Hacking a Modern 300W Power Supply into the Cursed Mac SE/30!

[@megan_alnico]

A lot of people are super purist about getting older computers working again. It's great to see someone unafraid to get hacky with the Mac. And this is a perfect candidate machine.

[@noapparentfunction]

I thought this was hilarious.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

If the Optical drive is back to blue, I think the original blue keyboard and mouse deserve to be reunited with the cursed Mac

[@dorinxtg]

About the noise - the PSU is 1U PSU for servers, and it's an active without any PWM. You might want to look next time for a passive 1U PSU.

[@ActionRetro]

Ah, thank you!

[@cloudrippertech]

Or he could use a quieter fan. Just saying...

[@beck3k]

I think out of personal taste the only thing I would have done differently is removed the power socket from the Seasonic power supply, and modify It's board connector to fit with the original case. Then the cable would be fed through the opening where the power socket was, and I could reinstall the case over the Seasonic, just incase anything got dropped inside by mistake it wouldn't cause a short.

[@74656trekkie]

Yes, and it would also stop the high frequencies the switching power supply produces. And there wouldn't be the exposed connectors of the power jack on the seasonic you could accidently touch. There's more than enough room for fingers...

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

This is great! As old power supplies begin to die, we need to find ways to use what we can get to repair our old machines! Great work!

[@BurleyBoar]

Love your videos! Safety tip when discharging a CRT: keep your free hand behind your back. Your other hand was touching CRT when you discharged it! From all the training I've had about CRTs, from getting mac repair certs back in 2010, it was drilled in that your free hand goes behind your back and you cross your fingers. It's less for the luck but as a reminder that your other hand is behind you back. With the bleeder resister in this, you were in little harm. Just wanted to be pedantic about safety measures. Full disclosure: I've never discharged a CRT and do not know how to repair anything on a CRT. This is all book learning and training for me.

[@ActionRetro]

I appreciate it!!

[@eDoc2020]

@l0ud5p34k4 It doesn't matter if the chassis is earth grounded or not, as the charge is stored between the CRT's internal electrode and chassis ground (actually the 'dag). Since he discharged from chassis to anode this should remove the charge.

[@eDoc2020]

@l0ud5p34k4 That's exactly what it is. The conductive coating on both sides of the CRT's glass forms a textbook parallel plate capacitor.

[@simonro9168]

You might wanna tape up the prongs of the jack on the Seasonic, since those are live at mains voltage if I'm not mistaken.

[@wsketchy]

That's AC input though, so depending on the way he's wired it I'd hope the current wouldn't go back into the socket. Seems like something that would cause a bit of magic smoke or at least melty bits

[@colinstu]

@@wsketchy he wired it onto the other side of the plug, so yeah those prongs are definitely hot now.

[@CocoaEm]

@@wsketchy its a very bad safety risk. meaty digits can touch those live prongs super easy. Not up to my standards. Stresses me out seeing that. Also one thing to add that seasonic psu really needs that top cover for the air to pass over the heatsinks.

[@CygnusTM]

Very interesting! I would have checked the outputs on the modded power supply with a multimeter rather than using the drive and analog board. Less risk of blowing up the drive and/or analog board if something is wrong. I’m glad everything worked.

[@sadmac356]

So would I, but hey, at least everything worked out!

[@AgentOrange96]

4:29 I like how he says it's a "Gigantic mess of wires" while subtly you can see the Big Mess O' Wires Rominator board (Labeled BMOW) through a hole toward the bottom of the Mac.

[@GarthBeagle]

Nicely done! I'd recommend doing a display adjustment now with that new power supply (info on how to do that can be found in the SE/30 service manual)

[@pizzacade8594]

You know what would make it even more cursed? Adding color!

[@strule]

I was thinking about that, is it even possible?

[@strule]

@@Dan-TechAndMusic yeah, this bw mod sounds way better. I wouldn't like to waste a perfectly good crt

[@elgigante2001]

19:40 "Eyes up lads we're arming the nugget!" - Dankpods

[@seshpenguin]

"SOMEONES BEEN IN HERE" - Dankpods

[@noapparentfunction]

clearly somebody used 1 GRIT on this Mac

[@HalianTheProtogen]

Lewis Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton…

[@lilmul123]

Do you not own a multimeter, my dude? It would have helped you get rid of any uncertainties before plugging them into difficult-to-replace electronics.

[@Afsafs123]

I use a modern version of a Kensington trackball for work. I honestly didn't know there was one in all beige, and now I need to find one.

