I want to do this...

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I've been goofing off, haven't looked at it, just watched Act of Valor this evening.

Thanks for the positive feedback, sometimes I don't think I'm getting things across visually, I KNOW I can't get much across verbally. :-/

 

[MinerAl]

The pics in this auction should be very helpful re: Classic II rails and clearances

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-Classic-II-M4150-Case-Floppy-Clean-Replacement-Mod-Part-/330921367530

I've taken the plastic venting out, so the whole under-mezzanine is available.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nice, got 'em. I actually watch listed that auction earlier. I missed that there were chassis pics, I didn't see the chassis mentioned or any bit of it in the first strip of pics, THX!

 

[markyb86]

Any more work on this one?

 

[MinerAl]

Slowly, but slowly... May and June are my busiest months, so I've been slacking on the important stuff like this build.

I need to send the last bits off to jt to get the innards squared away. I had Uniserver send me a power supply for the 605 board with the extra long wires to work in the Classic II chassis.

I have been filling and sanding and filling and sanding the face piece. My art teacher friend lent me some modeling paste, which is basically super thick latex paint, and clued me into emory boards (the Popsicle stick size & shape wooden nail files) for sanding inside the floppy port. I've probably got another hour of body work before I'll be ready to paint.

I still need to:

* get the spare parts to Trash80toHP_Mini so he can finish the stealth port-board

* finish body work and paint

* buy clear decal printer film/paper and make the front lettering

* print the back text sticker from earlier in the thread

* figure out where the Apple logo (and front text) will go and then more body work and paint to make the divot for the logo. I really wish I'd thought that through before I filled in the stock Classic II's logo divot. That might be the thing about this project that doesn't get done.

I'm coming to my free month of July now, so progress ought to pick back up. Thanks for asking!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I figured as much, it being the end of the school year and all.

 

[markyb86]

Just thought I would ask, I really like where this project is going!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I've got some time, the grlf's up north for the week, so lets see . . . :?:

. . . make a pencil rubbing of the bottom, edges and mounting holes of the CRT's A/B and sent that off in the mail. Very conveniently, I've got the rough sizing and spatial relationships of CRT and mounting lugs available on site already, [] ]'> but mounting the rubbing to cardboard and bolting that up will help immensely.

From the looks of the mounting arrangements it looks like the adjustment panel/ wheel are part of the A/B as opposed to being a daughtercard as in the 10" Color CRT. A clear shot of the AB would be a big help. Check to see if it'll spin 90 degrees in either direction as well, that way you'll be able to do any fiddling with the settings by popping the bucket off, assuming you don't wish to remove any of the grillwork under the chin for the wheels.

It looks like I can bolt the OEM A/B mounting rails right up to side of the Plexi Chassis in that orientation! :approve:

Post a picture of the bottom of the A/B from dead-on and spec the dimensions, that'll do until the mail arrives. Can you bend the rheostats forward and back a bit for vertical adjustment? I've also got the wheels and horizontal spacing specs for them in hand.

MuAhaHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

 

[MinerAl]

The wires on the CRT's AB are damned efficient. There's about an inch or two max wiggle in any direction. I can't get it on either side of the CRT, nor rotate it. It's generally where it will be. Luckily we have just the right amount of space under the CRT and above the FDD. I already figured there'd be a lot of fiddling with CRT settings before it was buttoned up. I'm not afraid to pop the case if adjustments prove necessary.

I intend to unsolder everything from the Classic II's AB except the speaker and power plug/switch arrangement. The rest of it is a big flat place to mount things. The power management for the CRT AB and the LCPSU will take up some of it, but the majority will be nice flat usable space.

I'll be able to get an etching tomorrow when I go back up to school, but I think there's a pic of it somewhere in the thread... I'll look. Nupe. I'll get one tomorrow.

 

[MinerAl]

Yeah, so... not exactly tomorrow.

I overestimated by a nearly infinite amount how much free time I would have this summer. My kids are both too old to nap, but not old enough to be left to their own devices for any length of time. Wife was at work, so I was not in a position to break out the pointy dangerous tools and toys.

Now we're all back to school, so once the groove is settled back into, I might have time for the Quadra Classic. I hate getting stalled at 75% like this. All the pieces have been put in the pile so to speak, but I haven't had the time to get them together, or to JT as the case may be.

