Search results

Hello, This thread is mostly documentation. While probing on my lab board, I noticed that there is multiple revisions of boards around with major differences. Is this something known ? Having some minor revisions around is a common thing, but there it seems that there is a lot more going on in...

Hello, Had theses around, figured I could make a guide on how to convert them to use with old Macs. VTech is a company that did Apple II clones, and later education computers. This mouse was designed to be used with such computers, but the circuity is compatible with early Macs. It's a fully...

Hello everyone, Posting this here, this is really niche. Built it while developing other stuff for early Macs It's a small debug board that plug in place of the VIA (or on top of if you can find the correct clip). It includes a 7 segment display which is useful for displaying the following...

Now your old Mac can hear you scream! Introducing... TashRecorder! Elevator Pitch This a compatible clone of the Farallon MacRecorder , but as far as the software is concerned, it's the real deal! Both @tashtari and myself (since 2021!) had this project on our own, one of us having a working...

Introduction pitch A member of the forum gave me this card (without the matching breakout box) for R&D purposes. Sometimes R&D gives birth to something so here we are. The initial design for a breakout box was plagued with a few issues, like missing information about some custom chips and lack...

Hello, I knew for a long time that this series of the powerbook has a SPI bus on the modem connector. From the developer notes it's mentioned that the SPI host is likely the Misc GLU: The documentation (Modem Electrical Interface section) also describes how to switch the modem slot from...

Was working on this since a few weeks. Since it works, I'm gonna post that here. Long story short, while talking with folks around here, one common issue we had was that while Extended Keyboards are great (and still my favorite keyboard), they are kinda big for test benches or if your retro...

Hello everyone ! Introduction This is more of a note. I wanted a Linux install on my lab PowerBook and had some success after a few tries so here is how it was done. That thing even runs custom modern Linux kernel (6.1.22), which is the latest LTS kernel available as of now ! The issue with...

Hello, I had this PCI card lying around because I couldn't get IXMicro drivers to work and enable acceleration. Someone suggested to me that this card came from a dead 9500 or 9600, and that I should try Apple drivers. For reference, we are talking about this card: This card now runs in my...

Hello everyone, I'm pleased to announce a new device for the Macintosh community. This is the result of almost a year of work during the big pandemic. This work was inspired by @cheesestraws Joystick thread, @Kai Robinson tinkering the SE ADB Chip, and the Space Gray Magic Mouse 2 which does...

Hello, I needed this to be done for a R&D project, so in case it's useful for someone else, I'm posting my notes here The PB5xx series have two 16 pins connector for the keyboard. They are standard 1mm pitch 16 pins ribbon connectors. Here is a picture of the PCB below the metallic shield...

Hello, I've been asked to post this here on IRC so there it is. A lot of PSUs from this era are bad quality and difficult to repair (if possible at all). One of the worsts is the Astec AA15830 (Apple P/ 699-0392) One of the solution is to use the excellent adapter board by @blusnowkitty and...

Hello everyone, One item on my todo list was to benchmark Apple NuBus A/ROSE Ethernet card. A/ROSE is a small Operating System that that runs on some NuBus cards. A/ROSE NuBus cards have their on 68k CPU (usually a 68000 @ 10 MHz) that should offload the main CPU on a Mac II. People reported...

Hello, This is a little bit of a blog post, if this is more suited to "The Lounge", please let me know. This is the story of my longest running Macintosh (nicknamed Pulse), which is still running 24/7 after 17 years. Intro A while ago, circa 2002-2003, an apple reseller gave me a dead G3/233...

Hello, Noticed a few month ago that the 53C80 SCSI Chip is in life production by Zilog, available new : Mouser link : https://www.mouser.fr/ProductDetail/692-Z53C8003VSG/ COVID helping, I bough a broken MacSnap SCSI on eBay and started to reverse it. I though it will be cool to gave a...

Hello, Just picked a couple of Radius Pivots for a few bucks. Model 0194. From my memory, they need a specific video card. Found one on eBay, waiting for it. First issue :  no cable in sight for both screens. Anyone got the pinout ? Would a straight DB9 cable work ? Second issue : none of...

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...

Hello, The PPC card on my Quadra 650 isn't detected anymore, neither by the PPC601 Control Panel or TattleTech. I tried in a Quadra 800 and no luck either. The regulator get hot (40-50°C by hand), and the CPU get a little colder, so there is power going through it. The thermal paste is bad...

Was busy cleaning some NuBus cards and noticed something weird on this card. I'm amazed it's there, as usually you will find something more a 68HC05 or 68HC11 performance wise, so it has to do some "heavy" processing. Pictures attached for reference Close view: What it is for ? Something...

Hello everyone :)   Introduction Long story short, I got a 8100 a while back, which had some sort of PSU fault which resulted in a dead motherboard (burned area of 4 cm^2 + tons of smoke :O  ). Salvaged some parts of it, included one HPV card (820-0509-A). I want to use this card into my...