Cube serial numbers

I have a crazy thought, i was cleaning one of my cubes when i noticed that the power supply has a production date. I also noticed that the cube serial number is pretty close to the power supply serial number.

Mine:
Cube serial # AAK0003803 Power Supply production date: 8903
Cube serial # AAK0005559 Power Supply production date: 8906
Cube serial # AAK0017541 Power Supply production date: 9001

Power supply failures during production or warranty repairs will skew the numbers, but might give a general production run by year, thoughts?

Along with another person on this forum, I've kicked around the idea of starting a Hardware Registry that would capture not just serial #, but any other data -- such as production date.  I'll try to work on getting this up soon, but does anyone have any interest in such an idea?

I would.
We can include what would be default configurations as well.

I have the official sales catalog which includes the standard configurations along with part numbers for them.

I'm sure that very few machines are standard any more, but it's be useful to have a list.

Great gtnicol, that would come in handy.
Now, how to gather everyone's information.
After gathering it can be just a simple Excel spreadsheet dropped into the Next file archive then?

I'm working on a little HTML form which posts the results to a shared Google Spreadsheet.  If we capture manufacture date (YYMM), we can actually graph the number of machines over time.

I'm starting small with just Cubes and Slabs -- about the only tricky issue is, a lot of early 030 Cubes were later upgraded with 040 boards.  So I'm tempted to say:

-- If your Cube says NeXT Computer on the back, treat it as an original 030, no matter what motherboard it has in it now.

-- If your Cube says NeXT Cube on the back, treat it as an 040.

Is this a good way to proceed?

Naturally there will be a way to record motherboard serials too, and manufacture dates, but as a proof-of-concept I thought I'd start small and then build out more. Gtnicol has a lot of great info about all the different hardware variations at the component level (optical drive, etc), and hopefully this empirical data can give us more insight into all Black hardware.

I'm wondering if it mightn't be useful to track some of this stuff at the component level? I know there are many different models of motherboards etc.

Definitely agree -- we need to go down to the component level wherever possible.  This is just a proof-of-concept to see if the idea of collecting serial #'s over the web, and putting them into a Google Spreadsheet, will work.  

Once I debug this (should have something ready for use by tomorrow) we can build out a whole hierarchy of components that we want to track. Maybe we can use this thread to brainstorm -- what components are inside a Cube?

-Power Supply
-Optical Drive
-Motherboard
-Floppy
-SCSI Disk (probably most interestingly the original 330/660 MB full-height drives)
-40meg Winchester caching drive

If this site hasn't been noticed yet, it's proved useful for referencing part numbers in the past:

http://nextstuff.info/db/ByManufacturer/

OK, two questions about dates:

1) do all Cubes have datestamps on the inside back cover? (My 030 does).

2) The date information on the cube power supplies is underneath the bottom lip -- you just tilt the cube up slightly with the back off to see it, right?

And one question about the Turbo Cubes: These had the same N1000A model number as the 25Mhz 040 cubes, correct?

Almost done!



This is just a start -- we'll eventually have a system to do individual components.  But I figured a low-hanging fruit was the serial numbers and date stamps of cubes and power supplies.  These are rarely separated, and exist even when an optical drive has died and been discarded, or a motherboard has been upgraded.

Wow that app is awesome...

Also my cubes do not have a production date inside the back panel, only the power supply has a production date...

Try looking inside the case after taking out the central metal cage -- one of my cubes had it stamped inside the removable back panel, and another was hidden where you would never see it unless you removed the metal drive cage...

Just noticed -- optical drives enumerate both their Drive ROM and Serial ROM numbers at boot. (Mine are both "v8").  Anyone else have different numbers? We should capture these when we record OD serial numbers. (I'll build a special system for those drives).

I don't think the drive ROM versions change.

No luck on the production dates after i removed the power supply and cage, only a QC stamp

is the form up yet? would be interesting to see what a cubes max serial number might be.  ive read 50k next machines were made on a couple forums, would be interesting to disect roughly, how many are cubes vs stations....

Sorry for the delay on this! Why don't we verify the data structure first, with this shared spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlglRexbIUWodHo0dEoxMHY3dFhmMzVxdmFMMG4zZUE

Feel free to enter as much info as you can/want, and we can see if this captures the correct fields?

The obvious thing this doesn't have is Motherboard Serial/Date, but because 030 Cubes were often upgraded to 040, I think it makes sense to track Motherboards on a separate sheet.

Then we can move on to a separate sheet for Slabs, Monitors, etc...

I actually have a personal spreadsheet much like this. Things like power supplies, mice, keyboard etc. should all be tracked if possible. There are a number of variations of non-ADB keyboards/mice, for example.

FWIW. Even within a specific model of motherboard there may be differences... I'm often surprised by how much variation there is in NeXt machines.

Ancient thread but anyway; I added mine to the spreadsheet:
ABA0003091    Jun-21-1991

and noticed a previous entry:
ABA0002782    Jun-17-1991

So 309 serial numbers in four days (a bit over 70 computers/day?) - thought this was interesting.

From my post https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=4987.msg29569#msg29569 I can report for my cube:

N1000A   Serial ABA0001221

The cube has one board, the PYRO accelerator upgrade and an Apple single-speed CDROM drive installed.

I do not know the case date-stamp.

Now that I've seen this post, I thought, I'd throw my two cubes into the spreadsheet as well:

• an original NeXT computer (1988) serial AAK0005867 (power supply AAB0004737), equipped with an optical drive and a 330 MB Maxtor drive, all still working
   
• a NeXT TurboCube with ND, housed in a refurbished NeXT computer case from 1989 (serial AAK0016264, power supply AAB0013060)

I don't see a production date on either of the power supplies I have. What do those look like?

---

Quote from: blackbeauty on October 02, 2024, 04:18:34 AMNow that I've seen this post, I thought, I'd throw my two cubes into the spreadsheet as well:

• an original NeXT computer (1988) serial AAK0005867 (power supply AAB0004737), equipped with an optical drive and a 330 MB Maxtor drive, all still working
   
• a NeXT TurboCube with ND, housed in a refurbished NeXT computer case from 1989 (serial AAK0016264, power supply AAB0013060)

I don't see a production date on either of the power supplies I have. What do those look like?

As a matter of fact, I have another harness harboring a 983 power supply with the number AAB0014543. That one is waiting for an empty Cube case as black shelter ;) If you know of any lonely Cube case on the market, please let me know...

Added my machine's details to the sheet. i'm glad to see it's still online.

Quote from: blackbeauty on October 02, 2024, 04:18:34 AMI don't see a production date on either of the power supplies I have. What do those look like?

Have a look under the very bottom lip of the power supply, you don't have to remove the supply from the cube; where the bottom of the psu meets the case there's a lip/bevelled depression - the date should be written in there.