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Mini Quadra & AppleColo(u)r Display

aladds

Well-known member
So in the 3D printed object thread, markyb86 made an excellent Quadra Pi zero case. I made a matching AppleColour RGB monitor designed to fit a small 640x480 LCD module

The module has arrived and I have made it work!

I also spent some time making a working Basilisk II image with a HyperCard clock (WildClock, it’s on archive.org if you search for it)

The “loose” wire is correcting a grounding issue which took me longer than it should have to fix.

Now I have to put it all together!

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aladds

Well-known member
I’ve made the corners (STLs on my GitHub: https://github.com/aladds/3D-Apple-Objects-STL ) and put it together. The screen, being HDMI, is pixel-perfect, which is excellent, but the front case does need a small mod to cover up more of the bezel. I think I did a pretty good job, though, considering I guessed the cutout based on a picture on the LCD’s listing page!

The thing runs from 12v, but it draws less than amp, so I got a tiny boost power supply and hooked it through to the Pi’s 5v lines. The whole thing still runs from a USB port - although I should probably measure its current to be sure it’s within spec!


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maceffects

Well-known member
This is too cool!  What a great project.  For me it would look good as desk display rather than a functional thing I would use. 

 

aladds

Well-known member
Yep I think it will mostly be just a desk clock. I am going to add some speakers to the monitor (when parts arrive) and since it’s a pi running full Linux I might see how good the sound would be to have it as an AirPlay speaker too. 
 

I may also see if I could use it as a notification screen; HyperCard can talk to networks after all  :)

The Quadra :quadra:  case isn’t mine, you can find that here:





All the parts to make the display are on my GitHub as above. I’ve not changed the front of the screen yet so the bezel doesn’t fit perfectly at the bottom, I will change that I think. I’ve also not made a bracket for the controller board or anything for the ports to go through yet. There’s still a decent amount of space to design a good sound box for some speakers I think.
 

The screen is from AliExpress:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_uGLGLt

The little board on the back (I’ve not finished the internals of the monitor yet) is the boost power supply - I want to have a neat _appropriately sized_ connector for power (and possibly audio if I can’t work out how to do it over HDMI).

And I’ve ordered a better MiniHDMI-HDMI cable which is a lot shorter, too. The current one is overkill!

 
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uliwitness

Active member
By the way: Apple's displays back then had quite a lot of black bezel on the CRT. So if you made the display's case a tad larger, you could probably keep the unmodified proportions by adding (or exposing?) more of a black bezel around the picture.
 

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joshc

Well-known member
I missed this. What a cool little project.

I have toyed around with the idea of an LC being run off battery power and a teenie little screen hooked up to it, not sure why but I think it would be quite funny as a weird sort of portable.
 
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