"portable"/"slim" 6200/5200

[noglin]

I would like to be able to travel with a 6200/5200. And so I am thinking if one could just take the logic board, and have e.g. 3d printed case to slot it in into, which hooks its pins up to to a small PSU, and IDE cable (+CF card adapter), and a mac-vga port.[[

I saw this cool hack which has all the details for the PSU.

Guide : SFX PSU Conversion for Quadra 630/Performa 6200

Hello, Introduction : This is a quick guide on how I upgraded the PSU on my Performa 6200. This guide applies to all macs which share the same case (Quadra/LC/Performa 630, Performa/PowerMac 62XX/63XX) PowerSupplys inside this case are an afterthought. They are badly designed and the first...

68kmla.org

Has anyone looked into doing something like this and may already have some thoughts or maybe already know which pins are for what on the logic board?

 

[LaPorta]

Building a ClearMac from Quadra/Performa 630

Hi everyone, I had posted in another thread regarding the technical aspects of this conversion; here I will document my progress as to the real thing.. My goal was to give my girls (age 5 and 3) a small enough machine running System 7 to allow them to play some games and learn computing on...

68kmla.org

 

[noglin]

Oh nice. Thanks. I see they "sacrificed" one machine to get the rail that the motherboard slots into. Might be the way to go.

 

[LaPorta]

They was me . And yes, I just took that right out of the machine as I was going to junk it.

 

[chelseayr]

@noglin well the pinout is already known (as long as you're mindful of that theres two variations of it aka nubus versus pci slide-in) and theres equally some 3d prints of it around too. as for the siderails hmm well I mean technically in a custom case you don't really need these unless you wanted to still emulate the slide-out aspect but to our own opinions over that

as for 'slim' I guess the highest thing on the board would be the ram itself assuming you were not wanting to use the modem or videoin slots in first place (as for the monitor-out itself you likely can simply reroute that small daughterboard to sit barely above where the empty pds slot would had faced the rear plate?

anyway have fun with this interesting project of yours ok?

 

[Snial]

I would like to be able to travel with a 6200/5200. And so I am thinking if one could just take the logic board, and have e.g. 3d printed case to slot it in into, which hooks its pins up to to a small PSU, and IDE cable (+CF card adapter), and a mac-vga port.[[

I suppose another option would be to embed it in a flat-panel Mac, a sort-of reverse operation to when people stuff Mac mini motherboards into a compact Mac. Grab a broken, early iMac G5 (quite a lot of them have failed, due to GPU issues and other stuff); gut it; then put the 5200 board in + PSU (can be external if you like) & connectors where the G5 connectors are.

Then you have something that looks like a G5, but runs at less than 1/10th of the speed! What a hoot!

 

[Chopsticks]

I would like to be able to travel with a 6200/5200. And so I am thinking if one could just take the logic board, and have e.g. 3d printed case to slot it in into, which hooks its pins up to to a small PSU, and IDE cable (+CF card adapter), and a mac-vga port.[[

I saw this cool hack which has all the details for the PSU.

Guide : SFX PSU Conversion for Quadra 630/Performa 6200

Hello, Introduction : This is a quick guide on how I upgraded the PSU on my Performa 6200. This guide applies to all macs which share the same case (Quadra/LC/Performa 630, Performa/PowerMac 62XX/63XX) PowerSupplys inside this case are an afterthought. They are badly designed and the first...

68kmla.org

Has anyone looked into doing something like this and may already have some thoughts or maybe already know which pins are for what on the logic board?

ive done exactly this a few years ago. A 3d printed case for a 5400 logic board that slots in the back with a built in floppyemu, and using a Pico psu. It was just something I messed around with when I got my first 3d printer and was learning to use fusion360. the goal was to eventually refine it and make it look a bit like the MacII case designs but alas I ended up working on other projects and it’s sat on a shelf ever since

 

[sstaylor]

ive done exactly this a few years ago. A 3d printed case for a 5400 logic board that slots in the back with a built in floppyemu, and using a Pico psu. It was just something I messed around with when I got my first 3d printer and was learning to use fusion360. the goal was to eventually refine it and make it look a bit like the MacII case designs but alas I ended up working on other projects and it’s sat on a shelf ever since

Given the state of the plastics on the 5200/5400 (and others) we're all going to need something like this eventually.
Yours has a nice Fisher-Price/Play-Doh sort of color scheme going for it

 

[Franklinstein]

the pinout is already known (as long as you're mindful of that theres two variations of it aka nubus versus pci slide-in)

There aren't really any major differences except in the power wires: the NuBus models use one 12V, two 5V, and three ground pins (though the grounds are all basically ganged together). The PCI models turn the innermost ground pin into a 3.3V supply.

