2 Apr
2011
2 Apr
'11
3:22 p.m.
Hi Steve,
I've just finished restoring a couple of Lisas. My situation was a little
similar to yours. I bought three untested units. There were two Lisa 2's
(minus the profiles) and one was a Lisa 2/10. I knew that the Lisa 2/10 had
a fault in the I/O board and one of the Lisa 2s had a memory issue. The
stack came with an extra power pack and one of the Lisas was missing a video
card. That's all I knew. The lot cost $500 New Zealand dollars (about
$360 US).
I just wanted one Lisa to add to my collection of classic computers. Lisas
are rare in New Zealand. Working ones sell for over $1000 NZ dollars (if
indeed you ever see them for sale). The guy selling these lived close, so
I could pick them up thereby negating shipping costs. Although my skills
with electronics is limited, I figured I could get at least ONE working Lisa
out of this lot. My hope it would be the Lisa 2/10 with the widget.
As it was I managed two of them, although not without a lot of time and some
cost (like new pads for the keyboards and an X/Profile emulator replacement
for the Widget). However, I'm happy with the outcome and felt it was money
and time well spent. I've documented the adventure under the two links
below.
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2011-01-11-salvaging-a-lisa2.htm
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2011-03-05-rejuvenating-a-lisa2-10…
The Lisa is easy to take apart and work on. Also I've found people very
generous with their advice both on this forum and the Goggle Lisa List
forum. The community helped a lot.
Both the Lisa 2s (not the Lisa 2/10) had minor battery damage. Luckily not
enough to damage the I/O board though. They still seem to work even though
corroded bits and pieces could be seen. However, one of the motherboards
(backplane) also has battery damage (the acid leaked from the battery on the
I/O board above it) and this seems to have destroyed some tracks. At the
moment this motherboard is sitting in the spare-parts Lisa. I may try to
repair this at one stage by jumpering the broken tracks under the board.
From what people have told me, vinegar is useful for
cleaning up acid
damaged areas, then followed by rinsing with distilled water (and
careful
and complete drying of course).
I hope these comments help. I've found the Lisas fun machines to work on,
and doing so has given me a good appreciation of their innovative design
(for the time).
Good luck!
Terry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Hirsch" <snhirsch at gmail.com>
To: "Classic Computers Mailing List" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2011 9:02 AM
Subject: Advice on Lisa 2 restoration
Hi,
I have two Lisa 2s in my possession that both exhibit serious corrision
from battery leakage. One is simply bad, the other is about the worst
such situation I've ever laid eyes on.
I was able to remove the battery packs to halt the degradation, but before
I make a bad situation worse I thought I'd ask for some advice on how to
proceed.
I'm also trying to work out what the units might be worth. The deal with
the seller is that I'm free to evaluate their condition and attempt to get
one working unit out of the two. Assuming a nominally functional Lisa 2
with functional 10MB ProFile and fair cosmetic condition, what do folks
think is a fair price for that unit (the owner wants whatever is left
back, functioning or not)?
Prices on eBay are really all over the map, so that's not of much help.
Steve
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