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Is this “SE/30 of Theseus” idea possible?

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?
 

avadondragon

Well-known member
Seems like a perfectly viable plan to me. Might be neat to get a video card for it one day and drive the LCD with color/greyscale. I like the thread title btw.
 

joshc

Well-known member
That is all possible yes. I have most of that in my SE/30s anyway, running on ATX PSUs and SD storage and a new fan on the analog board.
 

Macobyte

Active member
Seems like a perfectly viable plan to me. Might be neat to get a video card for it one day and drive the LCD with color/greyscale. I like the thread title btw.
I actually have a spare RasterOps ColorBoard 264 already and have considered this approach. When I swap it into my existing SE/30 I find the draw speeds for windows to be distractingly slow, although perhaps with only the color display performance would improve a little. I also find the 1-bit purity of these machines endearing.
 

Macobyte

Active member
That is all possible yes. I have most of that in my SE/30s anyway, running on ATX PSUs and SD storage and a new fan on the analog board.
I would be interested in hearing more about your use of modern ATX PSUs. Have you done this in an SE/30 where you did NOT hack apart an original PSU to use its enclosure?
 

joshc

Well-known member
I would be interested in hearing more about your use of modern ATX PSUs. Have you done this in an SE/30 where you did NOT hack apart an original PSU to use its enclosure?
Yeah, converted two of them, running a Seasonic 250W flex PSU in the original enclosure.

A few of us have done it - see here

 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
This is all feasible. The most difficult thing will be physically mounting everything so it doesn't turn into a rats' nest. My initial bet would be to make a board the shape of the existing AB, or at least with screw holes in the same place, which then has holes to mount the other stuff on.

Have you done this in an SE/30 where you did NOT hack apart an original PSU to use its enclosure?

Something like https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/pico-atx-psu-kit-for-macintosh-se-se-30-128k-and-plus.43262/ could help for the PSU: as far as I know most other people mount the modern PSU in the old shell just because it makes the screw holes on the AB and the hole on the back match up. If you're in control of the screw hole placement on the "AB", then you're fine to mount whatever you like, and if you want it to look neat, you might well be able to 3D print something to get it lined up.

in the original enclosure.

I think you missed the NOT in the original post :).
 
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