iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20h

So… I’m dumb. I saw two 30-pin 4MB SIMMs for 7 Euro, and bought them. Of course, one of them is 4MB, the other is 1MB, and this was very clearly stated in the item description that I failed to read. If any of you has one of these 4MB module in the EU and […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/10/2026

Is this my most elegant fix? No. Does it work? I hope so. Have to let the IPA dry before trying it out. Reflowing didn’t fix it. I had a via nearby but I couldn’t unclog it with my puny soldering iron and solder sucker. I really need to buy those pumps. The […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/10/2026

Mac LC problem found!!! After the bad ROM, SCSI was not working. The lower than 5V voltage was a red herring. The real problem? Yes, yet another broken trace! SCSI data bus pin 4 (DB4) was disconnected from the SCSI controller pin 50. Jeez, these PCBs! In […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/10/2026

Can I ask a favour from someone with a fully working Mac LC and a scope? The original model, not LC II of newer. I need to know the voltage of logic 1 on the address bus. To do what, with the Mac off: 1. Plug scope ground to the PDS pin in the middle row […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/10/2026

The good news about the LC is, with a new ROM replacing the broken one (UD2) (thank you so much @luisfcorreia!) plays the chime, shows video, ADB works, even kicks out a bad floppy! The bad news is SCSI is not working. I’m betting it’s related to the 3.6V […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

Interesting, the number or bad bytes is surprisingly small. Although it changes occasionally, reads keep switching between two or three different dumps. #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

Ok, now it makes sense! And the bad chip seems bad in just some areas, not all over the place. I guess some address bit is bad. Sadly, the badness starts right at word zero, so the Mac can’t boot. #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

Ahhh, a hardware bug! 🤦‍♂️ Red and brown are swapped. #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

This is even weirder than it seems. After the first 60 bytes, the ROMs diverge. But they are supposed to be the same ROM, says so on the ROM itself. I wonder if I swapped some address bits… #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

Is this how the clock signal is supposed to look like on the Mac LC? 🤔 #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

Ready to test the recapped board, for now with a sacrificial HD and voltmeters on all rails. This is it, folks! #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Pulled out a bunch of caps from the Classic analog board and for the first time I can confirm it really smells like rotten fish. Yuck. And my fingers are covered in it. #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

All real companies out there, but not ironically. Also, this site is gold! alignmentalignment.ai/caaac

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Remember when thinking something taking a whole lot of work and a bunch of people to get done was looked at as a good thing?

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

I’m in a place with a lot of herons, day and night!

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Sweet! I spent a good part of the morning aligning the zero track sensor of the Classic floppy disk drive. 0/10, absolutely do not recommend. But it can now format and verify disks! 😁

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

I am extremely happy with the performance of my table view! This is an LC 475, original non-overclocked CPU (60LC040 @ 25Mhz)! Unfortunately I still could not manage a complete offscreen scrolling, because I would have to create an offscreen GWorld, copy the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Same exact PowerPlant class, running on Mac OS 9.2.1 and System 7.1 😁 #retroApple #retroCoding

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

This is how it looks if I read the smoothed analog channel connected to the Mac Classic’s PWM output continuously. No idea why yet. In the previous video I was reading every 15ms. It looks better but if you look closely you can still see the occasional black line or artifact going by. #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

For the most curious: yes, it's a gamma trick, not true DDC/CI control. I don’t know if the controller of the TFT displays being sold to put inside compact Macs handles it (I have one and will try but my desk is pretty full right now). Even if it does, I need […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

So, huh, one more thing! ☀️ It still needs some work because reading an analog channel on the Pico interferes with sampling for some reason, like if the PIO has to pause while the analog value is read, and causes black lines and random garbage to appear on […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Has anyone restored a Sony HD FDD that reads but won’t write? I spent the afternoon restoring the Classic drive. Unlike all others I worked on before it had the top head stuck. I was able to bend the thing up so it somehow comes down successfully. Not sure […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

This tube employs integral implosion protection.

