TinkerTales from the crypt . . .

[Trash80toG4]

Technology available to us for tinkering has advanced by leaps and bounds since the G4 era. Mac hacking and most any other kind of tinkering has benefited so very much from advances in 2D and 3D CAD/CAM since I made the move from the Big Apple to the Bermuda Triangle of NC.

So much has happened in the world of available TinkerTech these past ten years.The revolutionary Raspberry Pi, its tenth anniversary this year, has led to major sea changes in parts availability, prototyping equipment/methods, design tools and the burgeoning services market grown in making use of those changes.

Filament printing on the desktop being one of the most popular, if not my thing has been amazing. CNC routing and milling are right up my alley, been a CNC Drum Plotter guy since before the Mac was released, doing PostScript Graphics for that since Fontographer on a Fat Mac in 1987.

I'll be posting many of my crazy projects, conceptual and actual from the last couple of decades in this thread. Maybe some will go the dedicated development thread fork route, not many for the time being. Quality time with the massive buildup of trinkets-n-toys from the decades from 1984 to 2004 will remain limited until after I retire sometime in the next couple of years. Much was lost to the flying fickle finger of fate in 2007, but much of the cream of the crop was spared. More has been obtained while the getting was good in the last fifteen years.

The time seems right to attempt to re-document hacks content lost. Hopefully some folks will get a kick out of this and maybe a few will take some cues and run off in different tinkering directions with them. I'm hoping so.

 

[Trash80toG4]

This one has its attached pics intact:

A little bit of Lisa . . .

. . . just a front bezel, but that's about all I could afford . . . . . . I've seen this in a couple of search hits: http://www.macgeek.org/museum/applelisa1/ http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?2780-My-Collection-%28PIX%29 What's a PTA Prototype?

68kmla.org

Been thinking about the LisaP variant too much today while I should really be packing . . .

It'll look more like this:

Depth will be determined by 5.25" Laptop Optical Drive dimensions or the thickness of the two PCI Cards in the 6400 riser behind the LCD mounting panel, whichever is less. Standard 3.5" FDD goes where it goes.

 

[Trash80toG4]

 

[Trash80toG4]

Front Bezel will swing out like so for access to Optical, ZIP and USB/Firewire Solid State drive module in 5.25 bay format. As for the Logic Board housing setup, the LCD assy will be hinged as well for removal of the 6500 board from the front.

credit to @joethezombie and his Avatar for the swinging doors inspiration.
Was thinking about going that way and . . .

 

[-SE40-]

…… so many projects……So many options.

Why not flip it up?
Like a convertible
Hinges can then be fabricated much easier.
Then you dont have make the backcasing edge smaller……(there where it closes)

Looking forward (to) follow your projects.

Greetings,
Chris.

 

[-SE40-]

Here someting I found inspiring…..

Modern Retro Computer Terminals - The Works of Oriol Ferrer Mesià

Design, 3D-print and assemble several small computers.

uri.cat

maybe you appreciate this stuff too?

 

[Trash80toG4]

Absolutely, but It'd be better to have that in a dedicated "Inspirations" thread for all to post I think. Get one started.

This thread is dedicated to re-documenting my own two decades running backlog hacks projects. Adding up to date rapid prototyping and SBC/accessory tweakage is the aim in regaling all (ROTFL) with Tales from the Crypt.

Thanks for the comments though, assembling Pic of the Lisa version. Thanks for giving me the notion to switch LisaP(ismo) back to 6x00 in your project SE-40 project.Loose-Pics-n-files New pics coming up.

You'll see why LisaP, TwiggyMac and a couple of others to be posted will be hinged on the left side.

 

[Trash80toG4]

BenchMacXL

12" RGB PizzaTopper BenchMac w/Peripherals Shed attached.

Rudimentary Sheet metal fab using hand tools. 12" Wiss Seamer tryout success. OMG I so miss my box and pan brake.

This is the BenchMac that was to be replaced in order to get the beautiful 17" Sony Trinitron from the rug rat's desk setup out of the other half of the HackHutch . . .