[@shadyweaver]

This is a really cool upgrade for the power supply, it's great that there's no niche voltages being made in there! I think what I would differently on the power supply is: -Mount the bare PCB without the original bottom chassis, as the original plastic shielding is still in place, to have more access to air -Lose the original power jack and just pass it through directly to the board to save some space -Solder the switch to connect PS_ON with GND to function as a classic ATX motherboard's power button, instead of switching the socket itself The only challenge would be a mounting location for the power supply fan, this machine doesn't have a lot of clearance for airflow by default, let alone with the mods it has. Overall, it's a really cool upgrade and it might give you a lot more reliability on the long run.

[@Oxide445]

Can't wait for this thing to become the ultimate music production/boombox it was meant to be.

[@crashmatrix]

Always a pleasure to see this gremlin's continued journey through life. If this thing ever gets sold again I'd really love to see the new owner's discovery of every little thing done to it. Can't wait for the incoming part from Germany, what could it be 🤔

[@crashmatrix]

Oh, it'll work first try. Sure of it, your testing so far has been really cautious, and I expect to trust JDW's strategy out of the box.

[@radimkolar2270]

At this point it might be the most modified Macintosh ever

[@nilswegner2881]

I think that this mac would still benefit from a color screen mod

[@radimkolar2270]

@@nilswegner2881 that exists?

[@nilswegner2881]

@@radimkolar2270 Yeah, you'd probably have to swap the tube for an lcd but there are ways to make these things color. I never understood why a computer that competed with the amiga 1200 and atari falcon performance wise would be monochrome... I always thought this is nonsensical.

[@radimkolar2270]

@@nilswegner2881 i think LCD would ruin it

[@nilswegner2881]

@@radimkolar2270 There might be tubes that small as well

[@msthalamus2172]

If I were doing this, I'd plug the power cord into a power strip and flip its switch so my hands were nowhere near the explody bits, should something go wrong. :)

[@Etienne_H]

Would actually love to see this made back into its original state. Imagine all the steps. And how satisfying the result would be.

[@LKComputes]

I feel like Sean is just putting everything he can into the Cursed SE/30.

[@derkpoortenga]

I'm so happy to see this machine working properly finally! Congrats on the successful mod!

[@JapanPop]

You kept the blue optical drive color! Yes!!

[@MatthewCobalt]

This prpject has been a complete treat to watch. Having been transformed into a monstrosity of old and new parts, it can finally be said tht it has finally reached it's near pinnacle state.

[@ScrewTSW]

Glad to see that these machines can be resurrected using modern components. Just one question, why did you not buy a right-angle power plug and leave the seasonic untouched and in it's original shell? I would bet that leaving it open impacts the airflow inside the PSU, which also contributes to the noise level as the fan has to work much harder. There's no need for it to spin that fast under quarter load. Small extra tip: you can buy pin removal tools from ebay or aliexpress for as cheap as 1$

[@JDW-]

Great video and great job! Even though I'm an EE, I still share your exact sentiments at 11:25. Double and triple checking connections is always a must for projects like this, but even then, things can go wrong. Because I've done stupid things before, I always grow nervous when it's time to flip the switch. For example, while working in my SE/30s and swapping parts in and out like mad, I've done foolish things like accidentally connecting my prized 40MHz Daystar Turbo040 into the top pass-thu slot of the TS Adapter (instead of the correct cache card slot on the side), which briefly shorted the power supply when I switched on power and sadly killed the main chip on that card. (Personal thanks to JoeTheZombie for sourcing replacement chips and thanks to Bolle in Germany for having done the actual chip swap for me!) In a separate blunder, I had a forgotten about a dangling alligator clip jumper cable, used during testing, in my Mac512 which was touching the metal frame and shorting a chip on the motherboard when I powered on. That too briefly shorted the Analog Board power supply, but thankfully there was no damage in that case. Most switching power supplies reduce their switching speed to near zero (effectively shutting off) to avoid meltdowns during shorts but there's still high risk of chip damage like with my Daystar. All said, you're having fun with mods, and that's part of the joy in this hobby. Keep up the great work! If you don't mind, I have one question. How do you get your camera to completely avoid the vertically moving horizontal scan line? The CRT scan frequency on these compact Macs is non-standard and very hard to get a camera to sync perfectly. My camera is a Panasonic GH5 which allows me to adjust the shutter speed to sync nicely with most standard CRTs, just not with Mac CRTs. I use Shutter Angle rather than Shutter Speed, and normally set it to 180° but when I shoot my CRTs, tend to use 181°, which produces a thin white scan line moving up the screen every few seconds (as opposed to a black scan line). (Increasing Shutter Angle would merely thicken the white line into a bar, and reducing Shutter Angle below 180° makes a black line or bar.) In your excellent videos, I see no scan line at all. How did you manage that?

