Apple Interactive TV Box

[Strimkind]

Another one on eBay.

But this one has a video card I have not seen before. Or did I miss a post about it on here. I know mine never had one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iTV-Set-Top-Box-Developer-Prototype-with-factory-DB15-Video-Card-/271762146859

Of all the research I have done on this particular unit from Apple's history, I have never seen that video card before.  That one piece there is unique. A pinout of that card vs the port would allow creative people here to figure out how it is used and possible craft an adapter.

 

[unity]

I too can not find info on this card.

All I can say is that Micro Conversions closed in 1999 and was bought up by iWonder. Of course that seems to be a dead end too.

Micro Conversions, Inc. is closed.

5/27/1999 

Micro Conversions, Inc. has ceased operations. All Game Wizard™ products, technology rights and support have been picked-up by iWonder, Inc. As soon as possible, details will be available at www.iwonderinc.com - 817-496-6337 - 817-496-6339 (fax) - toll free sales: 877-237-8622 (877-BestMac). 

iWonder is currently developing additional really-cool Mac™ products. The iWizard™ line will be their flagship product until those new products yield. 

Other Micro Conversions' products are still in negotiation for ongoing support. More details will become available over the next week or so. In any case, NuBus and PDS cards won't be made in the future and those were the _last_ of their kind. There may be an interruption in Game Wizard availability, so those in the channel should be bought ASAP. 

Needless to say, the Micro Conversions' $40 Manufacturer's Mail-in Rebate is gone.

 

[unity]

Well it sold. Time will tell if it was someone active in the community.

 

[haplain]

Wasn't me but without the correct ROM don't think it's going to matter. That card though, IS really cool. We are so close with the ROM chips I have I don't think it will be long before we get one working

 

[unity]

I asked the seller for a couple more photos of the card since it sold. Not sure if they will be willing to. I just hate to see when things like this vanish into the collectors black hole. I understand some dont like to share, which I never understood.

 

[Macdrone]

Could it also be a serial port?  Or network port?  for games or controls of some sort?

 

[unity]

The seller awesomely provided more picture of the unit. I have many more than this, but since its the card that is most interesting I have included some here.

 

[Paralel]

I do remember reading about a video card that was used in DEV models, it allowed for output to a traditional monitor.

 

[Performa450]

Did anyone get any further with booting here? I'd be interested to get mine running

 

[switch998]

Reviving this because I do have a booting unit. It doesn't do much, it asks for a PIN code, and I don't have a remote to proceed.

It has one of the video cards, but it never displays anything. I dumped the EPROM on the video card, which identifies it as a "1616CE by Apple Computer", it also shows it was "Written by Stephane Huaulme". I attached the ROM below.

The Xilinx XC4000 FPGA boots off of a 512Kb EPROM, which I've also dumped and attached. This identifies the device as a "Video Architecture Group A4 Xilinx". I assume this FPGA just drives the video output and not much else. My device is set up for PAL, so keep that in mind if flashing the attached ROM dump.

Initially, I had purchased this to dig into the network port and upload code to it. After doing so, I realized I wasn't seeing any data come out of there. The port receives E1 data, but also includes a full duplex RS422 port for control. It would appear that my box is waiting for the PIN code to be entered before authorizing itself over RS422 and then downloading the main application.

In either case, I am stalled until I can get something to input a PIN with. And I don't have a ROM simm programmer to read back the ROM and inspect it.

Also, a note on the remote control. The STB contains a Sony SBX1810-51 IR Receiver, so I decided to try a few Sony remote codes. The LED flashes orange when using a Sony TV code on a universal remote control, however nothing actually corresponds to a button press. Perhaps someone will be able to find a suitable device to use w/ a universal remote.

 

[switch998]

Some progress... I had to recap my TV box before I could get some life from the serial port.

After entering a PIN, the STB sends a heartbeat of

OAAppl|STB3|1.0t|3333|
^^
Vendor (or OMO card file name ?) | Model | Version | Pin Code |

I am not able to send serial data back to the STB, so it must be expecting the response over the T1/E1 port. With the unit plugged into a T1 CSU, it no longer fails to 'no connection' after inputting a pin. The STB shows 'verifying' after some time, and sends back "SB" (stop broadcast?) via the serial port.

I am having some trouble getting data pushed to the STB and I believe this is becuase my box is actually an E1 unit. Is anyone able to dump their FPGA PROM (the socketed DIP package) from an NTSC/T1 set top? I would be very grateful.

The network port pinout is as follows. You can build your own cable, it is not a standard T1 port pinout. Pin assignment:
1 -> RS-422 RX+
2 -> RS-422 RX-
3 -> RS-422 TX-
4 -> T1 / E1 RX+
5 -> T1 / E1 RX-
6 -> RS-422 TX+
7 -> NC
8 -> NC

I wound up just splitting out the RS-422 wires and terminating the unused pairs to an RJ45 straight through.

