Table of Contents for this issue:
Misbehaving Backup Batteries on PowerBook 100
Mac Plus Keyboard--Adapted ADB?
Ethernet Card for LCII?
Programming on a Mac Plus?
MicroMac & Sonnet Accelerators for the Color Classic
LC630/Color Classic Data Transfer?
Re: Do-It-Yourself PB100 Batteries
Info on Radical Castle
Re: Ethernet and Accelerated IIsi
Re: Mac Classic II Shrinking Screen
Re: Mac II and 21" Monitor Problems
Re: Apple IIgs & Macs - Network (and other stuff)
Plus Screen Solution
Free Apple II Computers Were Not Macintosh Computers
PB 100 on Net & Beyond
Plus Screen Savers, etc.
Disregard Post on Apple II Software
RE: Ethernet and Accelerated IIsi
Plus Screen Savers, Fans, and SCSI
Ayuda con la SE troubles in Spanish
Setting Up the 'Net on an SE/30

I have a PowerBook 100 that is showing pretty clear signs of a
dead battery. If I pull the plug I can watch the power in the battery
symbol drain away and the screen go blank within just a few seconds,
even with the disk not running. If this were the only problem, it's no
big deal. I've got a source for a replacement battery and I'd order one
right away.

The clinker is that after a few hours in this dead battery state,
the internal clock also fails. In other words, it's acting like the
backup batteries are dead too. They're not. I have just replaced them
and the three together register slightly over 9V.

I've described this problem to an Apple repair man and he says it
might be the logic board, which is a big bucks repair. Does anyone
agree with him? Can anyone think of any other reason why the backup
batteries would appear to fail when they're in good shape?

Charlie

Hi!

Is it possible to connect a ADB-keyboard to Mac Plus ? If so, does someone
know the RJ-11 pinout ?

Any information will be appreciated,

Jari Louhelainen

Any way to install/attach an Ethernet card for network access with a LCII?

Thanks,
E Riedl

Hi everyone.

I am looking for a programming environment for the Mac Plus, preferably one
that fits on floppies and will run with just 1M of memory. Some kind of
BASIC maybe?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Hens Breet

Hey Folks,

Let me start by saying this is a great digest, though I'm a bit amazed by
all the good press you're giving MicroMac. I guess I oughta share a few
bruises I've gotten from MicroMac (as well as Sonnet). For the record, all
of this relates to a Color Classic with 10 megs of 70n/s RAM & an 80 meg
hardrive, running sys 7.1 w/the 3.0 update.

Last summer I ordered a 50MHz ThunderProCache w/FPU from MicroMac hoping to
add some muscle and SIMM slots to my old Color Classic. Despite being told
the accelerator would be in stock and ready to ship in 5 days, it took 2
months for the board to arrive (apparently the boards were full of
defective components which they wanted to double check--bad sign). When the
board finally came, I installed it, and it couldn't read the floppy drive.
I called MicroMac and--surprise, surprise--it had bad components. No
problem, they say, ship it back and we'll turn it around in a couple of
weeks. Unknown to me, there are 100 other equally bad boards sitting at
MicroMac waiting to be repaired. Three months later, I get my board back
and reinstall it. It runs for five days, then overheats and frys some of
the components--first the FPU goes, then a monster crash (the first sad Mac
I've ever seen in my life). I talk to the sales manager--"Give it another
shot," he pleads. Six weeks later the board returns, looking like a Radio
Shack kit gone horribly wrong. A giant heatsink has been glued to the top
of the CPU, individual jumpers have been soldered like snakes across the
top of the board, the component chips are covered with pencil marks and
paint. I figure what the hell--I've already wasted seven months. I install
it, and it runs for seven days, overheats, crashes, and won't reboot. More
sad Macs. I guess I should just be happy it didn't kill my Mac on the way
down.

After some ugly phone calls, Pacific Mac in Seattle finally agrees to take
it back and refund my money, given that I had never been in possession of
the accelerator for the full 30 days (thus meeting the terms of their
return policy). The guy at Pacific Mac eventually confesses that they'd had
so many returns on MicroMac products that they've stopped carrying them,
and had considered legal action as MicroMac wouldn't take back any of their
defective stock. The only explanation I ever got for any of this from
MicroMac was that the LC version of the accelerator added an auxiliary fan
which they couldn't shoehorn into the Classic. All I can say is make sure
you know what the damn return policy is if you order anything from
MicroMac.