Currently available 10.4" 1024x768 IPS Display/Controller Bundle's are now available for under a hundred bucks. So this one won't be happening. LisaP(ismo) concept will be Rolled into this config, if much less deep. I can probably recycle the sheet metal, no biggie to whack it back and reseam and bend the bits for prototyping.

Sides will be water jetted to look like as much like the ProtoLisa's sheet metal. Single walnut foot is a no-brainer as is a USB port replacing the KBD connector on the left side, or maybe just ADB, we'll see.

Project exhumed from December, 21 2016, Not sure when this concept implementations was started. See above for the March 2013 snag of my Little bit of Lisa.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Glad to see you guys like this stuff!

Though really tempting, decided that LisaP is much easier crated up and moved as the bare Lisa2 bezel. The guts of the 12" RGB 'zaTopper will be easier to crate up as is in its "new" sheet metal can with its plastics packed up with the lighter equipment headed therein.

That'd be a 1400c project never documented IIRC? Panel and MoBo housed within the 12" RGB's plastics with FDD and CD in the LC shell underneath. Hopes would be to tie all 32bits downstream of the PBX bus Bridge together as they are in the Duo System. ROMs of Duo 2300c and 1400 are much the same if not identical along with those of the 5300 series. We'll see if I can wedge a pair of NuBus Slots into that 1400c kluge? Yet another windmill to tilt, impossible dreams have a quality all their own!

So further development's on hold on both fronts until my big move.

Year 68 fast approaches and the wonderful GRlf wants to buy me something for one specific project. If I choose from one or two specific LCD bundles that one can be taken down several different and equally interesting paths. Since it's a PowerBook housed project, crating problems will not be a consideration!

So the 10.4" 1024x768 RPi LCD bundle for LisaP is again backburnered along with the little bit of Lisa.

I love that this thread is allowing me to dredge up hacks from the long past and relating them to updated made possible by present and hopefully future technological opportunities.

 

[Trash80toG4]

From ten years ago: ZipMacPlus™
Amazingly enough, all the pics documenting the process in the original thread remain intact!

ZipMacPLUS™

I'm stuck home with bronchitis again . . . :p . . . and I was bored . . . ::) . . . so . . . }:) . . . it's difficult to imagine that the much uglier of the two Plus front bezels wound up looking so much better than the good one. Other than the degradations...

68kmla.org

Cliff Notes recap:

Don't recall if this converter design is correct or not? ISTR I corrected the booboo I made in the original sketch I did, but matters not @360alaska has a converter available for sale? Got pics? Free advert post requested.

Time better spent doing the adapter PCB planned for bolting up to the Zip's DB25 ports converting them to standard 2x25 IDC ribbon cable I/O setup. Could probably add BlueSD thingie to the vertical PCB. That's make it more visuall interesting in my open air Plus Bucket.

New development by @andrew resurfaced today at the MLA:

WIP - 3D printable enclosure for Iomega ZIP 100 drive

Most owners of zip 100 drives know how brittle the plastic becomes over time. You cannot even open the case without braking most of the holding clips. In the direction of preserving my two drives (one parallel and one scsi) I have begun to model a new case. Please note that my 3d modelling...

68kmla.org

Adapting your printed base model will make things so much easier than the crazy hacking of the original case I did. What struck me most about it was the prospect of HDD/SD installation provision underneath.

Mine's safely tucked away in a project box, don't recall if I ever made the clear plexi lid for it?

No serviceable Macintosh Plus cases were harmed in an absurd number of hacks done in the past decade or so. VisibleMacPlus™ corroded chassis and vent melted bucket were fair game and would be even these days I think. It has a storied past and currently houses the guts of a 10" Color CRT that awaits a custom neck board dissection/relocation adapter so it will fit withing the cubic available in a BacPaq HDD case bolted up to the back of SE or SE/30 bucket.

 

[-SE40-]

Hi,
Just wondering how your Plus project with the Zipdrive ended?
Great idea!

