Blackbird PCMCIA Module: worth setting out on a clone quest?

[Trash80toG4]

Has anyone got really high resolution scans of the parts? Never seen 'em.

I've been playing with a 1400 PCMCIA cage/daughtercard to Duo HDD bay transplant about as long as the MLA has been around. Just occurred to me that the TREX ASIC would either be on the Blackbird module or would be compatible with the module and its earlier iteration. Can't imagine the assembly not fitting into the Blackbird's bay?

Assuming dead battery husk availability, building the adapter board to hook it up in the Blackbird bay would only be connector limited. Is that an available part or scavenged/repurposed?

Removing the TREX/Card Cage from a 1400 is fully reversible and there are plenty of plastic sharded 1400 lids, boards and cases that can be stored for future repairs.

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Hope you folks don't mind me posting another impossible dream that I don't even have the hardware to pursue? This one popped into my head just this morning. Has anyone looked into this already? Are there enough in the wild that this is silly to pursue? I have a feeling that's not the case and thinking that it's highly desirable? I've got some Blackbird bits, but no 'Books.

I've got a notebook (most of it between my ears) full of notions for hacks that I can't afford to try now and probably never will.

 

[Trash80toG4]

@lilliputian it was just the title of your old thread that set me off this morning. Just read the thread and it seems the PCMCIA cage is rare enough to play with here?

 

[lilliputian]

Here is a thread from a few years ago in which MLA user Charadis does a teardown of a Rev. C module, the most useful module, since it is compatible with Wifi PC cards:

PowerBook 500 series PCMCIA module Rev C teardown

Hopefully, this would come in handy for anyone curious about the PCMCIA module made for the PowerBook 500 series. I've posted as many pictures from various angles of the board assembly and parts (in case anyone has interest in planning modifications and how much space is inside the module) as I...

68kmla.org

 

[lilliputian]

It is indeed quite rare, or at least people are holding on to the ones that are left, as when they do pop up for sale on ebay, they end up going for hundreds of dollars (way too much, imo).

 

[Trash80toG4]

Aha, thank you! From Charadis' credit, it looks like I came up with the crazy notion the assemblies might be compatible in a previous lifetime. I said then that I didn't think an adaptation would be possible. But now I think it might be done, go figure.

Connector limited project: I'll take a wild guess that unobtanium Blackbird card cages are the only thing that plugs into its PDS?

If no connectors are available, I feel a REALLY ugly bodge a'brewin' here.


edit: is that connector/pinout documented?

 

[lilliputian]

Ah you were in that thread! How funny.

While it would be nice to have a card cage for my 540c, it's not something I'm holding out for, unless it happens to stumble into my lap somehow. More of a novelty to me than strictly useful; there are plenty of ways of shuffling data to/from a Blackbird, including getting it online. But if a new one were developed for a reasonable price, it would be something I would consider!

 

[retr01]

Mmmm, the Blackbird. I had one in college years ago, a PB 520c. I remember accidentally spilling orange juice, which flowed on the keyboard. Luckily, an engineering student in the same dorm building, who was geekier than I, was able to clean up the logic board using IPA 91 or 99%, and it worked just fine.

I sold it to someone overseas for about $2,000 the following year—my first sale via the Internet.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Ah you were in that thread! How funny.

LOL! I've had my nose poking into just about anything interesting in hacks and peripherals over there.
Those two forums were my turf as a mod back in the day.

You may be right. Thinking about it, I don't see PCMCIA as much more than a novelty for the Blackbird at this point. SCSI/SD solutions make adapted CF storage no biggie nowadays?

Blackbird has Ethernet on board, so that could be adapted to wireless w/o PCMCIA NIC, no?

Still gotta get it into my 2300c though!

 

[lilliputian]

Blackbird has Ethernet on board, so that could be adapted to wireless w/o PCMCIA NIC, no?

Exactly. The built-in ethernet makes it a godsend. Annoying that it used Apple's proprietary AAUI connector, but at least it's not that difficult to find an AAUI-to-RJ45 Ethernet tranceiver.

 

[wottle]

It is indeed quite rare, or at least people are holding on to the ones that are left, as when they do pop up for sale on ebay, they end up going for hundreds of dollars (way too much, imo).

That's crazy. I ended up trading my rev C to someone on Reddit for a Mac Plus. Fortunately the Mac Plus was easily restored to a working state and when I opened it up to do so, I found there was a 030 accelerator in there. So probably a fair trade...

I still have an earlier rev one in my PowerPC upgraded 540c, just won't be able to do wifi.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, the revC module face plate is not compatible with the earlier revs. The size is slightly different. I was trying to give him the faceplate with working doors and no damage, as the rev C one was cracked and the plastic holding the band that keeps the doors closed were snapped off. Could not get the module to snap closed with the other faceplate installed.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Interesting, didn't know Rev.C was the only one capable of supporting a Wifi card. The major difference I see between 1400/5x0 implementations would be the IR hardware.

Assuming the T-REX ASIC to be identical, that ROM on the Blackbird modules looks like a system patch to me?

Has anyone tried booting the a Blackbird from the 190 ROM? WAG would be 190 ROM is a superset/subset of the Blackbird ROM? Modem/Ethernet deleted in hardware check and full function PCMCIA and IR added?

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< tangent mode > < for a change! >

I think I've come up with a far better project for the Card Cage/Battery compartment, far and away outside my skill set!

Been playing with the Blackbird base unit I snagged since falling down that MLA rabbit hole. As I said above, things have changed so much since then that the card cage itself may be outdated?

My base unit is missing only the lid and some screws I think. The most interesting thing I've discovered would be that the SCSI cable folds down, snakes under the chassis and faces up into the battery bay!

So I've been looking at 3D images in my caffeine deprived brain in morning musing mode again. I see a printed endcap/PCB chassis with kissy lipped removable SD card slot and cubic to spare?

SCSI->Ethernet->WiFi might be workable? But AAUI bodge wired there or into the HDD bay would be a lot better, if not plug-n-play reversible? In either case the WiFi antenna would snake under the chassis in the same location and be hot glue dolloped to the base lid in that nice wide trough between trackpad and KBD lip.

Dunno where such a WiFi rig for PowerBooks might be. Is anything in development or already available?

@eric whatcha think? Reformatting BlueSCSI to plonk down onto the Blackbird's SCSI cable connector folded down into the battery bay would work? Support for a full size SD card behind my proposed printed, kissy-lipped endcap/chassis might be worth a look?