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Mac Hardware Hacking Ideas
- Thread starter bigmessowires
- Start date
olePigeon
Well-known member
Those already exist, but they're expensive. They're for use in industrial settings. There's also a Floptical disk drive, which doubles as a regular floppy.
However, none of them can read/write 400K/800K floppies, though.
I'm not quite sure what the point of a SCSI floppy would be, really. It'd need a driver to work and probably wouldn't be bootable, and if you want it to transfer data you can do that with, well, a, LocalTalk cable, FloppyEMU or, with slightly more fiddling, a SCSI->flash hard drive emulator. Not many modern machines are equipped with floppy drives anymore so it's not as if having it would make it convenient to sneakernet to a modern machine.
LazarusNine
Well-known member
Steve,
We've corresponded via e-mail about this already, but I have to throw my vote in for Number 4, the adapter allowing modern USB devices to plug into ADB Macs. The prices of ADB keyboards are quite high on the general market and the devices themselves are growing older (some of those membranes must be starting to age). I would love to grab up my USB (or even PS/2) keyboard and mouse and be able to plug them into my old Mac - it would also allow me to minimise the amount of junk I have lying around (my other half already wonders where all of these Macs are supposed to go). So, here's my order of interest:
I. Number 4 (USB devices to ADB computer)
II. Number 8 (68k 20MHz accelerator for compact Macs)
III. Number 10 (LocalTalk server 'thingy')
Runners up:
- Number 7 (ROM-inator for LC (and/or Classic, but definitely LC!)
- Number 9: Video out for compact Macs (this would be useful for that fateful day when the CRTs actually burn out)
Oh, and, I would like you to impart some of your magic on me. Perhaps you could start a web-based course? I'd pay per session/term/semester/etc.
Regards,
Steve
We've corresponded via e-mail about this already, but I have to throw my vote in for Number 4, the adapter allowing modern USB devices to plug into ADB Macs. The prices of ADB keyboards are quite high on the general market and the devices themselves are growing older (some of those membranes must be starting to age). I would love to grab up my USB (or even PS/2) keyboard and mouse and be able to plug them into my old Mac - it would also allow me to minimise the amount of junk I have lying around (my other half already wonders where all of these Macs are supposed to go). So, here's my order of interest:
I. Number 4 (USB devices to ADB computer)
II. Number 8 (68k 20MHz accelerator for compact Macs)
III. Number 10 (LocalTalk server 'thingy')
Runners up:
- Number 7 (ROM-inator for LC (and/or Classic, but definitely LC!)
- Number 9: Video out for compact Macs (this would be useful for that fateful day when the CRTs actually burn out)
Oh, and, I would like you to impart some of your magic on me. Perhaps you could start a web-based course? I'd pay per session/term/semester/etc.
Regards,
Steve
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360alaska
Well-known member
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Bunsen
Admin-Witchfinder-General
Haven't caught up on the thread yet but here are my thoughts in regards to the first post:
1 & 2. Yes please
4, 5 & 9. Mostly tidying up other people's work, which if that interests you, sure, but as you say, they're mostly done already.
7. Would be a boon to many of us and promote further hacking
8. Don't really see the benefit @20Mz. The SE already runs at 16MHz if someone wants a slightly faster 68000 Mac.
On the other hand there are FPGA softcore binary-compatible 68000s (ie, actual 6800s, not 020/030 etc) that can run at much higher clock rates, like, IIRC, 150MHz ish. Building one of those onto an plug-in 40 pin DIP module with suitable cache and glue logic could be interesting.
10. Again, bbraun has been working on this.
If I might add a slightly off the wall suggestion of my own:
Now that you have µcLinux working on 68Katy - port it to a 68000 Mac
1 & 2. Yes please
4, 5 & 9. Mostly tidying up other people's work, which if that interests you, sure, but as you say, they're mostly done already.
7. Would be a boon to many of us and promote further hacking
8. Don't really see the benefit @20Mz. The SE already runs at 16MHz if someone wants a slightly faster 68000 Mac.
On the other hand there are FPGA softcore binary-compatible 68000s (ie, actual 6800s, not 020/030 etc) that can run at much higher clock rates, like, IIRC, 150MHz ish. Building one of those onto an plug-in 40 pin DIP module with suitable cache and glue logic could be interesting.
10. Again, bbraun has been working on this.
If I might add a slightly off the wall suggestion of my own:
Now that you have µcLinux working on 68Katy - port it to a 68000 Mac
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MinerAl
Well-known member
For a compact Mac->VGA adapter, if you were going to make it a plug and play device, you'd need to pick a generation of compact Mac to start with. The 128-Plus had one kind of connector from the LB to the AB, the SE-SE/30s had another, and the Classic & CII had the same as the SE only wired completely differently. You might be able to make something with one connector and an SE/Classic switch...
I'd start with the SE/x family simply because you could make a nice plate to mount on the back.
I'd start with the SE/x family simply because you could make a nice plate to mount on the back.
olePigeon
Well-known member
SE/30 would benefit from it immediately, wouldn't it? It already supports Color QuickDraw. Would be cool if there's an adapter you could plug in, then stick a color VGA LCD or CRT in there.
But for other Compacts, it would make it easy to install LCDs or smaller yoke CRTs for easier/better hackability.
But for other Compacts, it would make it easy to install LCDs or smaller yoke CRTs for easier/better hackability.
bigmessowires
Well-known member
Yeah, compact Mac VGA out was on my original list, #9. There are a couple of ways to go about it. I like the thought of tapping the logic board connector on the 128K/512K/Plus, since there are already video out solutions for the other compacts.
MinerAl
Well-known member
bigmessowires
Well-known member
Probably not. I was thinking of vampire tapping the video signal on the logic board connector, and that's just a B&W signal, which I'm 99% sure is generated in hardware where no amount of ROM code changes will make a difference. But if you tapped into the CPU bus, and snooped writes to the video memory, you theoretically could build something that generates a video signal in whatever format you want. Or just transmit the video memory contents to a PC for remote display. That's the approach bbraun has taken with his video project for the Mac SE.
Bunsen
Admin-Witchfinder-General
The circuit below gets you EGA out, then one of those Chinese CGA/EGA video game converters gets you to VGA - at the original monochrome resolution.
Without something like VRAM, a new video output circuit, and system software drivers, you won't get greyscale, colour or higher res. Then you're basically building a new PDS card and drivers - which is not to say that's a bad aim in itself, especially if instead of requiring an actual PDS slot, it can hijack the 68000 CPU socket.
For those Macs which do have PDS slots, cards and known-good drivers exist, rare as they might be.
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