Note there are no T1 transmit signals above. Data transmission is done only over RS-422, the T1/E1 network is using the downstream only, and the LIU is placed into "receive only mode" by pulling MODE, RESET and LOOP pins high, and TPOS and TNEG low.

 

[Jockelill]

So, I got one of these in my hands. It was bought here locally, but belongs to @jajan547 who has kindly let me play with it for a while before shipping to him .

This one actually boots (no picture of that yet here, but will show later) and asks for a pin code. I have dumped the ROM (also attached) and was able to extract the system in it which can be opened as a second disk with another system in Basilisk II. The system is a very minimal version of System 7.1 that contains to special drivers, guessing these two are there to activate video output when doing dev-work.

This is an old dev unit, so it has the 2MB ROM. Travelling now, so will be until the weekend before I can play with it again. According to what I have read so far, it only accepts 2MB ROMs, but if you have a BMOW or CayMac ROM (and programmer) it might be worth testing installing the attached ROM into one of the "production units" that came with the green ROM.

 

[switch998]

So, I got one of these in my hands. It was bought here locally, but belongs to @jajan547 who has kindly let me play with it for a while before shipping to him .

This one actually boots (no picture of that yet here, but will show later) and asks for a pin code. I have dumped the ROM (also attached) and was able to extract the system in it which can be opened as a second disk with another system in Basilisk II. The system is a very minimal version of System 7.1 that contains to special drivers, guessing these two are there to activate video output when doing dev-work.

This is an old dev unit, so it has the 2MB ROM. Travelling now, so will be until the weekend before I can play with it again. According to what I have read so far, it only accepts 2MB ROMs, but if you have a BMOW or CayMac ROM (and programmer) it might be worth testing installing the attached ROM into one of the "production units" that came with the green ROM.

That must have been the one on eBay. It looks like the ROM dump is the same as the one I have (also from Telia), the md5sum is the same.

I have been poking around in the Finder app, which handles the ITV UI. I can't figure out exactly what the app is expecting to receive back from the server after sending out the pin code. It looks like the "finder" handles setting up the video output, then executes a PLUG resource that handles the code download and UI. I used m68kdasm to disassemble the PLUG, but it does not look correct, and I don't know what created it so I'm stuck here for now beyond sending random data to the unit. Perhaps someone could offer some insight into that?

 

[Jockelill]

Yes, from eBay . @jajan547 bought it, but since it was in Sweden (and I live here), it did a transit over my shop .

I haven't disassembled the ROM yet (got the machine on Monday and on a business trip now), but I have some experience of hacking other Mac ROMs, so there are some similarities. The standard RAM test is at A191C for instance (change 7000 to 4ED6 to deactivate it). I could not find any checksum test in the ROM actually, so wonder if it even checks it? I have a small software to check and recalculate the checksum, so no big deal, but still interesting. Mac 84 has promised to provide an image file of his harddisk he has for it, it should boot from it. Would be very interesting to play with!

What I really wonder is if the video is initialised by a driver in the ROM or one of the mysterious extensions in the System folder.

Apparently it's supposed to run Oracle Media Server in the other end, but I have 0 experience with that. Theoretically I guess you run that on a WM (there was an x86 version running NT4 of it back in the days) and build some kind of adapter for the T1/E1 port.

 

[joshc]

There is lots of info collated here, including a link to some software but it doesn't sound like it will help with video output:

Apple Interactive Television Box - Higher Intellect Vintage Wiki

The Apple Interactive TV Box is also referred to as the Apple Set Top Box (or STB). Based on a Macintosh Quadra 605 or Macintosh LC 475 board but with added hardware MPEG decoder. The final product was intended to network boot from nCUBE super-computer hardware with Oracle Media Server over a...

wiki.preterhuman.net

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

There's another writeup here: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/apple-interactive-television-box-stb-prototype-adventures.2919/

 

[Arbee]

And just in case these get battery bombed, this will probably help.

 

[max1zzz]

And just in case these get battery bombed, this will probably help.

ooh nice. Where have all these apple schematics been leaking from lately? I have seen a few new ones around recently that I don't remember seeing before

 

[Arbee]

Can’t talk about that but do enjoy.

 

[Phipli]

Can’t talk about that but do enjoy.

Is there hypothetically any chance that the 840av schematic has fallen off a truck lately? I know there is a bromarc, but it's a nightmare to follow.

Or a 7100 blowing in the wind...

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Or dare I ask - the PowerBook 2400 or 3400 schematics?