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Odd Lisa

The serial number was on a paper tag that's easy to lose. Interesting the entire drive cage is missing.

I could make a heck of an aquarium from it. :)
 
There's probably more value in it as it is. (My opinion - the owner has the rights I guess). :(

That said, it's not a prototype. As said, it's a MacXL and somebody made a power extension for testing modules. I did that myself with a Mac128 for testing motherboards when I used to upgrade them to 512K.

The fan is actually an old Apple II third party cooling fan.
________
volcano classic
 
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lisaquantum.jpg


Here's my Lisa... just retrieved it from my old property yesterday. The batteries have corroded onto the logic board unfortunately and it won't power on, but I haven't tinkered with it any further than that.
 
The seller was stating it was an Apple test unit, however there is nothing identifying it as a test machine. You have all seen the prototype iPhones and what not, they are clearly (permanently) marked as test units.

My Japanese Dreamcast states: "Property of Sega America, for testing purposes only". It was one of the original units sent by Sega Japan to develop US games.
 
"Why would you pay for something so old?! It's useless, stupid!"

Right, because once a computer reaches a certain age, their palm-chrystal flashes and they no longer function -.-'

Do you know how many companies could run their businesses today on an original Macintosh?! Yet, Microsoft walked into their door and convinced those maroons that if they don't have their latest buggy virus sack, they'll never be able to...have a big complicated system so they can see their black & white spreadsheets in FULL COLOR!

I hate everyone.
 
MrCheeto said:
Do you know how many companies could run their businesses today on an original Macintosh?! Yet, Microsoft walked into their door and convinced those maroons that if they don't have their latest buggy virus sack, they'll never be able to...have a big complicated system so they can see their black & white spreadsheets in FULL COLOR!

I hate everyone.
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Well said, when it comes right down to it the old apples can do the same spreadsheet / document tasks even faster than some of todays bulky poorly written spreadsheet software (office 2007).
 
MrCheeto said:
Right, because once a computer reaches a certain age, their palm-chrystal flashes and they no longer function -.-'
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:D Awesome reference.
I still have people tell me that a 2001 iMac is useless and I should get a newer computer. Then I show them that it is perfectly sufficient for web browsing, iTunes, word processing, etc. It lives in the kitchen and serves well as a basic Internet machine, as well as a jukebox.
The people who say old computers are useless don't know why they need computers. They simply look at the RAM and hard drive size, make sure the price is as high as they can afford, and declare that to be the right machine. I just make sure the thing can do what I need it to do. The rest is ego massaging.
</rant>
 
jparenti said:
:D Awesome reference.
I still have people tell me that a 2001 iMac is useless and I should get a newer computer. Then I show them that it is perfectly sufficient for web browsing, iTunes, word processing, etc. It lives in the kitchen and serves well as a basic Internet machine, as well as a jukebox.
The people who say old computers are useless don't know why they need computers. They simply look at the RAM and hard drive size, make sure the price is as high as they can afford, and declare that to be the right machine. I just make sure the thing can do what I need it to do. The rest is ego massaging.
</rant>
Click to expand...

Nice rant, newbie... I agree completely! ;)
 
More or less, this is what I do, but with computers, because I'm too destitute to afford a brand-new iMac right now:

cutting_edge.png


I'll move up to a G4 next month. I bet the "new" flat-screen monitor is AWESOME!
 
jparenti said:
I'll move up to a G4 next month. I bet the "new" flat-screen monitor is AWESOME!
Click to expand...

They are indeed. Still looks better as well than any new black LCD monitors from other manufacturers in my opinion.

I often wonder why people would buy a low-spec netbook when a used G4 Powerbook running OSX 10.5 could do the job better for less cost. I guess people just prefer new even if it's worse.

quantum003 said:
Here's my Lisa... just retrieved it from my old property yesterday. The batteries have corroded onto the logic board unfortunately and it won't power on, but I haven't tinkered with it any further than that.
Click to expand...

The Widget hard drive would probably be knackered as well. They just don't survive time well at all.

I got a ProFile emulator card for my Lisa 2/10 which uses a Compact Flash card (or IDE drive) as a HD after the Widget rattled, clunked and died the first time it was used in years. It's nigh on impossible to get a spare Widget HD now that works.

