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iMac G3 ... with a little sumthin' extra.

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
So today I picked up a blueberry iMac G3 (tray-loading 333MHz) as a board and system spare for my strawberry iMac which I plan to put in the music/guest room, but it came with a bonus ... not only was it in the proper (if wrong colour) iMac G3 box, it also sported a 600MHz Sonnet HARMONi card!

For those unfamiliar with the HARMONi, it provides a 500MHz or 600MHz G3 plus a varying amount of L2 cache and a FireWire port to any of the tray-loading iMac G3s only. This is the only way to have a 600MHz iMac G3 in a colour that doesn't suck; the strawberry/grape/etc. slot loaders can take more memory and have a better GPU, but the fastest colourful slot loader with a FireWire port is only 400MHz. And I prefer tray-loading CD-ROMs in general.

So tomorrow I'm going to yank the RAM from the WallStreet I and merge it with the HARMONi, and transplant it to the strawberry iMac. It will run 10.2.8 and 9.2.2 in the music room: on the 9 side, Classilla and ProTools, and on the 10.2 side, Classilla, GarageBand and Vidi to ... connect the Yamaha CX5M over FireWire! (using a capture box)

I told you it was a music room.

 

TheMacGuy

Well-known member
Yummy! Strawberry with the guts of a Blueberry. Sounds like the name of an ice cream.

iMac G3 would be nice to have, but with the eMac and lack of room, I can't get one right now. I'd probably get a Graphite or Ruby, or if I could find one, a very rare Key Lime iMac. And a companion iBook.

Anyways, nice find!

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
Well, this definitely didn't go as expected.

First off, I managed to wreck the HARMONi's FireWire daughterboard trying to transplant it. I thought I had all the standoff screws removed and I didn't, and managed to pull off one of the headers. The main G3 card is fine, but the FireWire bus is now unresponsive because half its data lines are gone.

If someone is good at SMT soldering, it's a matter of restoring the header to four solder points. I would be happy to prepay for your time and shipping. Unfortunately, I usually solder myself to the board instead of the wire, so I think I would make it worse.

But now the strawberry G3 is having random fits of issues with the optical drive. So I swapped the optical drive with the blueberry. Now it's just a different set of discs it doesn't like.

If I get 10.2 and 9.2.2 installed on them without hurling them in the street, it will be miraculous. I suppose I can use a USB video input for the time being, though the quality won't be as good.

Anyway, any SMT solder jockeys reading this, send me a PM. I would sure appreciate it.

 

Bunsen

Admin-Witchfinder-General
WallStreet I and merge it with the HARMONi
Hold up there pardner - you know the CPU modules in the G3 Powerbooks and iMacs aren't interchangeable, right? Just checking - lots of people think they are, because they look pretty identical.

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
Right, just the RAM. Besides, the Wally is "only" 292MHz. :I

I think I've got it jury rigged, but I'm going to push my luck. It doesn't look like the daughterboard needs all the contacts to function (FW400 has six lines, but only four are data and the two powerlines come from a separate tap, while the controller is on the G3 processor card and it has *eight* lines coming off it to the daughtercard). So I'm going to swap it back out for the other optical drive that actually accepted disks the G5 burns, switch bezels, try to get that other SO-DIMM on, and if it works, MELT THE DAMN THING SHUT AND NEVER TOUCH IT AGAIN.

I'm still fuming that I was so careless.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Nice nab! Have somebody fix it for you, Cameron, otherwise you're bound to lose the other pads in the plugging and unplugging or summat . . .

. . . according to my good buddy Murph, anyway.

. . . I usually solder myself to the board instead of the wire, so I think I would make it worse.
Now that there takes some talent . . . :lol:

. . . at least when I solder, I tend to solder the wires to my hand so the burns aren't quite so bad. :-/

< . . . decides he don' wanna even mention de-soldering braid . . . :I >

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
I successfully pushed my luck. I now have a strawberry iMac G3, with an optical drive that will actually read discs the G5 burns for it, 512MB of RAM, a working FireWire port in both 9 and 10.2 (it detects my DV digitizer in iMovie and can record from it), and 600MHz of powah'. Cleaned it thoroughly and got all the dirt out, inked out/polished up nicks in the coloured plastic, fixed a short in the CRT, put it all back together and it's now deliciously pimped.

My thinking is that there are two connectors on the G3 card for a second FW port that was never made available, since there is clearly a second punchout on the Sonnet-provided ports panel, and by sheer dumb luck I only trashed the contacts it wasn't actually using.

 

bibilit

Well-known member
Great news, any picture available (i don't see where the firewire plug can be located) ?

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
I'mma post a picture of the room when I let myself finish, but mcdermd is the best solderer of all time.

In answer to your question, the HARMONi kit replaces the port panel on the side with its own. It has a FireWire port on that, and a punchout below which I assume is where another one might have gone (possibly also for mezz slot upgrades for Rev A/B systems; this is a Rev D). It also has all the other ports from the regular logic board, natch.

Finished doing all the updates to 9.2.2 and 10.2.8, including QT 6.0.3/6.5.3. Irked that the Midisport USB MIDI interface is not recognized by OMS in OS 9 (I used to use a serial MidiMacMan before). Installed Timidity++, ProTools and Classilla on that side.

On 10.2.8, it is remarkable how much improvement Shadowkiller makes. The windows look a little odd, but menus and windows fly now. OmniWeb 5.1.3 and Classilla make a serviceable browser combination. The USB MIDI interface *is* seen by 10.2 once I installed the M-Audio drivers. I threw out most of the built-in apps to make room (who would use Jaguar Mail.app anyway?) and tomorrow I'll try to remotely install GarageBand/iLife '04 and get the Yamaha PSR-270 hooked up.

Last step will be, after I finish with the Yamaha CX5M's cable, to get the Yamaha computer as a separate controller, but I don't really know where to put its own keyboard yet.

Unfortunately, the monitor arcs a little when it heats up. It settles down, but it still does it periodically. And man, can that CRT generate heat. I thought my quad G5 was bad, but this is a fine little space heater all by itself. }:)

 

Bunsen

Admin-Witchfinder-General
Yamaha CX5M
Dude, so jealous.

man, can that CRT generate heat.
Make sure there's adequate space for air to get in underneath. I used to prop the rear up with a 2" block of wood, and be sure the front foot is folded out.

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
So while I was getting the Yamaha connected, the iMac made a massive sparking noise, shut down and will not power back up.

I think I opened the F901 fuse (which is replaceable), but I'm toying with just swapping the housing out with the blueberry iMac I have in storage rather than screwing around with it some more. That seemed more reliable than this one and didn't seem to arc.

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
I swapped everything over to a new housing (still strawberry, but new power supply, CRT and analogue board), and no more arcing. I burnt it in for several hours with Graphing Calculator and no glitches.

So I plugged in the Yamaha CX5M to play with it and ... it flickered and died. I'll crack it open this weekend; I bet it blew its own power supply somehow too.

Something in the universe does not want me to have a music room.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
If I were a Z-80, I wouldn't have anything to do with a Pink Computer either! :p ;)

Just give it up and buy a manual keyboard before you blow the whole room's PSU already. :eek:)

 

CC_333

Well-known member
Hi,

Is it the rebuilt iMac that died again, or your Yamaha device? I couldn't quite follow your post (to me, it seems to imply that the iMac "flickered and died").

Either way, good luck with getting everything up and running!

c

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
It's the Yamaha that won't power up now. It's obviously the power supply, so I can probably jury rig something if I can't fix it directly. The iMac G3 is, for a change, behaving.

 
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