On Tue, Mar 16, 2004 at 09:45:27AM -0500, Tarus Balog wrote: > Last week we were cleaning out a cluttered closet at the office, and I > found a Mac Plus that was still usable, and it followed me home.
Gee, did it befriend the first person who opened the door? If so, it's a mighty good thing that it didn't find a Mac basher. <g> > I plan to upgrade to 4MB RAM, system 7.0.1 and to somehow get TCP/IP > networking working. The RAM may be unwise if you have a weak power supply. System 7.0.1 is fine, but 6.0.8 will be faster on such an old machine. The Plus can handle TCP/IP over serial (PPP, SLIP, or over AppleTalk if the remote system has the correct software). If I recall correctly, Asante's SCSI<->Ethernet bridge will also work on the Plus. You will need to use MacTCP seeming as OpenTransport will not work on a Plus. This means that you will not be able to use DHCP (a lot of these internet routers for homes use it by default, and I have not been able to find out whether particular models support static IP addresses). > It looks about 80% of the size it should be, and I have been told > that this may be due to a weak power supply. I'm not terribly familiar with the Plus, but here it goes: Yes, you are talking about the analog board. There may be a series of pots on the board which controls the width, height, offset, brightness, focus, etc. of the picture tube. At least this is the way things were setup on the SE and I don't see why the Plus would be very different in that respect (from the perspective of servicability). If that doesn't give you enough range, it probably has something to do with the aging of the components. I've heard that electrolytic capacitors can be a pain on main older systems (eg. Apple II's, which are from the early 1980's) and your Plus upgraded 128k certainly qualifies. It may be possible to replace those components to rejuvinate the Plus. > 1) Would a failing analog board cause the shrinkage I am seeing? Yes. > 2) Would it be worth rebuilding (I've come across some articles on the > parts I would need) or should I just by a used one: > http://www.galaxyhp.com/pwr_68k.html Keep in mind that any board you buy will be old and probably used. Components like capacitors do not age elegantly, particularly when they are approaching 20 years of age. Buying it is certainly the easy route, but if you want to keep the Plus running for any appreciable amount of time you may want to learn how to rebuild it. (Of course, if you just want to play with it for a while, the other option is better.) Byron. -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
