ATOMicZipMacPLUS/MacQuarium™

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Well, after 18 months, I really think the ATOM NetTop Board has found a home, one that will be a pleasure to have sitting next to me on the Teak Desk.

The ZipMacPLUS™ will be losing all function as a 68k, but ubuntu for work (and OS-X for showtime/playtime) on the KVM'd 1600x1200 20" Pivot LCD will work out just fine!

Interior renovations:



It's going to be very colorful behind the clear plexi windows . . .

View attachment 17716

. . . closer look at the players and stand-ins . . .



. . . PSU mounted onto the A/B so it's hidden behind the CRT/CRT neck . . .



. . . cleared section and standoff stand-ins . . .



. . . razed areas for PSU and PCI Card . . .



. . . PSU mounted . . .



. . . bottom view . . .



. . . front view . . .



. . . back view . . .



. . . excised A/B componentsts . . .



. . . Chop-Top MoBo . . . with first standoff hole drilled through its hip . . .



. . . side view of MoBo/NetTop sandwich . . .



. . . rear view of same . . .

. . . once I've adapted the Parallel Port Zip250 garnish, it'll be a real Dagwood . . . with the (plastic) fish in the front!

NOTE: No functional Mac Plus parts have been harmed in the production of this . . . whatever . . . :lol:

I'll be isolating some of the circuitry.components of the A/B to do a few things . . . maybe . . .

. . . still working out the breakout for the rear, pins on the OEM connectors will likely be hotwired to plugs for the MoBo . . .

. . . undecided about KBD access panel, but USB2 seems to be the ticket for thumb drives or a KBD . . .

. . . tailless Rodents only, need apply.

Is funtime/hacktime project! :approve:

edit: for the life of me, I can't figure out why I feel a slight urge to paint the chassis in some sickly electric green hue . . . :

 

[markyb86]

undecided about KBD access panel, but USB2 seems to be the ticket for thumb drives or a KBD . . .

Two usb ports in the original keyboard jack wouldn't look too out of place. and they are pretty easy to salvage from any junk x86 pc case. Dell machines are usually a great candidate for the two ports, and I've seen plenty of this machine die over the past few years..

for the life of me, I can't figure out why I feel a slight urge to paint the chassis in some sickly electric green hue . . . :

 

[onlyonemac]

NOTE: No functional Mac Plus parts have been harmed in the production of this . . . whatever . . . :lol:

You wrote that to me...sorry, a case is considered working. (Especialy a nice, unyellowed, one.)

 

[resx]

Beautiful work. I love the retro feel of the ZIP disk paired with relatively modern, albeit capable Atom components. Do you plan to somehow drive the CRT or is that just a placeholder for an 8.4" SVGA LCD?

 

[markyb86]

sorry, a case is considered working.

Come on man, don't start this in another thread.

A case is a case, and nothing but a case.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Ditto on the case, it was the ugliest of the three, had a borked bucket and came w/o MoBo . . . it just cleaned up very nicely, but it's still yellow, check the filed spots for the un-yellowed color. I'll be painting the raw edges to match the case.

sorry, a case is considered working.

Come on man, don't start this in another thread.

A case is a case, and nothing but a case.

Just so, besides, the front bezel Zip mod predates, and likely fomented the, very recent and extremely annoying, development of HackWhining™ as an unsanctioned 68kMLA activity. So this case is definitely off limits for such silly discussions. An open exchange of opinions is fine . . . in the other thread, only!

Catchy name that! Maybe I'll change the title of the topic! [}] ]'>

 

[uniserver]

Mr. Ed - Intro (Opening Theme)

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Never mind, at least Mr. Ed was an animate object, My Mother the Car was a case of delusional psychotic behavior . . . :

Let's curtail this discussion here and pick it up in the latest thing . . . Zip

. . . PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[uniserver]

8-o :lol:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Thanks . . .

Do you plan to somehow drive the CRT or is that just a placeholder for an 8.4" SVGA LCD?

Neither,the CRT will be the new MacQuarium home for the Plastic Fish if I can get it to work out just right. Otherwise I'll fab a nice clear Plexi approximation of the CRT and glue the neck section onto the back.

The Plastic Fish are inanimate objects that simulate living organisms when animated by air bubbles. No real fish will be harmed by placing them into the icky chemicals sure to leech out of the CRT's bits even after a thorough washing . . .

. . . maybe a goldfish, carp can live in, and on, just about anything imaginable . . . [}] ]'>

. . . but you gotta feed and clean up after such filthy water vermin . . . so . . . not happening!

The ATOMicZipMacPlus will be driving the 1600x1200 LCD on the KVM, along with the QS'02 and Pavilion dm1 3g NetBook.