[@ActionRetro]

Thanks for the kind words! My camera is a GH4, the model right before yours. There's a setting called "synchro scan" which lets you fine tune shutter speed to exactly match a CRT. It's on page 4 under the "motion picture" menu for me

[@JDW-]

@@ActionRetro Thank you for your kind reply. Yes, it is Synchro Scan that allows me to change the shutter speed (in my case, Shutter Angle) in very fine increments, which is why I can change it from 180° to 181° or 179°, but I cannot do something like 180.5°. Even so, if your GH4 can eliminate the line, I would think my GH5 should too. Hmmm...

[@charlesdorval394]

Wow thanks to you both for that staple trick, I definitively will do that in the future!

[@RedmondMonk]

from low end mac: Did you know the SE/30 could display grays on the internal monitor? If you can get your hands on the Micron Xceed video card, it supports 8-bit video on an external monitor - or on the internal screen when no external monitor is attached

[@ddrmaxdan386]

If you want to have more safety and you have (or a friend) a 3d printer, print an IEC plug like the thing:4165926 on thingverse, like that no more chance to take a shock from the IEC plug on the seasonic power supply

[@01302]

Did I see Spectre Supreme there? That takes me back, I was introduced to that game in 1994 on a Mac Performa. The graphics were like nothing I'd ever seen.

[@brianlindgren1445]

yes awesome game! takes me back too lol

[@JeffWaynee]

Anytime I see someone with a Seasonic PSU, I automatically give them high regard, because they have excellent taste and respect for quality parts.

[@BeniD82]

Certainly a good modern solution for a weak stock PSU without impacting the appearance too much, though with the Cursed SE/30, looking stock is probably not much of a concern haha! I did something similar with my modded Color Classic to have a Flex ATX PSU provide 3.3v, 5v, and -12v to drive the PPC board, which the stock analog board just could not handle. Used a relay controlled by the 5v trickle of the analogue board to get the soft power working with the ATX PSU. Works well :)

[@ActionRetro]

Amazing!!

[@leontechtalks]

this is the thing that got me to your channel honestly a funny little mac!

[@Scitch87]

15:00 regarding soldering the wires onto the PSU by using a cable in the powerjack there are actually 90° PSU cables that would've fit pretty well in your case. If you ever want to switch out the current PSU for a less noisy one like passively cooled server PSUs. Cheers mate nice video.

[@ZoruaZorroark]

i was half expecting you to show the intro for rex nebular on it, but otherwise, glad you were able to give it life once more

[@snip3rm00n]

I love this series, its great to see this wild SE30 get modded to its max potential!

[@EsotericArctos]

If you had a right angled IEC connector, the power cord thing would work well :) Nice PSU upgrade.

[@cromulence]

Cool mod, but a couple of things: - When you power on an ATX power supply with the power good signal bridged to ground, you may find some nasty spikes that can occur during the initial few milliseconds. I have used an AT to ATX adapter on a Socket 7 board and have killed a board and components by relying on the switch on the PSU. - Leaving the original power socket in place is a bit dangerous, as those pins are live when you plug in power on your socket. Not sure but you may've already mentioned this in the video.

[@andre0baskin]

Yes, I was thinking a right angle C13 connector and wire the existing switch between power good and ground. At least cover the cover the new PS power socket with tape and add a "socket pins are live" note for the next guy.

[@g3monster89]

Just thought I'd point out for safety reasons that you can't discharge the crt to ground without a direct connection to ground which there appears to be none when you attempted to do it. I saw you attempted to ground your screwdriver to the case but that wont work as the case has no connection to ground. To achieve a ground connection to the case I recommend having a power cable with live and neutral cut off and just an earth connection remaining and leaving it plugged in with that cable while discharging the crt...There will be a loud crack sound when it actually discharges.

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

Thats A Great Mod Sean You Have All Kinds Of Power Now Cant Waite For The Next Mod You Have In Mine Its Almost Ready For The Paint Booth

[@AngeloTelesforo]

I love the Cursed Mac! The final touch would be giving him (computers are male in my language) a professional polyurethane black car painting.

[@APOTwixx]

It will work! *Fingers crossed as I hide in the closet on the other side of the room as you plug it in* 😅

[@FloppydriveMaestro]

Its amazing how much smaller it is.