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Meanwhile my city is not doing great, but we got to 2020 so it’s accurate.

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

While I clean up the code, someone is trashing Tokyo. 😬 #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Got it! 😁 Looks like on the classic the h-sync signal happens on a slightly different phase compared to the Plus. Like in the middle of a pixel or so. I don’t have equipment good enough to make sure but disabling a phase tuning thing I had for the Mac plus, it works perfectly! #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Added a few buttons to MacDVI help development. However I don't seem to be able to sample the Classic output properly. Weird. #retroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

This was surprisingly more complicated than I expected… still working for headers only, and the spacing I'm using is slightly different than the real thing (Apple uses some sort of multiplier to calculate the header height, I'm just adding a fixed size to the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

The cap juice corroded even the metal frame! I took the goo out with IPA but this seems permanent.

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Sorting is working! 😁 Ignore all the blinking, an offscreen buffer will fix it later.

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Meanwhile, DataBrowser implemented as a PowerPlant class is progressing. I created a LScrollerView class that handles a header and accessory view, and scrolls the header in sync with the content! 😁

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

I can't really see the label of the Rifas so I decided to take them out so I can add them to the order. To do that, I removed the back protective sheet and… ohhhh boy… that took a whole lot of scrubbing. Related, if anyone knows a brand of cotton swabs that don't fall apart easily, let me know!

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

I thought this thing had no Rifas, but it does, and one of them is broken, ready to blow up! Good thing I didn’t turn it on.

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

This is as close to a CRT as I ever worked with. If I drank this would be a great time to have a drink. 😅 Also, the classic is so cheaply made there is no actual metal structure inside so the CRT is held by +30 year old plastic front only. Any wiggles as hell […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

I was going to power on the Classic analog board and see what happens but… no. Does someone have a Mouser cart with all the Classic analog board caps I can reuse? 😅

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

And Tetris, of course! 😁 I need to copy Prince of Persia to this BlueSCSI…

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Ok, let's try one video compressed in a different way (thank you @haitchfive!). First boot! #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

If you ever wondered how does Spectre looks like when running in 1-bit video. #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

I would love to show a video of this working but Mastodon still can’t handle posting videos without failing for no reason, so here’s a picture instead! Well, several! The image is a bit messed up since I need to adjust MacDVI timings for the classic, but the Mac works perfectly. #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Punk board, or the crappiest test cable you ever saw. Getting ready for the test bench! #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Board recapped, including a ridiculous 1uF temporary cap for testing since I don’t have any SMD with that capacity around. #RetroApple

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Back home, time to do some #RetroApple! Pulled out the caps from the Classic board. Lots of nasty under them. Good thing I didn’t try to power this board before recapping. I use the twisting method to remove them, while applying pressure down against the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

I’ve posted a photo in this street a few years ago about how in this region with extremely hot climate they use this technique to create shade over a popular pedestrian street. What I didn’t realize at the time (because the sun had already eaten it all away) […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

To folks into electronics, PCB manufacturing and/or #retrocomputing: this is a very broken membrane of an LC keyboard (M0487). Many traces are bad. I was wondering if this could be manufactured like any regular PCB. JLC apparently does flexible boards […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

@RecoveredExpert Here are the balloons. In the summer the trip starts really early (5am). Probably because they need the air to be cold to have enough lift. In other seasons they do two trips, morning and afternoon. There was an accident a while ago when […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

@RecoveredExpert I find it nice if I’m in the shade. In this region the sunlight will cook you alive regardless of the ambient temperature. 40+ is too hot even in the shade. 30-35 is nice to me! 😁 When the night falls I just love being outside feeling the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

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Miguel Arroz @arroz.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

Sunset seen from Praia Fluvial de Mourão (Mourão lake beach). I have no words. The peace, the silence, the pace of the Nature display, even the temperature. Everything is just perfect. I have been wanting to watch the sunset here since 2017, the last time I was here. I finally did.

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