pizzigri
Well-known member
After four years, the Color Classic LCD Project con be finally! be considered complete. I initially posted about this project here: LCD Color Classic, where you can also read about the philosophy and why I had started the project in the first place.
TLDR – I had a problem in one of my CC due to the unobtanium flyback transformer. That lead me to actually redesign the whole AB/power PCB, and in the end replace the whole video portion of the Color Classic.
I envisioned this not only as a way to enable to breathe new life in these machines, but also as a way to preserve completely original Color Classic and CCII collector’s quality specimens by allowing the guys that had already heavily modded their Color Classic to host PowerPC logic boards – the Takky crowd – to use an LCD screen instead of the aging CRT and frail AB/PSU of the original machine, so that the said replaced AB would be available as spare parts for the die-hard collectors that wanted to keep their CC Macs completely original… could. If it makes sense.
Again, I spent countless hours and sleepless nights into this project. I managed to make a sample work – but I had reused many parts from the Performa 6500 such as the Audio/Video out board and these were specific to the PowerPC architecture, so I only managed to make the Takky work; not the standard Color Classic, or Mystic configurations.
I had hit my hard ceiling – I had no prior EE experience, and I started to realize that years of studying would be needed to redesign things like video out circuitry to make it compatible to LCD signaling.
I shelved the whole idea.
But then, Daan came over and wanted to replicate my working Takky with LCD, and convinced me that we could partner and solve all the stuff I was totally unable to do! He picked off where I had grounded, and designed the video out board and interface that allowed the Color Classic logic board to drive a LCD panel, while I’ve gotten lots of ideas brainstorming, including a way to replicate the proprietary connector of the original AB, allowing true plug and play with the Color Classic harness! He also designed and built all the adapters on a 3D printer, while I had to painstakingly build them out of bent aluminum profiles all bolted together.
The best part is that this ultimately lead to a parts kit, available either for the Takky owner (or prospective builder) with any Logic Board starting from the 630 68040 all the way to the 6500 powerPC variants, and Color Classic user, from the stock version all the way to a full Mystic mod, that allows a complete drop-in AB/PSU and screen replacement!
The 8.4” Industrial POS (Point Of Sale) NOS LCD used in these kits (availability is alas very limited but we are working on alternatives) allows 800x600 resolution on the Takky/PowerPC modded CC and 640x480 res on the CC/Mystic. These GVision LCD were incredibly expensive originally, and sometimes pop up on Ebay for like 400-600 Euro - many cash registers and POS still use them.
The greatest thing the Color Classic has in regard to the LCD mod is that the original CRT is a Trinitron – a cylindrical screen. That can be emulated by bending an acrylic sheet in front of the internal LCD. And it’s so perfect that when it’s powered off, it’s basically impossible to notice! And the curvature disappears when the LCD is on – without any distortion.
At this time, unfortunately, the 512x384 resolution is still eluding us, but it WILL be solved – with a different panel, as there is a hardware limitation in the driver presently.
What you will see in this post and the couple following posts are images of our two Macintosh Color Classic samples – one original and the other Takky modded – working with the kits we developed. Kits that are going to be available very soon for sale, not for profit, but almost at cost, just to recover the expenses we both incurred to make this idea a reality.
I think it’s best me and Daan stop here and simply answer any questions you guys may have.
TLDR – I had a problem in one of my CC due to the unobtanium flyback transformer. That lead me to actually redesign the whole AB/power PCB, and in the end replace the whole video portion of the Color Classic.
I envisioned this not only as a way to enable to breathe new life in these machines, but also as a way to preserve completely original Color Classic and CCII collector’s quality specimens by allowing the guys that had already heavily modded their Color Classic to host PowerPC logic boards – the Takky crowd – to use an LCD screen instead of the aging CRT and frail AB/PSU of the original machine, so that the said replaced AB would be available as spare parts for the die-hard collectors that wanted to keep their CC Macs completely original… could. If it makes sense.
Again, I spent countless hours and sleepless nights into this project. I managed to make a sample work – but I had reused many parts from the Performa 6500 such as the Audio/Video out board and these were specific to the PowerPC architecture, so I only managed to make the Takky work; not the standard Color Classic, or Mystic configurations.
I had hit my hard ceiling – I had no prior EE experience, and I started to realize that years of studying would be needed to redesign things like video out circuitry to make it compatible to LCD signaling.
I shelved the whole idea.
But then, Daan came over and wanted to replicate my working Takky with LCD, and convinced me that we could partner and solve all the stuff I was totally unable to do! He picked off where I had grounded, and designed the video out board and interface that allowed the Color Classic logic board to drive a LCD panel, while I’ve gotten lots of ideas brainstorming, including a way to replicate the proprietary connector of the original AB, allowing true plug and play with the Color Classic harness! He also designed and built all the adapters on a 3D printer, while I had to painstakingly build them out of bent aluminum profiles all bolted together.
The best part is that this ultimately lead to a parts kit, available either for the Takky owner (or prospective builder) with any Logic Board starting from the 630 68040 all the way to the 6500 powerPC variants, and Color Classic user, from the stock version all the way to a full Mystic mod, that allows a complete drop-in AB/PSU and screen replacement!
The 8.4” Industrial POS (Point Of Sale) NOS LCD used in these kits (availability is alas very limited but we are working on alternatives) allows 800x600 resolution on the Takky/PowerPC modded CC and 640x480 res on the CC/Mystic. These GVision LCD were incredibly expensive originally, and sometimes pop up on Ebay for like 400-600 Euro - many cash registers and POS still use them.
The greatest thing the Color Classic has in regard to the LCD mod is that the original CRT is a Trinitron – a cylindrical screen. That can be emulated by bending an acrylic sheet in front of the internal LCD. And it’s so perfect that when it’s powered off, it’s basically impossible to notice! And the curvature disappears when the LCD is on – without any distortion.
At this time, unfortunately, the 512x384 resolution is still eluding us, but it WILL be solved – with a different panel, as there is a hardware limitation in the driver presently.
What you will see in this post and the couple following posts are images of our two Macintosh Color Classic samples – one original and the other Takky modded – working with the kits we developed. Kits that are going to be available very soon for sale, not for profit, but almost at cost, just to recover the expenses we both incurred to make this idea a reality.
I think it’s best me and Daan stop here and simply answer any questions you guys may have.
