Logic Board - Macintosh SE Reloaded
- Thread starter Kai Robinson
- Start date
Just curious, what's the board revision printed on the PCB?I am happy to report a successful build with the latest version of the board from MacEffects.
I followed @JDW's wonderful videos and BOM/instructions and everything seems to work great on the first boot.
Hello!
I'm encountering the same sad mac error (with nothing connected, just power). Aside from randomly replacing chips, what are ways to narrow down what on the board is causing this?
Two Idiots. Not surprised by that, but it's very disappointing!
I am perhaps @MacEffects biggest fan, not only for their insanely great store offerings, but also because Mark J. is an honest, friendly, and just the nicest person you'll ever know in your life. Even so, this will restrict people to buying only the one color (red) and style (gold ENIG) offered, since MacEffects will be the lone seller.
Macintosh SE Reloaded Logic Board
Another MacEffects exclusive a Macintosh SE Reloaded bare logic board (PCB) painstakingly engineered by Kai Robinson. These boards are made with Gold ENIG-RoHS. These are a limited production run. 100% of the proceeds, less cost of manufacture and selling costs will go directly to the creator...
maceffects.com
The secondary problem is as you can see — OUT OF STOCK
But even when it comes back IN STOCK, if somebody wants a matte black without gold ENIG, there's no options.
I think this impacts people who reside outside the USA most, in light of shipping costs.
I do NOT want to steer people away from MacEffects, because they are outstanding. But at the same time, I'm a huge fan of choice. So if more choices can be opened up in the future, while at the same time take a sledgehammer to those who are actively seeking to RUIN THE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE, that is the ideal.
@Kai Robinson
The response by callan brown is an important consideration. If you go back to his earlier posts in this thread, you'll see he had an issue with his MacEffects board (no fault of MacEffects, of course), and that brings up the topic of INVENTORY and BOARD REVISIONS. While it could be said that "everything is now fixed," there is no guarantee of that. So if MacEffects is now restocking the current revision board and still has stock 1 year hence, and if some other problem is found within the next year that prompts you to make a board revision, people would need to mod the MacEffects board because they would have no ability to use the newest GitHub files to have the board custom made at a PCB maker.
Honestly, most people would rather buy from a vendor local to them rather than buy 5 silly boards (which REALLY ruffles my feathers) from a PCB maker in China. Who needs 4 extra boards??? But at the same time, there are the caveats I just mentioned.
Anyway, I'm just talking out loud in hopes these points of consideration will help. I truly LOVE the SE Reloaded board and build experience and want more people to try it. I think it's a far easier build than an SE/30 Reloaded. I like thru-hole soldering more than SMD, and that's why.
See, if there are vendors elsewhere who want to license it from me as Mark at MacEffects has done, ie, sellers in the EU, UK, AUS/NZ that wouldn't be treading on Mark's toes, so to speak, I'd be happy to consider it.
Likewise, if someone wants to approach me on the forum and ask for a copy of the gerbers, I might be inclined to do so.
But no more public files available for all (at least in the short term), not now I've been burned for a second time, in a similar manner.
This happened in the first place with Alex Perez of RHC, who took my non response to his query (through an account that was entirely not recognisable as his) to license the SE Reloaded to him, as permission to sell boards on eBay.
Now two sellers on eBay, one in Germany, one in Italy, both selling the same boards, with all the silkscreen removed, in violation of the license?
Selling off spare boards to cover the costs of production runs for yourself? Sure, I get it, that's OK! That's fine with the terms of the CC-NC licence. But selling multiple units, commercially, for prices that are clearly going to result in a profit, that is not OK.
Sorry but sledgehammer time has come.
The same thing happened to Stephen Leary (aka TerribleFire) in the Amiga community, people just straight up trying to pass his work off as their own, to make money, when they had done zero work or expended zero effort other than remove his name from it.
His reaction, in comparison, was scorched earth. Erasing his entire YouTube channel, every post about his stuff, entire forum accounts, his whole github - all gone.
I don't think I'm being unreasonable in wanting to curtail the kind of behaviour I'm seeing.
At the end of the day, no one is entitled to someone else's work for free, unless the creator is OK with that.
I want the community to benefit from my work, I've seen the results of it, it's been great to see.
What's not great to see is other people profiting off my work.
Likewise, if someone wants to approach me on the forum and ask for a copy of the gerbers, I might be inclined to do so.