On to the Sonnet Presto '040 w/FPU, a $100 cheaper, but lacking the SIMM
slots, and incompatible with the "1,000's of colors" mode on the Classic.
The board is compact and extremely well made, and turns the Classic into a
veritable pocket rocket--fast fast fast. Yes, everything works beautifully
together except for one little snag--the accelerator hates browsers. Nav
2.0 & 3.0, Explorer 2.0 & 3.0--they all freeze up faster than you ever
thought possible (though there is the occasional system bomb to provide
variety to your day). After a joyous week of playing boot-and-shoot with an
Extensions Manager, I finally determine that the accelerator will only work
dependably with a browser if all INITS are disabled except for the PPP,
MacTCP, & Presto driver INIT (on good days it'll work with Ram Doubler as
well). I call Sonnet (and, yes, those people are damn hard to get on the
phone) and am pleasantly informed that I have an INIT conflict (duhhh). Any
plans for a Presto software update? (the 2.1 update didn't help) No
comment...

Ultimately, the Presto is a tough call. No extra RAM slots, no VRAM
support, and you seemingly have to reboot to use the browser. On the
upside, the thing is damn fast, with the best sustained online transfer
rates (sans INITs) I've seen in an old machine (I didn't know a 14.4 modem
could move that fast) and a printer that's running three-to-four times
faster than it did with the Micromac accelerator (I finally know now how
the people at Adobe thought the Acrobat was supposed to work). As ever, I
guess it's a question of what your prioritites are.

...Or maybe we could just get Sonnet to actually build the products that
MicroMac designs...

I hope this is of help to somebody out there.

--Jon

I have a LC630 used solely for my work and a Classic 2 which I use for
Email and the net. Can I connect my Classic to the 630 to transfer data
from the CD-ROM? Will I be able to install from the CD to the Classic?

Many thanks,
Kevin Jordan

From: Stuart Bell
To: Classic Posts
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 97 14:28:42
Subject: Do-It-Yourself PB100 Batteries

Hi!

A few days ago, Rebecca and Rowland wrote:

I've got a (alas defunct) Portable, and it had a lead-acid battery pack
too. While it was still working, the batteries died, so I cut open the
battery pack to see what I could see.

And what I saw was a row of (3?) standard 2V lead-acid cells, easily
purchased in the UK under the brand-name Cyclon from Maplin or RS at about

UKpounds 5 each - say about US$8.

If the PB100 has a lead-acid battery pack, I'd suspect it's put together
the same way. If you're up to slicing open the battery pack and wiring in
some new cells, you might want to consider this way of doing things.

Sadly, the PB100 battery is a different kettle of fish. I hacked one apart
last night -requiring a lot of brute force due to the effective sealing tog
ether of the component parts. Even if you could re-build one, you'd need 3
cells each approx 9.5mm x 33mm x 130mm. Nothing Maplin do approximates.
Stacking their prismatic (ie rectangular) NiMh batteries inside would cost
almost as much as a new lead-acid from Apple. :-(

Hmm... Well... If and only if the original battery is lead-acid, you
might consider a 6V dryfit lead-acid battery to replace the whole pack
(Sonnenschein or Yuasa - try Maplin and RS again) if you can find one
that'll fit in the space.

They're a bit more fussy about charging, so you might find it doesn't last
very long if the Apple charging circuitry isn't meant to charge dryfit
batteries, but the cells might well be the same sort.

cheers,
Stuart Bell

I take it you're not the Grauniad cartoonist?

Another wild stab in the dark,
Rowland

BNDTRACEY wrote:

When I acquired my first Mac (an SE) almost 8 years ago, someone gave me a
game. It was called Radical Castle, as I recall. I wonder if anyone knows
whether it is still available, and whether there are any versions that would
run on my Performa 6400?

I know a little about this, but maybe not the whole answer.
The old "World Builder" adventures should work in 24bit mode.
There is a version of "World Builder" available that is 32 bit clean.
BUT I had to use ResEdit to swap runtime code to get
the self contained adventures working.

I cannot remember where I got "World Builder"-32bit,
but I will send it to someone for legal reposting.

Bruce

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 08:20:26 +0000
From: newhouse
To: Classic Posts
Subject: Ethernet and Accelerated IIsi?

My daughter has a IIsi with a Presto 80/40 accellerator installed. She
will be attending a college that offers free internet with ethernet
capability. Any way of using both the accelerator and ethernet on a
IIsi? any help appreciated....

I put an Asante Ethernet card in my IIsi. It plugs into the PDS slot and
has a PDS pass through connector on it. An accelerator should probably
work okay with it.

I bought my card from a used computer vendor. Try a Yahoo search for 'used
macintosh' for vendors that carry such parts. I paid $25 for one card.
They work fine with the stock Apple drivers included with System 7.5.5.

Clark Martin

bremloe wrote:

I have a Mac Classic II that seems to have a shrinking screen. I tried
to open the case an adjust the screws but they only adjusted brightness
and resolution. Does anyone know if there are other ways to widen the
screen? Also, does anyone have any disks with black and white games or
a web browser that would work on a Classic II? I'm only on the net with
an IBM clone and have been unsuccessful downloading and converting Mac
files. thanks, JC

1. If you look carefully on the side of the screen, once the cover is off,
you'll find the alignment pots (a TV alignment tool is handy). When
increasing RAM normally the screen is shrunk so the height and width need
adjusting back to standard 9".

