• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.
luRaichu
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  • Screen Shot 2023-11-16 at 5.44.14 PM.png
    Converted the PB 1xx battery .3ds file to stl, is this right??
    3lectr1cPPC
    3lectr1cPPC
    I'd start a thread on this instead of using profile posts - more people will probably see it that way. It's interesting enough to deserve one anyway, plus will make it properly searchable.
    I've contacted this company called "Memory Protection Devices" and after some discourse they want to send me a (sample) 10 AA battery holder, with 2 packs of 5 AA's wired in parallel so thereby outputting 6v. Assuming it fits inside a PB battery case, would anybody actually want these?
    Phipli
    Phipli
    So... What happens to it when your charging circuit kicks in? How far back should I stand?
    LaPorta
    LaPorta
    What’s that for in theory, keeping the RAM alive while you swap batteries? Isn’t a standard PRAM battery fine for that?
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    If I understand what you mean LaPorta, this "custom" 10 AA holder they're making for me is actually meant to be used in a PB 1xx battery rebuild.

    And if you're actually talking about those newfangled memory protection devices... Yeah......
    What kind of AA battery holder do I use in a Powerbook 1XX battery replacement? I'm talking about these things
    1699925612838.png
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    I can't open an stl right now, much less figure out how to measure it in mm (I've been using Blender since 2017). If you can easily get to your PowerBook right now I'd appreciate if you measured it, just bust out the calipers and give me some quick measurements. If not I guess I'll peel into the stl's that've been made
    3lectr1cPPC
    3lectr1cPPC
    I'm not home so I can't measure until later tonight. Also don't have calipers but I do have a ruler.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    So my BlueSCSI v2 tells me I can use it as a ROM drive with my LC... Is there anything useful I can do with a custom ROM? Speed hacks?
    Daniël
    Daniël
    Yes, there's 2MB of flash memory onboard the Pico (not integrated in the RP2040, but as an IC on the Pico's PCB), which can be partially used as a small 1.5MB-ish drive, so about the size of a HD 3.5" floppy disk. As the BlueSCSI documentation mentions, it's mostly useful for a small boot drive or as a small utilities disk, that is always present regardless of whether an SD card (with valid disks) is inserted...
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    Daniël
    Daniël
    ...Seems to be a feature added primarily because the flash storage otherwise goes untouched, I think. The BlueSCSI firmware is stored on the smaller internal programmable memory of the RP2040 microcontroller, as far as I know. And why not? If you have the space, might as well use it :)
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    Yeah, I thought "ROM drive" meant the BlueSCSI could make the LC use a custom ROM instead of the onboard ROM. I was already thinking what I'd change the boot chime to!
    I see there are some cheap 68030's and 040's out there, how hard would it be to build my own PDS card for my Mac LC? Ideally I'd want to re-create a MicroMac Speedster040. However I'm definitely not up to surface mount soldering those ICs
    J
    joshc
    What Phipli said, really. Save up for the money for a 475, it will be less effort and just a better experience overall. The LC and LC II have a low RAM ceiling and with an 040 you'd probably want to put more RAM in there as well. The 475 was the best the LC pizza box machines got.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    Thanks guys, I'll think about it
    Daniël
    Daniël
    Keep in mind, eBay prices of active BIN ads aren't always indicative of what these machines actually sell for. A lot of overpriced stuff rots on eBay for years, and therefore will always appear when you search for specific Macs and such. Keep a look out, set saved searches, and try to look for misspelled/miscategorised ads that might slip under other peoples' radars.
    Attention Mac Hackers: How do I draw custom graphics on the Welcome To Macintosh screen? I don't want a custom StartupScreen, I want to modify the Picasso Mac icon on the original dialog and draw a larger graphic in its place.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    So I guess I’d have to write something in C, compile it, and paste the hexadecimal into the System using ResEdit right?
    C
    cheesestraws
    No, you write something in C, compile it as an INIT, and drop the extension file into the extensions folder. No need to directly muck with the System at all.
    C
    cheesestraws
    This is an INIT I built, for reference: https://github.com/cheesestraws/Force32 it doesn't do graphics other than using showicon to draw its icon, but this is the kind of thing you'd need to build.
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    How do I make the monitor-related control strip modules work in System 7.1.1? I installed the Control Strip control panel from 7.5.3 and it does work except the modules for changing the screen bitdepth/res don't appear at all. Maybe Powerbook 5xx users with 5xx-specific 7.1.1 installed can drop me the older control strip modules?
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    I have the Apple Legacy Recovery CD (which I highly reccomend for installing any system software), so it should be in there. I used the CD to install LC-specific 7.1.1.
    LaPorta
    LaPorta
    If you get this to work, let me know. I have the same issue with mt IIfx that I put the control strip on.
    C
    cheesestraws
    There were some big changes in the way that resolution changes etc worked in 7.5: before 7.5 you can't change resolution "on the fly", for example, you have to reboot. So it doesn't totally surprise me that the monitor control strip gubbins doesn't work.