I'm about an hour of sanding away from the case looking the way I want it, and a packing job from sending the things Trash80toHP_mini needs to fiddle with. I hope to get to it in the next week or two.

Maybe It'll be done by the anniversary of the first post in this thread.

 

[MinerAl]

No intent to change horses midstream, but for the sake of discussion -

Since I've had a little success with the plastic surgery on the front, I was considering just redoing the port holes on the back so the 475 board could ride in its proper place. The problem, because of the external video port on the LB, would be getting video back into the chassis without making some modification to the LB that would make it difficult or impossible to pop out in the future. One of my original design concepts was to have this as close to a production Mac as possible without too many wacky kludges to get things done.

JT and I have gone way past wacky now and are trying to pack a LOT into the case. He's already cut down the original Classic II LB to be a stealth port-relocator, and he's trying to engineer/shoehorn in a KVM switch so I can use the cool little monitor as an external for other computers instead of just for the limited functionality of the Quadra board in there. There's been talk of Ethernet-to-WiFi bridges with antennae sticking out to make it wireless. Sheer madness.

But, the original concept of a pretty stock config might be possible with a 575 board/ribbon connector. Then I can basically do the back of a Mystic hack and have a slide in/out LB with its own door and the Quadra brain (plus the comm slot) of a 575, instead of the 475/605 board with all the wackyness involved to make it work with internal video.

Does anybody have the schematic for the ribbon-slot thing from the inside of a CC/CCII/520/550/575?

Would it be super difficult to hack it to take power from an LC PSU? Would it be hard to isolate the video signals I need? If they could be isolated, could they be used with the KVM idea?

I would hate to have wasted all that effort on my keen little 605 board, (not to mention JT's time and effort on the Classic II's stealth port board) but It would still work in the 475 case it's slumming in now. Plus the real 040 chip, and the VRAM, and the RAM SIMM will all shift right over to the 575, so it's not like all the effort would be lost.

I'm not looking at the 580/630 boards because, although the IDE would be nice, I really want this to be a Quadra, not a disabled PPC. And, I'm worried about the longer 580 LB not fitting inside the Classic without heroic/crazy effort.

I'm assuming the width of a 575 board is the same as that of a 475. The 475 is about 8 5/8" wide, and the only Color Classic I have lying about is boardless, so hard to measure, but it sure looks close. Can anyone with at least one board from each category verify that a CC/CCII/LC520/550/575 LB is the same width as an LC/LCII/LCIII/LCIII+/LC475/Q605 LB?

This is all purely speculative. I'm not sure I can come up with the board and ribbon/slot thing economically, since they're in such demand from the CC scene.

 

[Bunsen]

I could use the help of a sound connector boffin on the way to wire the Quadra's output to the speakers via the Classic II MoBo strip's speaker jack pins as the normal state and then out to a stereo plug when it's inserted into the jack.

Use a switched socket; it's a standard part. There is a switch inside that diverts the signal lines to another output when a plug is not present.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

580/630 boards are Quadra all the way and very cool. The RoadApple PPCs were perfectly good 580/630 family boards with PPC CPUs slapped onto them with malice intent.

The problem you'd have with the 630 board would be size. There's only one way to get it to fit into a Compact and it ain't stealthy in the least. Is the 580 board the same as the Q630 board or is it a bit shorter from front to back than the 630 board? If so, that might work out for a stealth hack.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

First, I haven't actually begun rework on the port replicator, so that's no time wasted whatsoever. Procrastination pays! ;D

Second, I reread your post while I'm actually awake and see that you've already covered the point I made last night. :I

Third, I downloaded the Service Manuals for the 575 and 580, interesting little board that 575! :approve:

I see why you might want to give the 575 MoBo a try. Have you got one already? Is it safe to assume that the CC Crowd has already figured out how to adapt the Analog Board connector signals(?) to provide VGA output? That's the only fly I see in this ointment for your VGA-Classic. ISTR some of the CC hacks including a display upgrade to 640x480, so that might not be much of a problem in that case.

The power adaptation doesn't seem like much of a problem . . . 8-o . . . hrmmm . . . } . . .

. . . now that I think about it, eschewing use of the metal chassis and replacing it with a custom plexi chassis, as we discussed, opens up the possibility of stealth mounting a 630/6500 MoBo! By angling it up from the bottom front (MedusaMess) to approximately the level of the power switch (backplane) with the board inverted, there should still be room for the FDD! The PSU would need to be mounted sideways, just above the port replicator with the KVM switch in front.