[@m4dizzle]

The Molex Mini-fit Jr extraction tool is definitely worth the twenty bucks if you're going to build your own cables

[@jaegan438]

A right-angle power cord might have come in handy.

[@OmegaEnvych]

I think at this point it's logical to rename "Cursed mac" to something cool like "SuperSE/30" or something :D

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

is funny to think that disassembling a monitor could result in death back in the day

[@macinjosh2223]

You need to fix the paint on the top, and it will be complete!

[@RetroTechorDie]

Excellent work as always!

[@EweToobUsername]

I think the Cured Mac’s case plastics deserves a new paint job after all of this. Also, the Seasonic PSU should really be enclosed as the design does guide air.

[@lily_skye]

The Blessed Mac SE/30

[@soknightsam]

You've got an xceed card coming don't you

[@MistahMatzah]

What else is there? And who in Germany has a spare one banging around? ;)

[@soknightsam]

@@MistahMatzah could be a 33mhhz cpu but my money is on gray scale

[@MistahMatzah]

@@soknightsam i have the Turbo 040 in my SE/30 but i gave up on the Xceed.

[@antonrickert9427]

You need SO much more subscribers mate

[@AlfOfAllTrades]

Time to adjust thegeometry on that screen. You have an inch, top and bottom and about half an inch left and right completely unused!

[@babyjayASMR]

I think a fresh coat of matte black paint would do wonders for this thing

[@KenColangelo]

I just got to the cliffhanger, I'm sure your power supply will work. And...it worked! Cool! I'm doing this to a Mac SE I have.

[@RikerJoe]

I had faith in you, Sean. Nice job!

[@gp3328]

I just decided randomly to play a bunch of small tech youtuber videos with my premium to give them a bonus. You made it!

[@ActionRetro]

Thanks!!

[@charleschamp9826]

I don't know how big of a pop or boom those power supplies make when they explode. But I would have plugged the cable into it first, then plug the other end into the wall without my unprotected hands being right on the power supply that could explode. But that's probably harder to take a good shot of.

[@TorontoPopulistConservative]

There are a set of pins on an ATX power supply output that when kept bridged, will cause the power supply to start when power is applied. I''ll bet you used that principle to help make this work. Also, I hope you put the switch on the hot and not the neutral (just a basic good practice for safety).

[@corruptedsave482]

You can probably make some custom length IDE/SCSI cables to help cut down on the nest of cables if that something you would want to do.

[@timblewee]

How that thing is still working is beyond me!

[@d3adman404]

Its officially THE BLESSED Mac SE/30!

[@paulwilliams4274]

@action retro have you done a CPU upgrade on this SE/30? Or is it the stock model? And: Have you considered upgrading the CPU to a quicker model? Also, does it use a CF card for storage, or an SSD?

[@magesnz]

eat up martha.... that a hilarious lol thanks for the memories

[@macman85602]

I would have removed the entire seasonic power jack and soldered the wires direct through the hole it came out of with some rubber to keep the wires from chaffing. Also i would have reinstalled the cover and removed most of the old power supply housing to give additional room. if i remember there is nothing really on the board under the power supply so you may be able to drill new holes to mount the new unit.

[@jba2048]

My second Mac was an SE/30. I should really get that thing fixed up and working again.

[@williamalbertson78]

nice work there love the mods

[@eppicshotgun1281]

Any ideas on if i could adapt a raspberry pi to a base model 01 Imac cause Id love to use it but 300MHz (iirc) PPC and 512Mb of ram just wont cut it. I got it for 7 bucks as untested and theres screws rattling around in it so its def not virgin lol.

[@BjornsTIR]

There are 90° power plugs, those would've definitely fit.

[@Izavos]

It's great to see someone with a lot of technical knowledge in electronics solving the problems. To run Apple2 applications and games, a Mac requires an emulator with the help of a specific card. How do CPM/80 Cards with Z80 installed on Apple2 to run Software?

[@brokenelectronics3665]

I really love what you have accomplished with this machine. I hope my “World’s Most Powerful Sawtooth” comes out was well.

[@ZacharyButcher1334]

Counterpoint - the modder was the person who inspired Apple to use 500 different screw styles on every device they make 🤔

[@ActionRetro]

🤣🤣🤣

[@sillystev0n]

I definitely think that upgrade is for the good old CPU

[@ww21943]

I recall that you said this was used for music production. Did you ever find any programs or files related to music production on this machine?