If you wanted to, you could make a universal chassis with a switch that would either be open (it disconnects that ground pin which isn't really necessary) or supply 3.3V, so you could select the correct power for the board type you wanted to install. Just make sure you check the switch before turning it on.

 

[Chopsticks]

Given the state of the plastics on the 5200/5400 (and others) we're all going to need something like this eventually.
Yours has a nice Fisher-Price/Play-Doh sort of color scheme going for it

The different Color’s was just because I had a few kg of different colored filaments and I used whatever I had hooked up to my printer at the time I printed different parts

And yes be careful at the 3.3v pin on the psu. I actually disconnected that ground wire and installed a small 3.3v regulator on a little pcb right on the bottom of the logic board to take 5v and drop it down To 3.3v. It provide 1.5 or 2amps. Worth noting while the logic board requires that power rail to be present as far as I know it’s only really used for the pci slot??

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

ive done exactly this a few years ago. A 3d printed case for a 5400 logic board that slots in the back with a built in floppyemu, and using a Pico psu.

Nice! 6x00/5x00/6360 to PicoPSU a/o ATX PSU is the one conversion I've yet to find anywhere. Could you post it please?
Got PicoPSU and adapter cable, just need to find my MOLEX pin removal tool and rewire the cable.

As for mounting a board, best possible solution is to start with 6x00 Gawdawful FuglyTower, put the thing out of your misery and harvest its drawer/chassis plate. Works a charm!

 

[Chopsticks]

I don’t think I have any pictures of that psu mod I did at hand but basically it’s the same as any atx to Mac style conversion you just wire up the +5, +12 and ground to the appropriate pins on the logic board slot harness thing and don’t connect the third ground/3.3v connection at all then on the bottom of and logic board that needs a 3.3v rail to run either make a layout or perhaps even use a bit of overboard office and solder a 3.3v set regulator along with a 1uF and probably a 10uF cap across the input and output respectively.
As long as you aren’t running and super crazy pci cards this works fine, at least is does for me. Most pci cards of the era I’ve encountered just use 5v anyways. Though worth double checking what you plug in just in case.

As for the power on signal from memory I just used some 74 logic, might have been a 74LS04 or similar and connected it to the relevant pins. It was probably the ADB power supply pin and the power of pin too


I just slapped everything together at the time. I’m still amazed I get every screw to work in that jigsaw puzzle

 

[noglin]

Thanks so much for all the info in here so far!

@Chopsticks and @LaPorta: very cool!

I disassembled my other 5200 (it was working fine but its case was completely smashed in delivery, so kept it for parts). I took out the logic board connector (had to disasm *everything* to get to it, would have been easier to get one from a 6200/630).


Sources (@Floofies and @demik)

MicroQuadra 630

Hmm, something seems strange to me here. I don't understand the purpose of the pull-up or pull-down resistors in the schematic from post #42. It seems that a simple inverter should be all that's needed. The first link in post #39 shows a solution with a single-transistor RTL inverter and no...

68kmla.org

Guide : SFX PSU Conversion for Quadra 630/Performa 6200

Hello, Introduction : This is a quick guide on how I upgraded the PSU on my Performa 6200. This guide applies to all macs which share the same case (Quadra/LC/Performa 630, Performa/PowerMac 62XX/63XX) PowerSupplys inside this case are an afterthought. They are badly designed and the first...

68kmla.org

I went for a pico PSU, 80W and an AC adapter of 60W, as I think that will be sufficient for my mini-build. It will essentially only be the motherboard, ethernet card, and ide -> cf.

Here are the parts I've got:
- minibox picoPSU 80W [36 EUR]
- Power Supply AC adapter 12V 60W [12 EUR]

Parts as listed from the sources above:

• 1x 20 or 24 Pin ATX Extender
• 1x 14-Pin Molex MiniFit Jr
• 1x 74LS04 Integrated Circuit
• 1x Prototyping Perfboard
• 1x 10KΩ Resistor
• 1x 10KΩ Resistor [@demik used a 10k here, so will do the same]
• DIP14 socket

I've now received everything, will try this week-end, hopefully I get it to boot

 

[Snial]

I went for a pico PSU, 80W and an AC adapter of 60W, as I think that will be sufficient for my mini-build. It will essentially only be the motherboard, ethernet card, and ide -> cf.
I've now received everything, will try this week-end, hopefully I get it to boot

Does that mean you don't really need anything on the edge connector?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Mirroring cable might suffice for a minimalist build sans the medusamess. You'd need to run off the external SCSI connector for mass storage though. Giving up IDE cable on the harness seems counterproductive to me.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Oh nice. Thanks. I see they "sacrificed" one machine to get the rail that the motherboard slots into. Might be the way to go.

If you're doing a portable version, deep six the entire drawer/rails/backstop setup and bolt the board right up to the case. Saves space and you can set the backplane back from the side of the case for strain relief for ADB/whatever?

