weber@brand.UUCP (Allan G. Weber) (03/12/86)
A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) sent me the following
instruction on how to make your own Mini-8 connectors for the serial
ports of the Mac+. The more adventuresome out there may feel like
giving it a try. I haven't tried doing it yet myself so don't send
me any complaints/questions about the process.
Allan Weber
Weber%Brand@USC-ECL
...sdcrdcf!oberon!brand!weber
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For those of you who are cheap (extremely cheap) and daring, here's how
I made an adapter to run my Password modem with the Mac Plus.
1. Cut the eraser off the top of a standard pencil.
2. Place the Mac face down on a table and hold the erase over the
mini 8 connector on the back of the Mac..
3. Stick 8 'sewing straight pins' through the erase and
into the mini 8 connector on the back of the Mac. This
will insure that the pins are in the correct places.
4. Remove the eraser an pins.
5. Cut the heads of the pins leaving 1/4" of pin sticking out the back
of the eraser.
6. Take a 1/4+ inch long piece of drinking straw a slip it over the
top of the eraser so that it is flush with bottom of the eraser and
encloses the pins on top. The inside diameter of the
straw will be too small to go over the eraser. To make it fit,
place the straw over the end of a pair of scissors and force the
scissors open to stretch the straw. If you then quickly slip
the straw over the eraser, it will shrink to form a tight fit.
7. Now for the scary part. Re-insert the assembly into the back of
the Mac and fill the straw with 5 minute epoxy. Be thinking of
the story you will tell your local Apple Dealer to explain how
a bunch of pins and a straw became glued inside the connector on
the back of your Mac. Obviously if you do not have very steady
hands, you could do serious damage to you machine. I had no
problem, but proceed at your own risk.
8. Once the epoxy has set, remove the connector and file the back of
the pins and the straw to make all the pins at the same level. You
can also file the sharp ends of the pins to round the ends a bit.
9. Solder wires to the ends of each of the pins. There is not much
room to do this, so start with the middle pins and work out.
Despite what has been said on the net, it is not that difficult
if you have a good soldering iron.
10. Place a second piece of straw over the connector and wires, and
again fill it with epoxy to hold the wires permanently in place.
11. Attach you favorite DB-25 or other connector to other end.
This actually makes a very nice adapter. It took about an hour
to make, so you would have to be either very desperate or very cheap
to want to go to all this trouble. I am/was both.
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