Tom2112
Well-known member
I was watching a YouTube video by Adrian Black of Adrian's Digital Basement. In it he showed a nifty tool called the RGBtoHDMI Video Interface, and he grabbed the video signals right off the logic-board-to-analog-board connection and wired them into this RGBtoHDMI device which output a pixel perfect display to his HDMI monitor. (links to the video and hardware below)
That made me think... I wonder what other signals pass through that connector (J12)? So I dug up this nice pinout diagram:
According to that, the only things going through J12 are power, ground, and video.
So that made me think... since the analog board's flyback transformers are very hard to repair/replace, a person with a bad one could remove the analog board and the CRT and replace them with a modern power supply, the RGBtoHDMI device, and a small HDMI LCD panel...
The hard part would be finding a modern PSU that supplies the negative 5 volt rail. But maybe you could just use the existing SE/30 PSU...
I suppose a really creative person could replace the hard drive with a SCSI2SD, remove the floppy, stand the logic board up with the PSU below it, and make a very shallow backed SE/30 using just the front bezel and a 3D printed rear case... making it only 4 or so inches deep...
Am I crazy, or does this actually sound like it would work?
Links:
Adrian's RGBtoHMDI for Mac video:
https://youtu.be/pvjsXbz1xlk
RGBtoHDMI adapter:
https://retrohackshack.com/2021/07/20/now-selling-the-rgbtohdmi-adaptor/
That made me think... I wonder what other signals pass through that connector (J12)? So I dug up this nice pinout diagram:
According to that, the only things going through J12 are power, ground, and video.
So that made me think... since the analog board's flyback transformers are very hard to repair/replace, a person with a bad one could remove the analog board and the CRT and replace them with a modern power supply, the RGBtoHDMI device, and a small HDMI LCD panel...
The hard part would be finding a modern PSU that supplies the negative 5 volt rail. But maybe you could just use the existing SE/30 PSU...
I suppose a really creative person could replace the hard drive with a SCSI2SD, remove the floppy, stand the logic board up with the PSU below it, and make a very shallow backed SE/30 using just the front bezel and a 3D printed rear case... making it only 4 or so inches deep...
Am I crazy, or does this actually sound like it would work?
Links:
Adrian's RGBtoHMDI for Mac video:
https://youtu.be/pvjsXbz1xlk
RGBtoHDMI adapter:
https://retrohackshack.com/2021/07/20/now-selling-the-rgbtohdmi-adaptor/