    I got a BlueSCSI v2 for my LC today. I'm trying to use it to fix the internal Quantum drive, however it isn't appearing on the desktop. I'll try some things and reply back if I get it working.
    Something weird I noticed: My profile says I've left 47 messages on this forum, however counting from the Messages page it's more like 86. Are profile posts counted? Sometimes I also post to 68kmla from w3m on a low-powered SBC (so no Javascript).
    LaPorta
    LaPorta
    I don’t think they are.
    C
    Cory5412
    to the best of my knowledge you're both correct: your "messages" count only counts forum posts and replies, not statuses or gallery comments.
    Are there modern replacements for old PB 180 heatsinks, and how would you go about applying them? My preconceived notion is that heatsink technology has improved over the past 30-some years, and perhaps it would be beneficial to slap on new ones (performance boost[?], less risk of toasting). I don't plan on overclocking.
    sstaylor
    sstaylor
    Did the 180 use those weird rubbery silicon heat sinks? Because I've seen them on Aliexpress
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    That sounds about right. Drop a link if you can find them.
    desertrout
    desertrout
    I think any 5mm thick silicone thermal pad should work - lots on ebay etc
    Wow, I've already achieved "Well-known member" status on this cult/amazing forum. I've only left 45 messages here and I'm probably not that well-known either! And to top that all off, I only own an LC, joined last summer, and am NOT an Apple fan at all. My Apple products are either hand-me-downs or vintage, because somewhere down the line Apple turned evil and stopped making products that last a long time.
    robin-fo
    robin-fo
    My Mid-2010 MBP lasted for 11years… It really was worth its price. I hope my new M1 Pro MBP will be the same.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    IIRC Weren't there incidents where older Intel Macbooks suffered from video chips that just randomly die? Not to mention other disgusting Macbook engineering faults I've heard about before. Then again, my hand-me-down mid-2011 iMac is still working today.
    3lectr1cPPC
    3lectr1cPPC
    Only some of them - the 2011s, and the Early 2008s were the worst offenders I believe.
    Anyone know anything about that company called Mirror? AFAIK they made the Powervision, a mod for video-out-less PBs like the 170 to display on an external monitor, they also made CRTs.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    There's no information on this company yielded by a cursory Google search since they're probably out of buisness and their name is really generic (just like "Meta"). The reason I want to know more about Mirror is that I'd really like to reverse-engineer the Powervision and thought aout contacting former Mirror employees.
    Iesca
    Iesca
    Assuming it's the same Mirror, they also made the Magnum 800k External Floppy Drive and some external hard drives. Their full name is Mirror Technologies.
    Does m68k Linux/BSD support rendering images via the framebuffer? If so, you could run w3m to surf the net on HTTPS and have it display images.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    I guess so, since X accesses the framebuffer directly and I've seen it run on m68k NetBSD.
    I had the strangest dream last night. I saw Windows 7 run on a 68k Mac, but without any of the trademark UI animations. The System control panel said it was running on a Motorola 68030.
    Iesca
    Iesca
    Anything like the OSX-on-a-Centris experiemnt from c.2004?
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    I don't know what you mean by that... but in the dream it ran fairly fast.
    Iesca
    Iesca
    Someone years ago "installed" OSX Panther on a Centris by first installing Linux, then emulating a PPC using PearPC. It took hours for the apple logo to appear, and reportedly it would take a whole week for it to finish booting...
    Man, Powerbook 1xx RAM is expensive. Screw that, I'll just make my own! The most difficult part is sourcing the RAM chips themselves...
    3lectr1cPPC
    3lectr1cPPC
    Silicon insider makes new modules and sells them on eBay, custom new pcbs and such.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    What about using higher capacity chips? Those Hitachi chips are only 512k a pop.
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    https://www.jagshouse.com/ram_guide.html is a good guide on old Mac RAM. However, PowerBook RAM isn't listed here. I counted the pins and it seems that PowerBook 1xx RAM cards are 70-pin, not 72-pin like later model desktop Macs. So is PowerBook 1xx RAM similar enough to those 72-pin Simms?
    What’s the max voltage for PowerBook 140-style batteries?
    pfuentes69
    pfuentes69
    I just made this with two packs of 5xAA
    IMG_4216.jpeg

    I seems to do its job... at least for now. But the battery level is not accurate at all (I think because how these newer batteries keep the voltage when discharging)
    luRaichu
    luRaichu
    How do you wire up those cells as to not give all 12v at once (load balancing)? Newbie here...
    Also, I remember seeing a YouTube video where somebody made a 3d-printed battery replacement for the PB 1xx series and filled it with removable rechargable AAs, I'd like to watch it again but I can't find the video.
    pfuentes69
    pfuentes69
    I just put the two packs in parallel... I guess there can be fancier solutions, but I just wanted something simple and cheap...
    Can you, with modifications, compile Classilla for Mac OS 8.1?
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