2. Mac apps. have a data fork and a resource fork. IBM-clones read only
the data forks so when you write to files from your IBM to use in your Mac
there won't be a resource fork written. Consequently the Mac won't be able
to find the resource fork (as there isn't one) and so can't open any apps.
you may download.

Also Mac files are mostly binhexed (.hqx) or in binary (.bin) and if you
can grab a copy of "StuffIt Expander" this will automatically convert
downloads for you (including files compressed in "StuffIt" (.sit) and
"CompactPro" (.cpt)). If you really want to be cool there is a shareware
app "Drop Stuff" which includes an engine to give "StuffIt Expander" the
ability to decompress/convert a lot of DOS and UNIX formats too (eg .tar,
.zip, .Z, etc).

Happy Mac-ing,

RABDRH

From: "John R. Keys Jr."
Subject: Mac II and 21" Monitor Problems?

Problem #1 is with my MAC II it stopped working after I turned it off a week
or two ago. Now nothing happens when I tried to turn it on, I found 2
batteries on the MB and one is only putting out half of what it should and
the other is ok. Any help on why the sudden dead machine???

Try replacing the 1/2-dead battery.

The soft-power circuit relies on the battery having sufficient voltage.

<<<John>>>

Subject: Apple IIgs & Macs - Network (and other stuff)?
Date: Fri, 30 May 97 22:27:04 -0500
From: Geoff Kaiser
To: Classic Posts

I just picked up an Apple IIgs and some software, and I'm looking forward
to having a little fun with this old distant Apple relative; very soon I
will dig in and learn how it works....

My situation is this: I know I've heard about folks putting Macs and IIgs
machines on the same AppleTalk network--does anyone on this list have
experience with this? I'd like to hook my IIgs up on an AppleTalk network
with one or two of my Macs.

I was recently given a Mac SE, which is why I'm now subscribed to this group:
I'm really an old Apple 2 type person. I'm using the SE as the
"communications" interface for my IIgs, since there's a lot of software
available right now for macs, including Internet stuff like PPP etc and only
vapourware for the IIgs.

If anyone knows about this, these are my questions:

1) Is there a minimum system software version I'll need for the IIgs? I
believe I have 5.1 and 6.0 right now.

I'm running 7.0.1 on the SE and 6.0.1 on the IIgs - both are available (as
800K disk images) from Apple's ftp sites.

2) Can I hook them up with a basic, bare bones LocalTalk setup (printer
port to printer port)? Or will the IIgs do that? I know you might be
thinking "That way is too slow!" but I don't need Ethernet speed here. I
just want to share basic files (AppleWorks, etc.) and maybe some
IIgs-generated graphic files/screenshots.

This is exactly what I've done (with a printer cable; I'll worry about real
localtalk boxes or phone-net, capnet etc. when I've gotten a network printer).
It is not very fast, you could probably get the same overall transfer speed by
writing data to a 800K floppy and carrying that between machines, but it is
certainly more convenient to have the two networked.

3) This is not completely related, but does anyone out there know of a
mailing list like this one, but for the Apple II? I have all kinds of
questions about whether the IIgs can do things like send/recieve e-mail,
get on the web (or at least create/display GIF files), etc. It would be
great if there was a list like this one for Apple II issues....

There is still a lot of traffic in comp.sys.apple2.* (but it is dwindling),
you try asking there. The mailing lists are dead. There are answers (mostly
yes!) to your questions, check the FAQs at
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/index.html

Some things are still made for the Apple II, but it is probably easier and cheaper to get an old Mac (or, dare I say it, a PC) to do most things nowadays.

Feel free to ask about anything else to do with the IIgs!

Dr Adrian Whichello
WWW: http://www.ee.usyd.edu.au/~adrianw

Subject: Plus is Dark?
Date: Sat, 31 May 97 16:49:50 -0400
From: Harold Appel
To: Classic Posts

I just got a Plus for free and would love to get it going and upgraded.
When I turn it on I hear the Chimes but the screen stays dark. I put in a
new 4.5v battery in the back. No help. What do you think is wrong and
how can I fix it for not too much $? Thanks a lot!

Harold Appel

Try turning the brightness knob at the right front of the Plus; it
may be turned all the way down.

Mark Wooldrage

Hello all,

Haven't see the re-post of my message from long ago, but someone posted
it and I'm getting mail about machines that were not Macintosh computers,
but were Apple II computers.

Please read

http://www.digitalstore.com/AppleII.html

I will not be replying to any further email on this subject (800 is
enough :-)

Check the web page if interested in updates...