 

[360alaska]

Here it is: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/macintosh-plus-internal-scsi-mod.7955/


I guess I could make some if someobdy wants me to, otherwise here is the files need to order a pcb and build your own: https://drive.google.com/drive/fold...ourcekey=0-_50qFcBJZHxDAeyh187zuA&usp=sharing

 

[Trash80toG4]

Thanks, love it! Looks like my PCB proposal might have been a bit too wide to fit the headers between the connector and the Controller?

Is termination power provided on the SCSI Controller Chip with no connection made from it to the DB25 on the Plus? That was my assumption, I see you've hotwired it from the logic board?

Hi,Just wondering how your Plus project with the Zipdrive ended? Great idea!

Thanks, but like so many of my projects, it's apparently never ending. Haven't tested it with a SCSI mechanism, but the Parallel Port version worked fine when I had my little ATOM board in there for a while. I've got one or two USB externals in that same enclosure, one's bus powered and one uses the standard cable/adapter setup.

Heaven only knows what else will make its way through the VisibleMacPlus™ after finally I move that big CRT out of it . . . or not?

 

[-SE40-]

Scsi internal for my Plus would be great….
Apple never made something for that?

Youre a real busy guy, with very interresting projects/ideas.

Respect!

 

[retr01]

Scsi internal for my Plus would be great….Apple never made something for that?

I agree! It would be nice. The LB circuitry design on the Mac 128k, 512, and Plus before the Mac SE and SE/30 didn't allow for a 50-pin SCSI ribbon connector. Drat.

Cheers!

 

[retr01]

Yet, by modern tinkering, a piggyback on the SCSI chip to have an internal SCSI connector for the Mac Plus LB.

Macintosh Plus Internal SCSI MOD

Hey all, I've been working on a way to connect a SCSI2SD internally to a Macintosh Plus, I'm still waiting on a right angle 50-pin header so it will fit in the case but here's what I have so far: Step 1: Install a header Step 2: Install the circuit board and connect to GND and TPWR(with...

68kmla.org

Now that's cool!

 

[Trash80toG4]

Out of the crypt, another blast from the past! My pet IIfx became a IIfx/CD Stealth Style

When I'm playing with the Pet IIfx, it's usually with lid popped and NuBus Cards strewn about. The Optical comes in handy.

Hanging batlike, out of sight, out of mind, dwells the HDD boot drive in the cavernous crypt below.

Has to have been about thirteen years ago. Got tired of having a mess of boxes, cables and power cords scattered across the bench, seemed a good fit.

 

[lilliputian]

What is the drive in floppy slot 2? Or the thing on top of floppy drive 1?? These are the questions that need answering!

 

[Trash80toG4]

LOL! No other questions about this one?

That's a manual inject FDD just sitting there temporarily. The original autoinjector was acting wonky at the time. Worked fine, installed it for a while. You can push the floppy in with your fingertip most part, once in a while a I had to poke it with something to get it to inject properly. Ejection's not a problem.A good autoinjector has been swapped in there now. You've reminded me, I'll have to track down the failure of one of the FDD connections, not that it's needed.

Fit's too tight to install a stealth internal Zip drive, but those are reserved for other boxes anyway. Lid's open anyway, so an external sits nicely on the Optical. Backburnerd project involves an internal IDC50 cable to external DB25 adapter removed from its ISA backplane bracket. A gender changer in between will some day make for ease of use. Parts on hand, but need to tinker with a power cable adaptation to dispense with the lump-onna-rope requirement. That'll be almost as handy as an internal Zip. Cables will reside in the IIfx' cable monster.

Still need to hook up one of the Savvio SCA drives to the Fast SCSI ATTO card, but the pet IIfx is a TLC work in progress.
_____________________________________

Just sitting on the FDD is a Type II PCMCIA HDD I used in my PowerBooks for troubleshooting before I was finally able to switch over to Compact Flash/Adapter in Type I format. That setup allows use as boot drive with WiFi card installed at the same time.

 

[lilliputian]

A IIfx with wifi... :O