Apple IIe Card in overclocked Color Classic MYSTIC

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JDW
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Apple IIe Card in overclocked Color Classic MYSTIC

Although I've been a Mac fan since the 128K, my first experience in using anything related to the Apple II was this past August (2022). I purchased an Apple IIe Card & Y-cable for my Macintosh Color Classic Mystic, and I must say that it has a learning experience. I made the following video to show how I recapped the IIe card. I then provided a general overview of the features and software. The good news is that the card works even if you have a 68040 overclocker and the VGA mod installed (with some caveats).  This is only Part I of what I intend to make a 2 or 3 part series.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKF_zGshSWY

 

 

 

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Mr. Carlson has the best

Mr. Carlson has the best approach for removing this type of SMD capacitors without the risk of lifting the pads: 

https://youtu.be/X8N9O3a9jiM?t=107

JDW
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Thank you for the video.  The

Thank you for the video.  The twist method is not 100% risk free because if you twist too fast, there is still the possibility of lifting a pad, especially when the pads have been slightly compromised by leaked capacitor fluid.  If you twist slowly on a pad that is very solid (not partly eaten away by leaked fluid), then the twisting method may have merit.

Yet another way is to take some cutters and nip off the top part of the capacitor, which then reveals the leg stubs which you can nip off and move the bottom plastic base plate.

The reason I do it in the more tradititional way is because it has been my proven technique for years, and it seems easier to teach others.  But clearly, if you lack the right soldering tools to do the job, then the twist or cut methods have a lot of merit -- if you go slow and are careful, on pads that aren't already partially lifted.

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The speed of the twisting is

The speed of the twisting is of no significance, as long as you don’t do it so fast that you are not only twisting, but also pulling up. You can even push the capacitor down with your finger as you twist to make sure no upward pressure is applied. If the pads have been compromised by leaked electrolyte, I think pulling up while trying to unsolder them is way more likely to lift them than twisting. Using cutters to cut off the top can also cause upward pulling on the pads as the capacitor deforms and its base is no longer perfectly flat.

 

Also what you don’t see in Mr. Carlson’s video and what happens 90% of the time from my experience is when you twist the capacitor its leads break from its inside. Then all you have to do is cut them and remove the black plastic base. The leads don’t even come off from the their pads.  Once the black plastic base is gone you can unsolder them normally and clean the pads.

 

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Although I will admit I lack

Although I will admit I lack the same extensive experience with the "twist" method than you do, your premise is contingent upon the pads being in good condition.  I would need to experiment in dead boards, destined for disposole to say for sure if the twist method is really as safe as a hot air station for removal of SMD capacitors "on compromised pads."

Why does this point matter?  Because many boards suffer from capacitors which are not merely dead but which have quite literally spilled their guts all over the place, but most especially upon the very pads on which the said capacitor sits.  Spilled fluid slowly eats away at the solder mask, then when that is gone, it eats away at the copper traces and pads.

Yes, there are pads which have been partly compromised but which still can be used to mount new components if treated with care.  But some pads are too far gone and would need to be replaced, usually with tiny wires.

So in light of this, it is easier for me to demonstrate and recommend hot air (which is what I showed in my video to work faster and better on that particular board than hot tweezers) to the average person who may be somewhat oblivious to the dangers of dealing with pads that have been partly compromised by leaked fluid.  For truly, every board is different.  Some boards have fluid on them leaked only recently, while others may have had that fluid leaked out for years. The longer the leaked fluid is on the board, the greater the damage to the board.

But on an otherwise pristine board, I have no issues with the twist (or even cut) methods of removal, as per your previous two posts which very nicely outine the clear merits.

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My experience is not that

My experience is not that extensive, which is why I defer to Mr. Carlson – a professional YouTuber with 345K subscribers who concentrates on retro electronics. Also he has one of the best equipped labs out there, so I don’t think he is using this method due to lack of equipment.

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Understood.  And thank you

Understood.  And thank you again for the recommendations.  But while I did show the recapping, my video is really focused on the Apple IIe Card, as used in a Color Classic Mystic.  If you have any experience with one of those, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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And my comments were

My comments were exclusively limited to the 10-minute chapter called Recapping.

 

I don’t have much experience with this card and I found the rest of your video quite informative. I find the Apple II card for Macintosh quite interesting, since in my spare time I am developing a card for the Apple II that does exactly the opposite, among other things. It is still in the prototype stage, but here it is running on my Pravetz 82 (an Apple II+ bulgarian clone) with the joystick emulating a mouse:

 

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CVT wrote:... in my spare
CVT wrote:

... in my spare time I am developing a card for the Apple II that does exactly the opposite...

 

That is amazing!  Running the classic MacOS environment from within an Apple II machine!  My goodness!  What is the performance like?

I can't really say how performance is like on the Apple IIe card because I don't have a real Apple II with which I can compare.  But the IIe Card software let's me choose either 1MHz or 1.9MHz, which seems decent enough to run most software as you would expect.

 

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Thanks! I don’t have a Mac

Thanks! I don’t have a classic Macintosh and I haven’t seen one in person in 30 years, but based on videos on YouTube I think it is on par with a Macintosh Plus SE. I wish it could be a bit faster, but this is all I could get out of a modern $4 processor that I use on the card for the emulation, sound and video. Here is what I get when I run Speedometer 3.06: (Btw, this color JVC TV is not ideal, since it cannot fit 342 progressive lines like an older fully analog monitor can, but it’s an amazing color monitor for any Apple II, so I use it for testing.)

 

 

I also tried emulating an Apple IIe inside the emulated Mac using the “][ in a Mac” emulator. Unfortunately the Apple II games run at about 1/3 their normal speed, but I read that this emulator is slow even on a real Macintosh Plus:

 

 

 

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Whilst I have never had much

Whilst I have never had much to do with the classic Macs, this sounds amazing!

 

Now, to emulate a //e inside an emulated Mac runing on an emulated //e running inside an emulated Mac running inside....   HEAD EXPLODES!  :-)

 

Great job on your development work though. What a cool project!

 

Cheers,

Mike

 

 

 

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