But no more public files available for all (at least in the short term), not now I've been burned for a second time, in a similar manner.
This happened in the first place with Alex Perez of RHC, who took my non response to his query (through an account that was entirely not recognisable as his) to license the SE Reloaded to him, as permission to sell boards on eBay.
Now two sellers on eBay, one in Germany, one in Italy, both selling the same boards, with all the silkscreen removed, in violation of the license?
Selling off spare boards to cover the costs of production runs for yourself? Sure, I get it, that's OK! That's fine with the terms of the CC-NC licence. But selling multiple units, commercially, for prices that are clearly going to result in a profit, that is not OK.
Sorry but sledgehammer time has come.
The same thing happened to Stephen Leary (aka TerribleFire) in the Amiga community, people just straight up trying to pass his work off as their own, to make money, when they had done zero work or expended zero effort other than remove his name from it.
His reaction, in comparison, was scorched earth. Erasing his entire YouTube channel, every post about his stuff, entire forum accounts, his whole github - all gone.
I don't think I'm being unreasonable in wanting to curtail the kind of behaviour I'm seeing.
At the end of the day, no one is entitled to someone else's work for free, unless the creator is OK with that.
I want the community to benefit from my work, I've seen the results of it, it's been great to see.
What's not great to see is other people profiting off my work.
Last edited:
Also, revisions of both boards have effectively stopped since I barely do any electronics work anymore, so future revisions won't be something I'll be doing.
The latest revision to the SE Reloaded wasn't even a fix, merely a breakout pin for an additional address line to experiment with using the Macintosh Classic ROM, so not really necessary. At this point the only cock ups can come from manufacturing errors.
Again, if trustworthy people want to do a group buy, want the files and my help to sort the pcb options at whatever board house they want to use, I'm happy to provide the files free of charge.
These won't stop being available just because the github has gone private, I've still got the design files on about ten different storage media and cloud services - it's just there are a few more hoops to jump through. Less than ideal, absolutely, but the only thing I can think of that will stop people profiting off my work.
The latest revision to the SE Reloaded wasn't even a fix, merely a breakout pin for an additional address line to experiment with using the Macintosh Classic ROM, so not really necessary. At this point the only cock ups can come from manufacturing errors.
Again, if trustworthy people want to do a group buy, want the files and my help to sort the pcb options at whatever board house they want to use, I'm happy to provide the files free of charge.
These won't stop being available just because the github has gone private, I've still got the design files on about ten different storage media and cloud services - it's just there are a few more hoops to jump through. Less than ideal, absolutely, but the only thing I can think of that will stop people profiting off my work.
The end result of taking down the gerbers will be that the sellers on eBay will be the only ones to produce them, because they'll be cheaper than MacEffects anyway. There's a certain point where open source is open source and it's just better for the people of the vintage community to have them, maybe this project is there now?
It's your right to do what you want but if you're not actively trying to make money from it I don't see the point in going backwards. I have a copy of the gerbers, so do dozens of other people I'm sure. I won't share them if you don't want them shared but others will.
It's your right to do what you want but if you're not actively trying to make money from it I don't see the point in going backwards. I have a copy of the gerbers, so do dozens of other people I'm sure. I won't share them if you don't want them shared but others will.
It's good to hear MacEffects will be restocked with Reloaded boards. Thanks for the update, Kai! 
Now, in regards to what @callanbrown wrote on 4/2/2025, I can only suggest that we ALL should prepare for what will happen when we pass away. Hopefully, that won't happen for many more decades into the future, but no one lives forever. None of us know when it is our turn to go. I attended a funeral just yesterday, in fact.
What happens when a rights holder passes away without a will, and all their online work is either sitting there with strict usage conditions or has been temporarily removed from public view? Well, if the community at large had all the latest info prior to the passing of the rights holder, it could be distributed (unless rights were passed to another party on their death), but what if all that info that is never released publicly and simply vanishes upon the death of the rights holder or creator?
If it is physical item like an old Mac, it likely would be passed on to relatives or perhaps sold back to the community. But what about important data that is locked away on a hard drive, protected by password? Even non-protected drives could be sold or even erased. That means some important data could be lost forever unless preparations are made to dispense that to another part on the death of the data holder.
I would therefore like to encourage anyone who is a creator of something to consider what shall be done on your passing.
I spoke to Steve Chamberlin of BMOW about this very topic in August 2023, and at the time Steve told me the following regarding his work on ROMs:
"In the event of my long-term disability or death, you can consider all my Mac ROM-related works as public domain and free for any use."
