Greetings from Switzerland with broken NextCube

Dear NextFriends

Since nearly 20 years I was thinking about buying a NextCube. And 2019 it finally happened and I bought a 1988 first edition Cube with monitor and keyboard. It was (is) a lot of fun playing around with this revolutionary machine and letting visitors guess how old the system is based on its usability.

Still a big fan of the system and happy to join this forum.

But as the subject mentions, at some point the machine didn't turn on anymore. I was always like "I shouldn't put it right in the lobby for everyone to touch" but didn't get my self to lock it behind a glas box.

So now I started my journey trying to fix it. It doesn't give any indication of turning on. As the keyboard was/is broken from the beginning, I'm not sure if it's just the Keyboard not sending the signal to turn on. I didn't find any other way to turn the machine on but with the keyboard. I also didn't find a way to connect the keyboard to the machine without the monitor. The other guess would be the power supply. I usually unplugged it, but for a while we forgot and it was connected to a plug strip which got turned on and off twice a day.

A simple step would be to try finding all parts again and replace each to check which is the problem (monitor, keyboard or cube) as everything is connected.

Any suggestions or hints would be very welcome.

Greetings from Switzerland
Jonas

Welcome Jonas!

If you wanted to test just system powerup, and eliminate the keyboard being possibly broken from the equation, you can use the information in the link: https://www.netbsd.org/ports/next68k/faq.html#no-monitor to just power up the cube from the DB19 port directly. I have done this on my slabs to confirm basic power-on without a keyboard before. You can also potentially just check the resistance across these pins off the cable that goes to the cube from the monitor and see if you see the change when pressing the keyboard's power button.

It is also important to note that the 3 volt BR-2/3A battery must be installed and operational for the system to power up. So you should pop your battery out and check its voltage. If the battery is bad, or missing, you can still source the BR-2/3A battery through a electrical component supplier or a seller that specializes in batteries. However, in a pinch, you can use a CR123A battery as a replacement. It is a bit too large so the fit isn't quite correct but at least would let you see if its the source of your power-on issues.

I am sure there are some other tips and tricks this community can provide to directly test the PSU, etc. But hopefully these two simple tests may help.

Good Luck!