Restoring a Apple Monochrome IIe Monitor (A2M6017)

I got my hands on an Apple II Plus along with this Apple IIe monitor which had no vertical drive for about $170 USD, which I think was a great deal.

original pic.jpg


This (above) is the only picture of the monitor that existed in the listed auction, the description was vague. Upon receiving the monitor, it turned out to be an Apple Monochrome Monitor IIe A2M6017 produced in 1987. It was heavily yellowed as seen in these initial pictures I took.

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Looking inside, I could see this set has had lots of hours on it. Thankfully, the screen itself has no burn in.
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First I noted all the electrolytic capacitors and replaced them.

LabelCapacitanceVoltageDiameterLead SpacingTypeReplacement Part
C10122uf25v5mmRadialUPM1V220MDD1TD
C11310uf25v5mmRadialUHE1H100MDD or UPV1H100MFD
C10910uf25v5mmRadialUHE1H100MDD or UPV1H100MFD
C102220uf25v10mm5mmRadialUHE1H221MPD1TD
C108220uf25v10mm5mmRadialUHE1H221MPD1TD
C110470uf16v10mm5mmRadialUHE1C471MPD6
C10422uf25v5mmRadialUPM1V220MDD1TD
C203100uf25v8mm5mmRadialEEU-FR1V101B
C2091uf50v5mmRadialUVZ1H010MDD1TA
C205220uf63v13mm5mmRadialUHE2A221MHD
C60347uf25v6mmRadialULD1H470MED1TD
C3073.3uf50v5mmRadialUHE1H3R3MDD
C6013300uf35v22mm9mmRadialUVR1H332MRD6
C303100uf25v8mm5mmRadialEEU-FR1V101B
C3081000uf16v13mm5mmRadialUPJ1E102MHD
C4114.7uf100v5mmRadialULD2A4R7MDD
C50110uf160v10mm5mmRadialUCA2E100MPD
C5023.3uf50v5mmRadialUHE1H3R3MDD
C416100uf100v13mm5mmRadialUCS2C101MHD1TO
C42016uf25v16mm7mmRadialBipolar Samyoung CE04P
C4171000uf25v13mm5mmRadialUPJ1E102MHD
C412100uf25v8mm5mmRadialEEU-FR1V101B
C4074.7uf50v5mmRadialULD1H4R7MDD1TA

*For above capacitors without a listed lead spacing, it doesn't matter because these capacitors aren't flush against the board.

The only electrolytic I didn't replace was the bipolar capacitor C420 as it wasn't really necessary in my case. In addition to the capacitors, I also replaced the power regulator (L78S15CV) as the voltage output was showing around 17v instead of 16v.

After replacing all the capacitors, my vertical drive still didn't work.
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At first I suspected the the TDA1170N chip as the output voltages were off when compared to the service manual.
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After replacing it, however, there was no change and still no vertical drive.

Then I finally noticed that 2 of the 3 potentiometers that stick out the back of the monitor are completely open. There was no reviving these pots. I took them apart, and it seems that the material on the plates near the connection completely corroded (I'm assuming) leaving no conductivity on any of the points shown in the image below.
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Searching online, I couldn't find a pot that looked very similar. So I went to my local electronics store in Akihabara and found a equivalent replacement linear 100k pots.

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.
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These high quality replacement pots (JH16K4B104L20KC) cost me only 40 JPY (about $0.30 each) at the store.

The legs didn't exactly match, so I clipped off the legs from the old potentiometers and put them on the new ones to get an exact fit. Once I verified that they reach out the same distance and don't interfere with the case, I replaced all three.

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With the pots replaced, I finally got a good picture output.
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During this whole time it was taken apart, I washed the case and left it out in the sun for about a week.
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Amazing improvement as seen above, but I still went ahead and did two short sessions (two separate days) of retrobright using the cream method.

After putting it back together here is the final result. It came out great, especially when comparing to before picture.

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Finally, the badge on the front is quite faded. I'm considering replacing it with one from maceffects in the future.

The Apple II Plus which came with this monitor needs a separate restoration, still working on that.
 
Last edited:

jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
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North Carolina, USA
I actually have the service documents from apple for this monitor I’ll try and scan them tonight I’m sure it’s help people, now I want to restore mine. Thank you @AndyDiags for the parts list and an awesome restoration wonderful work!
 
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jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
732
295
63
North Carolina, USA
Good news I uploaded the Apple ii/e Monochrome Monitor Technical Procedures and Repair manual/guide HERE I also have the Color ii Monitor I can upload later if someone asks.
 
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retr01

Senior Tinkerer
Jun 6, 2022
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Good news I uploaded the Apple ii/e Monochrome Monitor Technical Procedures and Repair manual/guide HERE I also have the Color iii Monitor I can upload later if someone asks.

Oh, so you can upload actual hardware and computer peripherals now? Wow. That is exciting! @jajan547 will upload an actual Apple Color III monitor that we can all use! Cool! 🤩

:sneaky:
 
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jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
732
295
63
North Carolina, USA
Hey I added the download for both revisions of the iie color monitor HERE, apologies I wasn't able to make it a separate document from the whole binder my intel iMac apparently can't handle copying 120ish pages from a PDF, maybe @retr01 wouldn't mind doing that? :)