< returns from woods with an armload of firewood . . .
) >
< mod mode >
The 68kMLA is a place to LEARN/ASK questions from others for help when you're scratching your head and thinking: WTDickens do I do now!?!
The ONLY stupid question here is the one that doesn't get asked! :approve:
The mods will not tolerate any member belittling another for their
"ignorance," which is the state of every comrade here, or we wouldn't have enlisted. That was the attitude during the Q&A sessions at the beginning of every monthly meeting of NYMUG, snickers from "know-it-all" types were were stomped immediately and HARD! Ignorance of the rules was not an excuse! The same holds true at LetterHead meets. (SignPainters who wish to learn from and share knowledge about the craft w/each other)
< /mod mode >
I haven't got anything even remotely similar to the EE chops of some of the members here, I'm self educated on the entire subject of electronics and computers and I've had a grand total of ONE adult ed night class on programming in Basic that I took with my (wonderful) ex on the neighborhood Middle School's TRS-80 Type IIIs.
What little I know comes from reading a LOT, asking LOTS of questions and
obstinately researching ways to implement the, notoriously over the top, hack posssibilities I've suggested over the years . . .
. . . which were quite often termed totally
IMPRACTICAL, if not
IMPOSSIBLE! }
Dr. Bob and Eudimorphodon (now comrade Gorgonops AKA: EudiG) were my hackin' mentors over on 'fritter back in the day! :approve:
Thanks again for all your help along the way, comrade EudiG! :-*
)
As for my very first hack, I knew almost nothing about
actually doing electronics when I came up with, and then suggested to my more knowledgeable friends, the notion of configuring RAM to "act like" the ROM on my font cartridges. I had a "standard," third generation, Vinyl Letter/Film Cutting and Paper Patterning Making Machine. When the MacSignMaker add-on package was released I jumped on it, simply because it was
not from the company who sold the
run-of-the-mill . . .
. . . if
somewhat customized [
] ]'> . . . Drum Plotter/Workstation we were using.
I convinced my partner that if it didn't work as well as advertised, what really does . . . :
. . . it would still pay for itself within a year just by computerizing the labor it took to transfer artwork/logos into the full size perforated paper patterns used in the painting process.
A year or two later, this rudimentary system was the key to the Font Emulator hardware's development process.
< swerves back on topic >
The most practical notions for a 68k USB interface I've come up with so far would be:
1) an external SCSI device
2) a card similar to the "pull the PGA CPU from its socket/moving it to the DOS on Mac Daughtercard's while installing" approach.
The former being a usable device across all SCSI equipped Macs, having readily available space, all required signals available for a ribbon cable tap, and a handy PSU connection for the ubiquitous Y Cable tap within any external drive housing and a well documented, clearly defined General Purpose, Industry Standard I/O Specification with stock PCB component availability.
The latter's most appealing quality would be its ALSO being the "perfect" spot for a multipurpose (clock multiplier enabled a/o Proc TYPE) CPU Swap Hack, Memory Hack & general I/O Hack
prototyping board for '020, '030 & '040 based Macs.