I decided on leaving as much of the A/B's bits hanging off it as possible, so there's no clearance for the PadDock/DuoDock receding MacQuarium hack . . .

. . . unless . . . nah! )

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Back with the latest update:



Before I get started: this bucket was thoroughly thrashed when I bought the otherwise cherry 128k->DayStar->Plus->MicroMac. This bucket has sentimental value and is lovingly being transformed into my, first ever, ClearMacDisplayCase.

I'll post the HowTo pics later if anybody wants to learn about using Plexi Scribes and Japanese Saws to do precise work by hand that's impossible to achieve with Rotary Tools. These techniques are useful across much of the hobby and pro tool using spectrum.

 

[onlyonemac]

I'm not supportive of this hack, but what exactly did you do to that case and why?

 

[mcdermd]

The case was broken. He cut the bad sides off to replace them with Perspex.

How the hell you have a problem with that, I don't know. Good lord.

 

[markyb86]

if anybody wants to learn about using Plexi Scribes and Japanese Saws to do precise work by hand that's impossible to achieve with Rotary Tools.

count me in

 

[uniserver]

Its kind of like this, normally you don't tell your boss that, " i do not support what your doing " lol

Trust jt, If he's doing a hack, Its either massively useful or super cool in the end, and you will end up wishing you had one.

 

[uniserver]

lol @ Japanese saws... LOL LOL LOL. this man is funny.

 

[onlyonemac]

Sorry, didn't realise it was broken. Let's hope he wouldn't have done it if it wasn't!

So, is this like one of those PC cases which have a transparent side so you can see inside it? Also, what happened to the "plastic fish" of which such a big thing was made?

 

[resx]

if anybody wants to learn about using Plexi Scribes and Japanese Saws to do precise work by hand that's impossible to achieve with Rotary Tools.

count me in

Ditto. My father actually has a nice set of hand saws that I've neglected to use opting instead to go the Dremel route. Good for quickly cutting ventilation holes into overheating cases, but not so neat for the work I plan to do in the future.

Back on topic, how do you intend to hold the corners of the top and rear pieces together at the seam?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Take it easy on the kid, guys. Before I locked up his bully pulpit I'd told him not to make any objections in any hacks threads but mine or he faced an official warning. I also told him that he can post whatever he wants to say in my threads, but he'd better slap a smile on it or put a sock in it.

A mild objection or two, some intelligent questions about what, why, how and yet another one about the plastic fish silliness is a vast improvement . . .

. . . way better than a smile or a wink, way to go, kid!

My hacks don't need support or disapproval, nor do those of others and such commentary is to be avoided. It's sort of an "I'm interested or not" kind of deal, sometimes even folks not particularly interested in mods or hacking will drop in for a question or a comment . . .

. . . not many in my hacks threads though, response rates are up now that I'm using illustrations, pictures and keeping .TXT down to a minimum. :

Most of the what and how commentary/pics will follow . . . one "what" is adding provision for two display enclosures:

. . . later on I'll do one that's a customized glazing semi-stock kinda thing . . .

. . . for now a partial chopped-top, hot-rod deal will be the main line of this hack attack . . .

. . . here's a very large part of the why, the pairs of pics speak volumes . . .









. . . chopping the top of the hot-rodding display moves it a full 13.5cm back from the edge of the desk, tucking The back right corner of the case underneath the shelf overhang. The little clamp in the "after" pics was placed so as to touch the recessed left front corner of the Plus Case before I moved it back to where it will sit. That way the air bubbling noises that go along with animating my plastic fish will be muted by the 10cm or so of extra viewing distance that will ease these tired old eyes when they glaze over in a . . . erm . . . reverie of whatever sort . . . with luck, it'll be creative . . .

. . . but reminiscing and napping will be good practice for the future as well! [)] ]'>

Not sure if this is the cool part or the useful part . . . I'd like to think a bit of both. However the Picture window planned for the left side with A/B LED backlighting will be definitely be a cool feature, I've wanted to do one of those for forever and a day. [] ]'>

edit, it's not as obvious as the broken fake vents on the right, but you can see where the vanes of the real set of cooling vents have been warped by overheating by the slow moving air passing across the heat sinks and clustered components at the top of the A/B, in front of the flyback transformer. Removing the TwiggyBox really put a hurt on some very elegant engineering done by the early design team.

One of the uses for the semi-stock plexi windowed case will be doing infra-red photography to illustrate differences the baffling and chimney effects of the TwiggyBoxGambit that I hope to see in terms of operating temperature reduction of the A.B.

I will, of course, be using the bucket on the 128k+++ for that experiment. [}] ]'>