Thanks for the interested!!!

David M. Dantowitz
http://www.dantowitz.com/

to get email on the PB 100...one needs to go to eudora site and
download 1.3.1 that will work on the 100...since it is a 68000
series PB running at 16 mhz, it cannot use even a earlier version
of netscape (such as 1.12) due to it being unable to use colour
quickdraw..I would suggest using Z-term, or a shell account with
yer provider or school account..lynx etc...It would HELP el-greatly
if the PB 100 had at least 6mb of ram...8mb being the maxium amount
of ram that the early PB's (100-140-170) can have...

During the classic mac hiatus....I came into several boxes of early MAC
manuals...such as apple II stuff, mac SE, stylewriter manuals, SE-30
manuals...etc...I still have some left,as they were flying outta
my place fairly fast....I also grab a couple of SE/30's (8mb 80 hd)
16mb 200 hd and one 32mb 400 hd) and four colour classics
4mb ram 80 hd one 8mb 200hd and one 10mb 200 hd..so if yer
interested in em let me know.....I suspect they will be gone
pretty quick....I have one SE left a 4mb 40 hd with superdrive...

still have some SE/se30 parts left..(cleaning out my closet)

Nick
via PB 160......

Hey People,

I've got a MacPlus w/ 4MB of Ram.

Questions:

1) Anybody know of any screensavers for it? Preferably fun ones?

I've got several: Pyro, DarkSide 2.5, Moire, Blackout. I'll email 'em all
if you want. Blackout is enclosed.

2) How do I go about putting a fan in it? It's heating up something
awful.

Buy one ($10-15)

http://www.thearc.com/macintosh.html
http://www.macparts.com/
http://www.shrevesystems.com/
http://www.galaxyhp.com/
http://www.mtn.org/
http://www.go-nexus-go.com/nexcomp/
http://www.aau.pair.com/nexcomp/

3) I'm currently trying to hook up a 40MB hard drive to it, and
wondering if I could add more hard drives in the future, should the
need arise.

Yup. Just 'piggyback ' them via scsi cables. Make sure the scsi ID's on the
drives are all different. (0-7)

Jeremy

Jag

A weird little oasis on the web. Download my Subgenius music, tons of Mac
shareware (icluding hard to find goodies for older Macs), Mac instruction
manuals, cool graphic art and other assorted waste of bandwidth.
Http://www.eden.com/~arena/jagshouse/jagshouseone.html

Original Post:

Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 23:03:29 -0700
To: Classic Posts
From: David G. Wood
Subject: Apple II Software?

Can anyone point me toward a source for some basic software for an Apple IIGS?

<SNIP>

Hi Gang,

Please disregard my post. I got the info from another source while
"ClassicMacs" was "away".

We're glad you're back Nathan!

[MODERATOR'S NOTE: Thanks. It's good to be back :-)]

David G. Wood (Dave & Babs)
Casper, Wyoming, USA
http://w3.trib.com/~dwood/

I think the only way is using an SCSI to Ethernet adapter, the only
problem is I don't know if they are supported by 7.0 and up....
Perhaps someone can tell us.

I have also heard about two Nubus slots adapters for SI but I have never
seen them.

Good luck
Luis

Jeremy asks:

1) Anybody know of any screensavers for it? Preferably fun ones?

Darkside (shareware). Available several places on the internet.

2) How do I go about putting a fan in it? It's heating up something
awful.

Don't try putting a fan inside -- it could stress the power supply (which
was kinda wimpy in the Plus). Try to find a fan that mounts on top and
draws air through the vents in the handle. (Good luck -- the market for
these vanished when the Mac Plus was discontinued.)

3) I'm currently trying to hook up a 40MB hard drive to it, and
wondering if I could add more hard drives in the future, should the
need arise.

The Mac Plus has a standard SCSI port and can support up to 7 external
devices.

Daniel Knight,
webmeister, The New Low End Mac User
http://www.iserv.net/~dknight/leu/

Chris:

I'll help you gladly with your Spanish speaking friend (if my help is still
useful, your message is dated June 10, and I got this digest today, July
14)

Oscar Chavez
Mexico City, Mexico

Lolo (no se si es tu nombre):

Por favor describeme, en espan~ol, el problema con tu SE, y yo tratare de
describirselo en ingles a Chris Adams (pues parece que tu mensaje en ingles
no le quedo muy claro), si es que todavia sirve de algo mi ayuda.

Oscar Chavez
Ciudad de Mexico

What programs do I need for setting up MacWeb=(Which Version)? I have 5
megs of ram on my SE-30?

I've used MacWeb and Navigator on my SE/30. If you're running system
software older than 7.5 you'll need to get ahold of MacTCP, ConfigPPP and
PPP from somewhere.

If you have system 7.5 or higher you have everything you need already.

T.J.