(Not my pics):

With Widget drive:

lisa210.jpg


With ProFile Emulator card (needs to plug into the ProFile external port):

lia210profilecard01.jpg
lia210profilecard02.jpg


Edit: you can also use these ProFile cards in actual ProFile cases as well (for Lisas or Apple II's and IIIs) which I suppose is what they were primarily meant for. ;)

MacTech68 said:
That said, it's not a prototype. As said, it's a MacXL and somebody made a power extension for testing modules.
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I would disagree and say it is indeed a Lisa 2 (or Lisa 2/5 minus ProFile external HD) judging by the ports on the back. They are slightly different if anyone's interested for future reference -

This is a Lisa 2 or 2/5:

lisa205ports.jpg


This is a Lisa 2/10 or Macintosh XL:

lisa210ports.jpg


(PS. The pics in my previous post as I mentioned aren't mine, so they show the emulator card in a Lisa 2/5 whereas mine is in a Lisa 2/10.)
 
awmazz said:
I would disagree and say it is indeed a Lisa 2 (or Lisa 2/5 minus ProFile external HD) judging by the ports on the back. They are slightly different if anyone's interested for future reference -
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That's interesting. I hadn't noticed that. I had thought that both the Lisa & Lisa2 had the Lisa badge on the front.

Although AFAIK, you could swap the main chassis in and out of the case plastics. :confused:

I only serviced a few of them and at the time Apple here was desperately trying to get people to trade them in to get them out of users' hands. The Power Supplies were particularly problematic here. Perhaps it was only those run on 240V ?
 
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Only the Lisa 1 with the two Twiggy drives had the Lisa logo. The Lisa 2, 2/5 and 2/10 all looked like the Mac XL with the 3.5 floppy slot. Only the 2/10 actually had the internal Apple Widget hard drive (hence they dispensed with the external ProFile port). The Mac XL was just a Lisa 2/10 with a modified ROM chip to make the screen pixels square to run Mac software.

Do you still service/repair these old power supplies? Not sure if it was you I recall mentioning it ages ago on here. I frazzled the one on my 2/10 when I did the old switch the wires routine to make it work on 240V. Smoke and everything. The replacement one is a 120V as well which I have to use a step down transformer. I'd like to get them both working at 240V if that's possible.

My Lisa 1 came from New Zealand so it has 240V power, but it's so old I'd like to get it checked over as well.
 
awmazz said:
Only the Lisa 1 with the two Twiggy drives had the Lisa logo. The Lisa 2, 2/5 and 2/10 all looked like the Mac XL with the 3.5 floppy slot. Only the 2/10 actually had the internal Apple Widget hard drive (hence they dispensed with the external ProFile port). The Mac XL was just a Lisa 2/10 with a modified ROM chip to make the screen pixels square to run Mac software.

Do you still service/repair these old power supplies? Not sure if it was you I recall mentioning it ages ago on here. I frazzled the one on my 2/10 when I did the old switch the wires routine to make it work on 240V. Smoke and everything. The replacement one is a 120V as well which I have to use a step down transformer. I'd like to get them both working at 240V if that's possible.

My Lisa 1 came from New Zealand so it has 240V power, but it's so old I'd like to get it checked over as well.
Click to expand...

Despite the fact that switch modes are something I'm proficient at and repair every day (well, almost every day), those Lisa PSUs scared the heebies out of me! :eek:

I couldn't stand the way they were built and if you missed something the results were sometimes quite spectacular. :eek:

I don't even have any old notes on them. Your best bet would be to find a local switch mode powersupply expert who doesn't mind working on unfamiliar circuits. Sadly, many might be old TV chassis techs who may now be retired (since we've all become somewhat redundant with hardware becoming so cheap). :(
 
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Ha, I can guess what you mean. It wasn't me who actually switched the PSU. It was a guy who actually worked on them for years and he even tested it for hours, but as soon as it went into the Lisa, phzzzzzttt!

I might go the modern power supply route then. I know you can get new style PSUs for Apple IIs (about 1/10th the size of the originals), so I wonder if they can work in Lisas and old Macs as well. Maybe not. I'll have to check it out. I'll post the link if I can find who was selling them again.
 
awmazz said:
Probably not. This is what I was thinking of:

http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-120-power-kit?sc=8&category=13

It's an ATX PSU. Reactive Micro make the Apple II version to work with that Mini-Box power adapter...
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That's pretty cool that somebody still offers these for AppleIIs, but I simply can't stand surface mount electrolytic caps (as pictured in the image).

Sadly, you can't get away from those surface mount electrolytics, but at least with thru-hole radial electrolytics, you get a chance to swap them out. Surface mounts just seem to corrode tracks underneath more readily. It's one reason I love the IIFX and the Quadra 700. Both mostly use Tantalum Electrolytics which don't leak! :D

Those old AZTEC AppleII power supplies were pretty good, and most commonly needed a 47uf cap in the PWM and the output caps changed over. Mind you, with some collector's machines supporting multiple cards, drives, RAM etc, you might need the ATX (though you may be limited by the regulator on the small PCB pictured).

And yes.... Those Lisa PSUs are a real nightmare!
 
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I worked the service department of a large retail computer store that primarily sold Apple starting late in 1984 and I've never seen a Twiggy drive. That's about as rare as it gets.
 
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