Macobyte
Active member
I have a spare SE/30 case and (SE/30 Reloaded) logic board. I had a thought about what to do with these but wanted to ask the gallery if it was even possible first.
Would it be possible to create a fully-working SE/30 using only the following additional components?
1.) Original SE/30 internal chassis for holding everything in place. An SE chassis could work too I supposed but I would want to keep the PDS slot access.
2.) Modern power supply — I don’t know exactly what would work but I have seen examples of people modding modern power supplies into the existing SE and SE/30 power supply enclosures. I would probably opt to create some mounting method for the modern unit without tearing apart an existing original power supply, and would probably skip an original unit for a modern one in general to more accessibly power the other items below.
3.) RGB2HDMI with Raspberry Pi Zero — I’ve seen multiple people tie into the video signal wires on the large umbilical cable which would run from the SE/30 logic board to the analog board to capture the video signal for mirroring on a second, external modern LCD screen. Except in my case it wouldn’t be an external screen, it would be a…
4.) 9” LCD panel with HDMI in, mounted in the CRT screen gap using a 3D-printed bezel. Again, in the examples of RGB2HDMI capture I’ve come across the video signal is pristine and sharp, which partly inspired this idea. I understand this picture would still be 1-bit from the SE/30 onboard video.
5.) Some flavor of modern hard drive emulator, likely a BlueSCSI, so the machine has something to boot. I almost didn’t bother listing this because it goes without saying but I figured strict interpreters of my original question would point out an SE/30 needs a boot drive, so here you go.
6.) A (modern) fan, obviously. Although without the analog board and CRT installed maybe it’s not as critical.
So, is this a viable idea? This obviously completely eliminates the analog board but without a CRT to drive I think that would be ideal as it eliminates a point of failure. As my logic board is a Reloaded board, that and no original analog board means that this SE/30 would effectively be a “modern” computer.
Interested in hearing any thoughts or ideas or if I’ve overlooked anything. Or should I just buy a cheap SE to cannibalize and transplant the case and logic board over to that?
Would it be possible to create a fully-working SE/30 using only the following additional components?
1.) Original SE/30 internal chassis for holding everything in place. An SE chassis could work too I supposed but I would want to keep the PDS slot access.
2.) Modern power supply — I don’t know exactly what would work but I have seen examples of people modding modern power supplies into the existing SE and SE/30 power supply enclosures. I would probably opt to create some mounting method for the modern unit without tearing apart an existing original power supply, and would probably skip an original unit for a modern one in general to more accessibly power the other items below.
3.) RGB2HDMI with Raspberry Pi Zero — I’ve seen multiple people tie into the video signal wires on the large umbilical cable which would run from the SE/30 logic board to the analog board to capture the video signal for mirroring on a second, external modern LCD screen. Except in my case it wouldn’t be an external screen, it would be a…
4.) 9” LCD panel with HDMI in, mounted in the CRT screen gap using a 3D-printed bezel. Again, in the examples of RGB2HDMI capture I’ve come across the video signal is pristine and sharp, which partly inspired this idea. I understand this picture would still be 1-bit from the SE/30 onboard video.
5.) Some flavor of modern hard drive emulator, likely a BlueSCSI, so the machine has something to boot. I almost didn’t bother listing this because it goes without saying but I figured strict interpreters of my original question would point out an SE/30 needs a boot drive, so here you go.
6.) A (modern) fan, obviously. Although without the analog board and CRT installed maybe it’s not as critical.
So, is this a viable idea? This obviously completely eliminates the analog board but without a CRT to drive I think that would be ideal as it eliminates a point of failure. As my logic board is a Reloaded board, that and no original analog board means that this SE/30 would effectively be a “modern” computer.
Interested in hearing any thoughts or ideas or if I’ve overlooked anything. Or should I just buy a cheap SE to cannibalize and transplant the case and logic board over to that?