Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

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Kai Robinson
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by Kai Robinson »

To be fair - i'm not a professional by any means - just an enthusiastic hobbyist! I'm looking forward to the day when i turn on the SE and hear 'BOOOOP' followed by the '?' prompt flashing away. I had a few other ideas, such as doing something similar to the Classic ROM - where you have System 6.0.8 in ROM, and then there's the other project of 'can we get the TF520 working on this, through the PDS slot...'
Kai Robinson
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Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2019 12:01 am
Location: East Sussex

Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by Kai Robinson »

OK - after posting out several of the Rev 1.4c's - i have 6 left - would anyone here like one to build up and test? :)
Acill
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by Acill »

Incredible work! I am impressed to say the least. Did these last batches work for you yet? I have been waiting to see some news since your last post about them no longer being shorted!
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by rubber_jonnie »

This is pretty awesome, and what I'm thinking here is that it would in theory be possible to do the same thing for the Mac Classic. Unless of course it's been done already?

Out of curiosity @Kai Robinson , would the SE board fit in a Classic chassis for a sleeper machine?
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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stephen_usher
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by stephen_usher »

The closest I've done to this was reverse engineer the "Dunkirk" VLSI chip on the Mac Portable 1MB SRAM upgrade card.

The card was sold to me as working on eBay but something reallt bad had happened and every chip which was bus facing was dead! Thankfully the SRAM was fine but it was 'fun' reverse engineering the custom chip. Thankfully it was only really an address decode and bus access control chip so a multiplexer and GAL were all that were needed.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
Kai Robinson
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Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2019 12:01 am
Location: East Sussex

Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by Kai Robinson »

@rubber_jonnie Actually, funny you should mention the classic...

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fjzymlE.jpg (782.68 KiB) Viewed 3633 times

I got a little bored waiting for parts for the SE project :D

@Acill well, i discovered that on the PDS connector, /AS and A8 were bridged, so i've corrected that - but i'm seeing now that i'm stuck in a RESET loop - RESET doesn't stay High, and one of the 74F257's is being a bit...wierd. So i've stopped for the moment - i had to tody the hobby kit today on the mrs insistence we have to be able to see the carpet, bed, table, chairs and cupboards, rather than just assume they exist behind a wall of equipment :lol:

I've tested the ROM's work, the BBU works, and yes, the classic's BBU is 1:1 compatible with the SE, too.

@stephen_usher Ooooh! Is that available as open source anywhere? The folks over at 68k MLA would love to get their hands on it!
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by rubber_jonnie »

@Kai Robinson Oooh, nice!
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
Tomswork
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by Tomswork »

@rubber_jonnie

I have a box for the class board ready to ship if you can pm your address its going out in a bulk shipment

Tom
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by Tomswork »

@Kai Robinson

Have you goto the floppy ic figured out

Tom
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stephen_usher
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Re: Reverse Engineering the Macintosh SE PCB & Custom Chips for 1:1 reproduction

Post by stephen_usher »

Kai Robinson wrote: Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:48 pm @stephen_usher Ooooh! Is that available as open source anywhere? The folks over at 68k MLA would love to get their hands on it!
I did post on there about my project.

I'd have to clean up the KiCAD files before I can post it as I made a minor mistake which required a bodge wire. This was mostly because it was my first KiCAD project and I made a major mistake in how I used the tool.
IMG_1874.jpg
IMG_1874.jpg (81.45 KiB) Viewed 3672 times
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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