[@Mehdital89]

How is that PSU's fan? I've heard that it spins up and down very often with varying load and can be very loud.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Sweet thanks for the great video, I think it is time to start rebuilding my My little Se/30 Since I sourced all new capacitors !!!!!!!!!!

[@axi0matic]

You know right-angle IEC plugs exist right? Leaving the top off the PSU means the airflow from the fan is not being ducted properly, making it less effective (and therefore likely having to spin faster). Also, you may want to turn on power from the strip rather than use your bare hands next to potentially explodey electronics.

[@frosty295]

I've been watching a few of his videos and sort of keeping up with the stuff he's done to this Mac but why does he sound almost like Fix it Felix from Wreck it Ralph? 🤣😂

[@kevinroosa1315]

A Sunon MagLev fan would work well in that supply. Looks a bit more stock with a black housing/turbine.

[@anthonydenn4345]

That Sony power supply may have been fine. It was probably the missing metal shielding that was allowing EM noise through to the crt. The new one probably doesn't create as much EM noise. But may regulate the fan better with the cover in place and reduce the loud fan noise.

[@LazyBunnyKiera]

Great Job! looks great. I want to build a sleeper in one of these mac classics. like mini-itx or microATX + a small LCD with a mac classic theme desktop

[@haskellelephant]

Found it sort of weird that you kept the outside of the original PSU. The easier route of mounting the new PSU directly seemed like a good option, although it would look slightly different. But with a CD-ROM in the front, this thing is looking pretty funky to begin with.

[@BlackDragon-xn2ww]

great video that hack reminds me of a external drive with adapter I got a mini compaq that has a external psu adapter that runs the whole computer like that oem

[@cooperschwartz318]

The analog boards of all monochrome compact Macs will not generate high voltage unless the logic board is connected because the logic board is what generates the horizontal deflection signal

[@Cherijo78]

Soldering in the wires to the back of the jack in the new power supply without capping off the prongs is a serious safety concern. Those prongs are now live and could theoretically arc. I realize It's really not much worse than the existing AC power connector exposure, but it's still not a great idea to leave it floating open like that, especially since that will be down low and exposed to fingers being put in.

[@xredhead7135x]

Did you consider a 90 degree iec cord and then make the splice adjacent to the new supply in that empty space?

[@enquiryplay]

*53 % of the audience vote to make the CD ROM drive black. 2:10 You: "[the blue CD ROM drive] was heavily requested by all of you." You'd make a good dictator ;)

[@nynexman4464]

53% of those people were wrong, blue is definitely the right color

[@MK-of7qw]

Wonder if you could somehow fit a color tube in that thing (though i guess that would need a different video chip)

[@bland9876]

I wonder if you could put jazz jackrabbit on the jazz disc and play it? Or would that cause the universe to explode?

[@paullandry6573]

Great video, buy I get the impression you were hoping it would explode. :D

[@monchiabbad]

The duct tape isolated the parts to such an extent that the heatsinks underneath could not dissipate enough heath.

[@tradito]

5:24 how is that a discharge to ground if you don't have the computer itself grounded?

[@monchiabbad]

If it's a non beige mac classic it will be cursed for all eternity.

[@francoisrevol7926]

Oh gee I didn't bother trying to remove the plastic part of the 24pin connector on a picoPSU with just a staple but it actually seems to work. (I need it with the connector desoldered, but desoldering it all at once is not handy) Just needs a larger handle.

[@francoisrevol7926]

Yeah it works quite well, no need for these custom needles… You actually don't need to cut it; just flatten it: twitter.com/mmu_man/status/1368961387356184579

[@KenjiUmino]

So the fan is a bit on the noisy side? Good to know - what kind of fan is in the new power supply? I assume it's a generic 40mm 12V fan, right ? I'm about to order a SEASONIC SSP-250SUB to replace the PSU board in my mac IIsi that has been sitting on a shelf unattended for too long so nobody noticed when the caps in the PSU leaked and did their thing to the PSU board ... the mainboard is still allright, luckily. Anyways, I'll be ordering a 60mm noctua fan as well to replace the rear fan and, after watching this video, I'll throw a 40mm fan in the cart as well.

[@macobyte]

I really want the original owner of this SE/30 who performed all these mods the first time to find your videos and reach out.

[@nipeliite]

Plot twist: the PSU explodes and Sean's house burns to a crisp

[@ActionRetro]

🤔😬

[@WillOnSomething]

Would still make a good video ...to show to the insurance company

[@alextirrellRI]

It's screaming "Paint me!" right now.

[@tyellowquill]

if you ever take the cdrom apart again, i request you think about spraying the button silver, or gold coloured XD