Decisions on what to do are a semi-private matter insofar as the rights holder must make their own decisions in private. And if they decide that some of their work should be lost forever on their death, so be it. Regardless of the loss, it is their RIGHT. But any publicly released info would need to be dealt with in public to some extent. For now, @Kai Robinson has chosen to remove all his Reloaded works (which are amazing, BTW!) due to outright theft, which is understandable. How rights will be dealt with if Kai is no longer with us, however, is a matter that he alone must deal with.
Now, in regards to what @callanbrown wrote on 4/2/2025, I can only suggest that we ALL should prepare for what will happen when we pass away. Hopefully, that won't happen for many more decades into the future, but no one lives forever. None of us know when it is our turn to go. I attended a funeral just yesterday, in fact.
What happens when a rights holder passes away without a will, and all their online work is either sitting there with strict usage conditions or has been temporarily removed from public view? Well, if the community at large had all the latest info prior to the passing of the rights holder, it could be distributed (unless rights were passed to another party on their death), but what if all that info that is never released publicly and simply vanishes upon the death of the rights holder or creator?
If it is physical item like an old Mac, it likely would be passed on to relatives or perhaps sold back to the community. But what about important data that is locked away on a hard drive, protected by password? Even non-protected drives could be sold or even erased. That means some important data could be lost forever unless preparations are made to dispense that to another part on the death of the data holder.
I would therefore like to encourage anyone who is a creator of something to consider what shall be done on your passing.
I spoke to Steve Chamberlin of BMOW about this very topic in August 2023, and at the time Steve told me the following regarding his work on ROMs:
"In the event of my long-term disability or death, you can consider all my Mac ROM-related works as public domain and free for any use."
Decisions on what to do are a semi-private matter insofar as the rights holder must make their own decisions in private. And if they decide that some of their work should be lost forever on their death, so be it. Regardless of the loss, it is their RIGHT. But any publicly released info would need to be dealt with in public to some extent. For now, @Kai Robinson has chosen to remove all his Reloaded works (which are amazing, BTW!) due to outright theft, which is understandable. How rights will be dealt with if Kai is no longer with us, however, is a matter that he alone must deal with.
Whilst my health has declined in recent years, i'm not dead yet!
I can upload the gerbers/github stuff to TD's servers so that in the event of my demise, the community can decide what to do with it all, if that would allay any fears.
Likewise, if a company/seller on this side of the Atlantic wants to take a set of the gerbers and have them made up so people can buy boards, i'm happy for them to do so, but no one has come forward and expressed any interest in doing so.
I also may put the github public again, just not right now.
As it is, i'm almost fully out of the retro scene other than TD and most of my systems are waiting to find homes, right now.
I can upload the gerbers/github stuff to TD's servers so that in the event of my demise, the community can decide what to do with it all, if that would allay any fears.
Likewise, if a company/seller on this side of the Atlantic wants to take a set of the gerbers and have them made up so people can buy boards, i'm happy for them to do so, but no one has come forward and expressed any interest in doing so.
I also may put the github public again, just not right now.
As it is, i'm almost fully out of the retro scene other than TD and most of my systems are waiting to find homes, right now.
Yes, my bad for having worded in a way that kind of sounded bad.
Sorry about that, Kai. It was not my intention to insinuate that.But in regards to your being almost out of the retro scene, I’m both happy and sad. Sad because you have been an incredible FRIEND to the community. You are a hard-working CREATOR who made some seriously amazing stuff that will stand the test of time.
And yet I am happy for you because your gradual exit is your choice, and exiting this hobby is hard because I see it as an ADDICTION for many, myself included.
Thank you for all you have done, Kai, especially in regards to this forum. Your work speaks highly of the incredible person you are. I mean that sincerely.
Hello,
A long time passed since the last PCB revision. I found 2 errors :
• pin12 from 26L32 (C3) is not connected to GND. It may cause some instability on serial ports.
• pin 25 on internal SCSI connector (J5) is connected to GND. Normally, it should not be connected to GND to prevent a drama if the SCSI connector is reversed plugged.
A long time passed since the last PCB revision. I found 2 errors :
• pin12 from 26L32 (C3) is not connected to GND. It may cause some instability on serial ports.
• pin 25 on internal SCSI connector (J5) is connected to GND. Normally, it should not be connected to GND to prevent a drama if the SCSI connector is reversed plugged.