Help identify iMac G3 “Rev. A” Mezzanine Card

[goncalo]

Hi,

I recently bought two “rev. A” iMacs (I noticed they had the Rage II chip) that came with the same Mezzanine card installed.

Since I haven't made a thorough disassembly of these tray-loading iMacs, I haven’t had a careful look at the card they have brought.

I’m hoping some of you guys recognise the card by the ports layout.


 

 

 

[360alaska]

Pretty sure that's a voodoo II video card.

 

[blitter]

That's not a Voodoo II card, that's a Griffin iPort. It's not a *Mezzanine* card per se-- it just happens to use that panel and some of the area reserved for a Mezzanine slot (both the iPort and a Mezz card cannot take up the same space at the same time). The iPort itself is powered by the functionality it's designed to redirect-- the serial port(s) and video.

I have a rev. B iMac as a project machine with both a GameWizard Voodoo II and iPort installed, but in order to do that I routed the iPort board through to the front of the iMac so that the ports are accessible through the CD-ROM hole. It's ugly for now, but works.

 

[Carboy7]

Funny.

 

[CC_333]

Theoretically, all Rev. A-D iMacs can support traditional floppy drives as well (the solder pads exist on the logic board for the traditional 20-pin connector). Software-wise, I don't think it was ever confirmed to work properly, but I could be mis-remembering.

Be that as it may, something I've been wanting to do is to eventually wire an external floppy port to that internal header, install it on the Mezzanine slot cover, and use an external 800k drive with a 1.44MB mechanism in it. I can probably steal all the parts I need from a battery-exploded Mac (such as maybe a totaled SE/30).

c

 

[waynestewart]

Apple disabled it with one of their firmware upgrades. You'd need either an early motherboard or have to downgrade the firmware

 

[goncalo]

That's not a Voodoo II card, that's a Griffin iPort. It's not a *Mezzanine* card per se-- it just happens to use that panel and some of the area reserved for a Mezzanine slot (both the iPort and a Mezz card cannot take up the same space at the same time). The iPort itself is powered by the functionality it's designed to redirect-- the serial port(s) and video.

I have a rev. B iMac as a project machine with both a GameWizard Voodoo II and iPort installed, but in order to do that I routed the iPort board through to the front of the iMac so that the ports are accessible through the CD-ROM hole. It's ugly for now, but works.

Thanks!

It is indeed the iPort.

So, nothing fancy here 

I was surprised to find so many answers to this thread - I received no notification...  :-/

Cheers!

 

[blitter]

Apple disabled it with one of their firmware upgrades. You'd need either an early motherboard or have to downgrade the firmware

Not quite. One of the iMac firmware upgrades also replaced the Mac OS ROM file with a newer version lacking the .Sony driver, but by reinstalling Mac OS ROM 1.1.5 you can get that functionality back *with* the newer firmware. No motherboard downgrading necessary. https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/20085-internal-floppy-drive-on-imac-g3-firmware-downgrade/?p=203501

 

[waynestewart]

I wasn't clear, I meant a firmware downgrade not a motherboard

 

[CC_333]

Sorry to be dragging up this thread, but I just thought of something....

That Griffin iPort (or something like it) could have that video port repurposed as a floppy port. It might take a bit of hacking, as the connector for the floppy is physically different, but it would be a very nice, elegant solution that also brings out a nice serial port and/or ADB port, the circuitry for which I believe exists in some form, but with a few key components missing (most notably, the port itself).

c