always fairly high.

Interestingly, there's a huge muti-page thread over at That Other Forum which seems to have been kick started by a discussion here on our forum...

New theory on the cause of the infamous Tunnel Vision problem - Testers needed!

@bwinkel67 on the TinkerDifferent forums proposed a new possible cause behind the infamous Tunnel Vision issue on monochrome and grayscale Active-Matrix LCDs on our precious PowerBooks! I offered to crosspost here to get more attention on it, and to hopefully get some people to test this new...

68kmla.org

 

[techknight]

Its all of those Hosiden panels. They all do this, I have Hosiden color panels in my Thinkpad 750C and its the same thing. Tunnelvision.

 

[JDW]

Its all of those Hosiden panels. They all do this, I have Hosiden color panels in my Thinkpad 750C and its the same thing. Tunnelvision.

Would love to hear your opinion on bakinghe LCDs. (I just finished reading all 15 pages of that monolithic thread, by the way.)

I have baked the graphics card inside the late 2009 iMac because those have no electrolytic capacitors on them. But a graphics card isn't as fragile as an LCD display. At least with the graphics card, we know the origins of the problem and how heat always impacts it, usually for the better. But with tunnel vision LCDs, people have only speculated on the root problem. As such, baking is little more than guesswork, even though some have showed it worked in their case.

I've read that "tunnel vision" is "delamination;" but if true, it would seem only logical to me that extreme heat for a multi-hour period of time would only exacerbate any issues pertaining to "layers separating" within the panel itself. Although some would speculate that baking fixes lamination issues. But again, it's all speculation.

In the case of my 5126, the darkening is very slight, and currently only in the lower left corner. The other 3 corners look perfect. Admittedly, this is my first Macintosh Portable, and I've not left it on for more than 30 minutes at a time.

 

[techknight]

Would love to hear your opinion on bakinghe LCDs. (I just finished reading all 15 pages of that monolithic thread, by the way.)

I have baked the graphics card inside the late 2009 iMac because those have no electrolytic capacitors on them. But a graphics card isn't as fragile as an LCD display. At least with the graphics card, we know the origins of the problem and how heat always impacts it, usually for the better. But with tunnel vision LCDs, people have only speculated on the root problem. As such, baking is little more than guesswork, even though some have showed it worked in their case.

I've read that "tunnel vision" is "delamination;" but if true, it would seem only logical to me that extreme heat for a multi-hour period of time would only exacerbate any issues pertaining to "layers separating" within the panel itself. Although some would speculate that baking fixes lamination issues. But again, it's all speculation.

In the case of my 5126, the darkening is very slight, and currently only in the lower left corner. The other 3 corners look perfect. Admittedly, this is my first Macintosh Portable, and I've not left it on for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Well, it didnt work on my color panel. I baked it twice, one I left it in the oven all night long. Ran my electric bill through the roof, and no change in behavior. It might work fine on black and white panels but not color.

Since this seems to be common with the Hosiden brand, I have an itching suspicion is a flawed mix of liquid crystal which degrades rapidly with age. Could be affected by the environment as well since it seems like the edges get affected first as its closest to the environment, but so far they are the ONLY brand affected by this.

 

[3lectr1c]

Its all of those Hosiden panels. They all do this, I have Hosiden color panels in my Thinkpad 750C and its the same thing. Tunnelvision.

That was a Hosiden panel? It was my understanding that the 10.4 inch TFT panels found in early ThinkPads were a joint venture between IBM and Toshiba - and were the first TFT color panels of that size. 750C may be late enough that they sourced from elsewhere though? I need to look up when those released.
Also interesting how your color panel that was affected tunneled white instead of black like the mono and grayscale panels do.

 

[techknight]

That was a Hosiden panel? It was my understanding that the 10.4 inch TFT panels found in early ThinkPads were a joint venture between IBM and Toshiba - and were the first TFT color panels of that size.

See thats what I thought initially, but in this case it isnt. the drive electronics/inverter were made by hitachi, but the glass panel itself was made by yours truly, Hosiden (only in a few models, the 750c being one of them)