Mac-O-Meter REVIEW

[@jockelill]

Awesome video James! It has been great fun chatting with about the meter! And your feedback has been incredible to get the meter to this level and with a few minor updates, it will be an even better tool!

[@JDW-]

Thank you (and Will) for enduring my many questions. I greatly appreciate your help. Keep up the great work, guys!

[@CayMacVintage]

@JDW thank you for the review on our product. I value the feedback from others and appreciate the attention to detail you have done. All the emails were well worth it. This is a tool I use daily on my bench repairing various machine types as it leaves my hands free to do the other work and still being able to see all the voltages. Updates to address a few of the issues will be made.

[@JDW-]

As I just told Joakim in his comment here, I wish to thank you for your kind help and support during the making of the video. I also look forward to reviewing your ROM SIMMs, Programmer and the RAM in a forthcoming video. Great job!

[@1BitFeverDreams]

Thanks for this video which now acts as a tutorial/visual manual to this product. I *could not* understand the adb-like adapter thing from reading their spartan description on their website. It makes it so obvious with your video. Thank you!

[@TaijanDean]

I love that the case design is in keeping with the Mac's case, making it seem like to any passer by that this is a vintage product that came out in the 80's or 90's. It's incredible what hobbyists these days think of. Great video as always!

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

Great Review I have Will & Jorkim on my live repair streams I love my Mac-o-Meter great tool

[@1BitFeverDreams]

About accuracy, I'm reminded that of all the multimeters I've used, the uncertainty is the sum of both the scale error (which are the ±10 mV and ±100 mV you mentionned) and a % of the value itself. Sometimes, one dominates, sometimes they are comparable. It takes a lot of efforts for my 17-19 year old students to stop making mistakes in computing them perfectly in my electricity and magnetism class. I understand ditching one of the two for simplicity's sake and given that these are limited use case, restricted sandbox measurements.

[@JDW-]

Thanks for mentioning that. I didn't dive too deeply into the topic, mainly because I only had the basic ±10 mV & ±100 mV spec from the three gentlemen who designed Mac-O-Meter. I also didn't want to overwhelm people and make the video too long. But for those reading our conversation right now, it really would be good to understand the differences between Accuracy, Precision and Resolution: www.fluke.com/en/learn/blog/digital-multimeters/accuracy-precision Also discussed there is "Range," and there are basically two ranges on Mac-O-Meter in that the middle display is for measuring the 5V line and therefore gives you 2 digits to the right of the decimal point, whereas the other two meters measure 12v (one being negative) and therefore only give you a single digit past the decimal point, which is why the scale error mentioned in my video is different. In the end though, Mac-O-Meter is intended to be an easy-to-use device that gives a reasonably accuracy assessment of the power supply on a given vintage Mac. You can quickly see if you're getting roughly the +12V, +5V and -12V (when supported) voltage levels and if the voltage is stable or fluctuating. That info can better help one decide if they need to recap, repair or replace the power supply.

[@pocketscience911]

Great video James highlighting a neat little device that answers the most commonly asked question re vintage Mac restoration. I do like the convenience factor and can appreciate the value proposition to many Mac collectors. Cheers!

[@cla3d]

Great video, I have one of these and love it. It's worth the money if you work on vintage macs.

[@insanelydigitalvids]

A great review for a product I hadn't heard about previously. Thanks for taking the time to put this together and for bringing Mac-o-meter to my attention.

[@jimmack676]

Great product. Thx for the analysis. Pros & cons all helpful.

[@JJbrubaker]

Thanks for another invaluable vintage tech vid.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Dood that is freaking awesome.

[@maxbutton9996]

Best Mac videos to watch on an OLED. 😂

[@JDW-]

Thank you for your comment, but I'm unsure what you mean. Taking your words at face value, I would counter-argue that viewing KZbin videos on something like a 16" MBP with its fabulous Mini LED display is going to give you the same experience as an OLED, with deep, rich blacks. But my guess is that you are instead referring to Mac-O-Meter using multi-segment LED displays instead of OLED. While much can be said about the improved visibility of an OLED display over the multi-segment LED displays, I suspect that added cost may have prohibited it, especially since we are talking about a very low volume item here. Even so, no successful product stays static forever, so you never know what the future will bring, especially if we financially support the three enthusiastic gentlemen who brought Mac-O-Meter to us by way of patronizing their store. They don't pay me anything to say that either. I just like some of their stuff. You can check out their other creations here: ko-fi.com/caymacvintage/shop

[@maxbutton9996]

@@JDW- I mean that because the black background behind you when you speak is extremely black! 😂

[@Curt_Sampson]

I'd suggest you call that port a "Mini-DIN 4" port instead of an ADB port since it's not actually ADB.

[@JDW-]

But then I would need to answer people who comment with the question "what's a Mini-DIN 4 port"? 🙂 When dealing with people who love vintage Macs, you find pretty much every single one of them knows what an ADB port is, but not everyone knows what a Mini-DIN 4 is. At the very least, it takes less thought overall to understand the meaning of an "ADB port," even though the USAGE in this case (the Mac-O-Meter extension cable) is not the ADB protocol. Even so, Curt, you now have the honor of being the first person to have mentioned it, and please know that I fully understand and appreciate your point.

[@Curt_Sampson]

@@JDW- Ah, I see your point too. You might be able to deal with that by calling it a "Mini-DIN 4 port like the one used for ADB," which would still help get across the idea that it's _not_ ADB. (Or S-Video, for that matter.) Personally, from a usability standpoint, I probably would just have designed the device as two parts in the first place with a tethered cable. (This would have been slightly more expensive than the current main unit, but wouldn't have added as much cost as the extension adapter since you'd need only one D-sub connector and no Mini-DIN-4 jacks.) That would have avoided the confusion of introducing a new port that's different from, but looks the same as, an existing port.

[@diags6468]

It would be nice if it put a high load on the power rails so that this device could be used to stress test the power supply.

[@JDW-]

Just connect the same external floppy drive I demonstrated in the video and attach Mac-O-Meter to the daisy chain port, then insert a floppy disk into that drive. That provides you with a load and the means to measure voltages under that load. I'm not sure if I would want to put a significantly larger load than a floppy drive on the floppy drive port though. That port is designed for floppy drives, not multi-Amp testing. And for testing the motherboard under a great load, the best thing to do is attach a card or accelerator -- some kind of add-on which draws more power as a result. With that said, the Mac-O-Meter exists to test a complete Mac system with motherboard and power supply. The motherboard even in a stock condition should offer a sufficient enough load to know if the power supply has issues or not.