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Building a retro "Docking-Station"

M

mboconnell

6502
I need some advice.

I am setting up a mac plus webserver and the peripherals are all really ugly and cable-y and stuff. I have an LCII that is dead. I am pretty sure I can get all the stuff inside the case (Farallon EtherWave (serial to 10T), 10T hub, 100T router, SCSI ZIP drive). Would it ruin the vintage-appeal to have an external power supply? The .75A of 12V the original supply can put out just isn't enough, and the server power supplies that will fit in the case are jumbo $$$$.

Any suggestions/ideas/comments? I could use some fresh input.

 
Would it ruin the vintage-appeal to have an external power supply?
Click to expand...
Not if it's well hidden, and just a single cable to the LC-Dock. I gather there's not enough room for all the peripherals, their individual power supplies and a power strip?

I like this idea. Anything that tidies up the spaghetti is good. Doing it inside an LC is even better.

How are you planning to run DC to all the devices?

How about you list all your devices here, with their voltage and current requirements?

 
Couple of suggestions:

Run an external regulated +12V wallwart, and a single cable from that to the LC. Then regulate the 12V down to the right voltage for each device.

Get a power supply from a later model LC or Quadra 605. That should have a bit more beef to it.

If you have a stronger PS around that is too big for the case, consider cutting a hole in the floor of the LC and hiding it behind the monofoot :)

 
Here are my devices:

Internal SCSI Zip: 5VDC 800mA

Farallon Etherwave: 12VDC 250mA

3Com Hub: *8VAC* 1A

Linksys Router: 5VDC 2.5A

If I remove the components from their cases I believe I can get it to all fit inside. The idea I had was to run an 8-conductor cable from the former power plug-in hole on the LC to a box on the floor. This would preserve the original power switch/cord configuration. 2 for the switch, 2 for 5V, 2 for 12V, and 2 for 8VAC.

What I really want to do is preserve the hole for the SCSI port, and use a DB-25 to DB-25 to connect the unit to my Plus, also preserve the ADB hole but use it to connect serial-to-serial.

Internally, I would connect serial to my Etherwave, connect the etherwave to the hub, and the hub to the router. I want to make some itty-bitty patch cords so all the unused ports can be made external (for hooking up future machines perhaps)

This would give me (on the back panel), Power in, switch, 3 10T ports, the scsi interface, the serial interface, 4 100T ports, and the WAN port.

I want to leave the 10T ports external because that would be the only way to hook up other old macs that can't auto-negotiate with new hardware.

 
Internal SCSI Zip: 5VDC 800mAFarallon Etherwave: 12VDC 250mA

3Com Hub: *8VAC* 1A

Linksys Router: 5VDC 2.5A
Click to expand...
Well, there's no way around running a separate line for the AC device. However you should be able to run the others from an LC supply if memory serves, or a single external 12V supply with a 12V to 5V step down DC-DC converter.

You don't really need a separate ground (negative or 0 volts) line for each DC device. * NB Guitar shops carry these handy little DC multi cables for running pedals from one supply. You could hack up one of those for your internal connections.

Code: 
                             _____
+12V ------------,----------[DC-DC]-+5V------,------------,
-    ----------,-|----------[_____]--------,-|----------, |
              | |                         | |          | |
              | |                         | |          | |
              - +                         - +          - +
              12V                          5V           5V
That make sense?

The converter I linked above is only 1 watt ie 200mA @ 5V. You'd need to source or run a few in parallel. Another source might be a power supply from inside an old external drive case (in which case you'd be running mains power to it) or one of the MiniITX.com DC-DC boards and their external power supplies.

Here's another alternative. That you could run off a +24V Powerbook supply for example. Wiring would be a little different from above but I'm sure you could work it out.

* NB this only applies to the DC devices. You definitely need to run two separate wires for the AC device.

 
I did some fiddling around last night and I also rechecked my math. I am pretty sure I can use the original power supply. I can't imagine that my router could really draw 2.5 amps so that puts me in the green. Unfortunately I am going to have to cut a bigger hole in the case than I thought, the Zip drive will not fit in front of the power supply so I will have to mount it on the harddisk side of the LC and cut a new slot to insert the disc.

My only challenge now is hooking up that Zip, its not an apple branded drive so i'm not sure it will work at all or if I will have to change some pinouts.

Speakin of pinouts, I was looking at them on technick.net and I couldn't find one to take internal scsi (50 pin) ribbon cable and put it to DB-25. Also, How do I tell if a device is differential vs. single-ended?

Just as a heads up, i've never built anything more complicated than a battery charger.

 
The ZIP should be fine as long as it's SCSI and not parallel. The router could well draw 2.5A so beware. What's the 5V rating on the LC power supply?

The easiest way to go from internal SCSI to external would be to cannibalise an old external SCSI CD. You could score the power supply while you're in there.

Wait, isn't there an internal to external SCSI lead in the LC? Might need a gender changer or extension, but there shouldn't be a pinout problem.

 
There isnt an internal-external lead that I am aware of, i was planning on taking a long 50-pin cable, cutting one connector off, wiring it into a DB-25F and mounting it to the case-hole that used to be the LC's SCSI interface

 
Internally, I would connect serial to my Etherwave, connect the etherwave to the hub, and the hub to the router. I want to make some itty-bitty patch cords so all the unused ports can be made external
Click to expand...
Might I suggest you make all the ports external? (and labelled) That way if you decide to change the patching at any time, you don't have to open the case. Just swap your itty patch cables around. If space permits, you might just be able to expose the rear of each device at the back of the LC case.

BTW excellent hack idea. Pixplzkthx!

 
There isnt an internal-external lead that I am aware of
Click to expand...
What about the one from the rear panel to the motherboard? Or the same from some other dead Mac, which might be longer? If the gender is wrong, either get a 50 pin IDE gender changer or cut off the internal 50 pin connector and crimp on the correct one.

 
Woah. I hope you know what you're doing if you're planning to hack into the 110/240 volt lines. I'd suggest adding an extra fuse just in case.

If you *do* know what you're doing, why bother with an outlet at all? Wire direct from the PS to the wallwart. Can we have a pic of the wallwart as well? Does it look guttable?

I see you've already gutted the Linksys. Where do you plan to have the antenna? Oh I see - out the front. Would it fit behind the ZIP, with the antenna coming out the back?

If you're already planning to run leads from the hub's ports to the back panel, could the hub fit in front of the PS? You could see the activity lights through the floppy slot. :b&w:

The Farallon - serial cable just coming out the back to the Mac?

 
The wallwart is pretty standard, if anything, I'll strip all the plastic off and screw it down next to the PS, its too thick to allow the case to close when its whole.

http://irish-mike.tripod.com/HORRIBLE1.JPG

http://irish-mike.tripod.com/HORRIBLE2.JPG

Actually, its a wired router. I thought that would be better because I can't run too much of a firewall on a Plus. (not that the average hacker would know what to do with it if they got control)

Now that I've looked at my cabling situation a little closer, I might not be able to install custom jacks unless I remove the cases from EVERYTHING, and I want most of this project to be reversible (the etherwave and hub were not designed to be disassembled)

http://irish-mike.tripod.com/MOSTCABLES.JPG

I also scrounged up a more powerful fan

 
yeah....

i tried creating an actual site so there wouldn't be so much cut-n-paste but iWeb is garbage... Give me a minute and I'll whip something up via FrontPage.

 
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