 

[noglin]

Started on this today but ran into some trouble.


8pin connector on 5200 instead of 6pin
In contrast to the 630, the cable with power-on from the 5200 logic board connector uses a 10p connector to PSU, but only 8 pins are used.



\


If I read this right that corresponds to S1 to S8 on https://powercc.org/takky/

-12 V input	S1	1
GND	S2	2
ADB Power Supply	S3	5
GND	S4	6
Power off command	S5	7
	S6
+5 V	S7	23
	S8

hopefully, the 5200 is not using S6 and S8 for anything, but I will need to get the 10p connector (don't want to take it from the PSU).

Testing with the original PSU
Before proceeding with replacing it, I wanted to check if it would work just connecting these parts and using the video-mirror cable

- the 14 molex mini-jr is connected from the logic board connector to PSU at cn4
- the "supply board" 10pin connector (8pin cable) from logic board connector to PSU at cn5
- front control board to logic board connector, that also has the green led light when the computer is on
- keyboard to the back of the 5200 logic board
- mac to vga adapter to the video mirror (that then goes to vga to hdmi, and then to a hdmi capture card), and the hdmi capture audio jack into the front control board jack.

When I press power-on on the keyboard, the keyboard leds light up as expected, and the front control led lights up as well.
However, I get no video signal. I did not capture any chime though.

The PSU makes some odd sounds (a bit of clicking, and sometimes a bit of whizzing sounds), maybe it is not in its best shape so it also makes me nervous to be near it when testing.

Plugging this motherboard into my working/fine 5200, it boots up fine and I can capture from the mirror video port.
View attachment 1736688817726.png

I'm not sure why I'm not getting video. Maybe the PSU is not working well after all?

Any ideas?

 

[noglin]

OK a bit of progress. I tried connect the analog board and neck board (to PSU, to the logic board connector, and between themselves), and then I got video on the mirror-out!

Turns out, it works even if I don't connect the analog and neck board, and don't connect PSU to them. I only need to plug the 14p cable from the logic board connector to the P801 on analog board, and the 10p marked "neck board" to P301 on neck board (if I don't connect this 10p, the video still shows but garbled, the "?" floppy disk is unrecognizeable).

Of course, I want to avoid using the analog and neck board.

Assuming the 630 connector is exactly the same as the 5200 (that's what I've been told), and looking at https://powercc.org/takky/, I line it up as below.




I'm attaching photos of the analog board, where the 14-pin connects to P801. Using the pin numbers as seen from the back and the text markings (nothing = no text, and no trace afaic):
2 1: nothing, nothing
4 3: fan, nothing
6 5: nothing, nothing
8 7: "mic" (S35?), "M-R" (mute R?)
10 9: "A-mute", nothing
12 11: "L-A", nothing
14 13: "R-A", "A-R" (?)

Why must this be connected or we won't get video?

 

[Snial]

OK a bit of progress. I tried connect the analog board and neck board (to PSU, to the logic board connector, and between themselves), and then I got video on the mirror-out!

Turns out, it works even if I don't connect the analog and neck board, and don't connect PSU to them. I only need to plug the 14p cable from the logic board connector to the P801 on analog board, and the 10p marked "neck board" to P301 on neck board (if I don't connect this 10p, the video still shows but garbled, the "?" floppy disk is unrecognizeable).

Of course, I want to avoid using the analog and neck board.

Assuming the 630 connector is exactly the same as the 5200 (that's what I've been told), and looking at https://powercc.org/takky/, I line it up as below.

View attachment 82143


I'm attaching photos of the analog board, where the 14-pin connects to P801. Using the pin numbers as seen from the back and the text markings (nothing = no text, and no trace afaic):
2 1: nothing, nothing
4 3: fan, nothing
6 5: nothing, nothing
8 7: "mic" (S35?), "M-R" (mute R?)
10 9: "A-mute", nothing
12 11: "L-A", nothing
14 13: "R-A", "A-R" (?)

Why must this be connected or we won't get video?

Cool! Impressive!

 

[Chopsticks]

@noglin i would expect that your video out issues are due to the fact that these machines need the monitor ID pins set so they display the correct resolution/frequency. S19, S20, S20, S21 need to get wired up correctly to get the right signal.
if you ground Sense 0 (Monitor ID 0, S20)to Ground (S21) you should get 640x480.
i haven't used the video mirroring board myself but i would assuming it still relies on the monitor Sense ID to be correctly set

assuming you have those pins configured along with the power rails and have inverted the power on signal you shouldn't need anything else wired up on the harness to get a bootable system (assuming you plug in an external scsi drive)

ive been a bit busy over the Christmas holidays but let me know if there's anything more i can help/clarify about what i did to get my setup working