Using the 580/630 board sidesteps A/B signal conversion, retaning 800x600 VGA output, something lost(?) in going the 575 route!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

BINGO!!! [] ]'>



With judicious trimming of the MedusaMess Connector, the CommSlot & TV Tuner Cards (connectorectomy required for that one) they should fit just fine!

One PCI Card, no problem! There's a possibility of using two as they're inset far enough into the drawer for it to work. [}] ]'>

This 630 hack is duck soup, whatchathink, Al?

edit: the ClassicCarcass in the pic is from the MacintoshClassicIIIColorTVp™ where I've done the ShortBedTakkyHACK™. That long delayed project is soon (a relative term) to be completed as I've now got a diamond blade wet tile saw waiting fabrication of a cutoff jig for lopping the back off the dead CRT/rear projection screen. One of these days . . .

 

[MinerAl]

Heh. I'm trying to go closer to stock than the 580/630 angled hack would allow for Can't wait to see yours in action though! The only benefit I can see of a 580/630 board would be the video resolution, but I'm not sure all the 'orrible 'acking necessary would be worth the extra pixels on board (and I wouldn't be surprised, the 475 and 575 boards being so similar, if there were hidden resolutions in there somewhere...) (Also I suppose it would allow me to "upgrade" it to a 5x00 board, but that's just cruel.)

I finally had a LC sized board and my boardless ColorClassicCarcass in the same place at the same time. The LCIII+ board slid in like it was made for it.

The only downside to the monochrome-Mystic idea is the difficulty of sourcing the board itself. I can get the ribbon cable out or one of my bins if I have to.

I'm leaning towards this being the future of this project.

I'll post some pictures of the much-refined facial plastic-surgery when I get a minute this weekend (or, you know, soonish). I'm almost ready to paint it Platinum

 

[MinerAl]

Oh man! I totally forgot about this thing! I can have the internal video just plug and play!

I'm gonna go beg for a 575 board now. Dang! I thought I was done pouring funds into this idea.

 

[mcdermd]

Do you need one of those? I have one in the scrap box here.

 

[MinerAl]

I've been collecting parts, and have a 575 connector/ribbon-loom combo (from a badly shipped parts machine) on the way.

I can find the Takky (630 SCSI + IDE) loom schematic easily. Does anyone know where to find the schematic for the 5xx or CC (SCSI only) series loom? Google and I can't find the right terms with which to search.

Seems like a LOT of Color Classic info bit the dust in 2012. The ColourClassicFAQ and tesco.net are gone from the real web (yay wayback-machine!). I'm sure somebody besides myself would like to have this info archived/mirrored.

Uniserver is recapping my 575 board as we speak (and will get it to me when I figure out how to properly package his trade!), so I'm beginning to get excited again about the possibilities of this project!

 

[MinerAl]

State of the project:

Real Life is backing off a bit, so I'm getting a chance to evaluate ideas and get things in line to actually bring this to a close.

Previously I was working with a Q605 board that I was going to hide under a cut down and thoroughly re-jiggered Classic II board for ports in an unmodified rear case. Trash80toHP_Mini was going to make the stealth ports board for me, and pop in a KVM switch so I could use the cool little monitor with any computer, not just the 605 lobo.

All in all, lots of fun ideas, but too complex. All those parts, and a donor Performa 460 case, will make a very nice LC475/33. No real loss at all.

---

Currently I've decided to go simpler on the internal electronics, by going with an LC575's lobo and ribbon-connectors, and slightly more complex on the body-work by either modifying the stock Classic II's rear panel to account for the new port positions on the 575 board, or with a Color Classic Mystic-style rear door from the shaved down 575's. Either way there's lots of opportunity for me to mess that up badly. Luckily I happen to have a spare Classic bucket for back up.

Getting video out of the ribbon-loom will be my next challenge. I'm hoping that, since the Analog Board connections were unmodified whenever people shoehorned 5/6x00 boards into Color Classics, the AB schematics and diagrams for Takky hacks will be helpful here. I need to decide if I'm going to cut off the edge connector, take those signals out to a regular Mac 15-pin connector, then use an adapter to get it to the monitor's VGA connector, or if I should go the elegant route and make a little board that slides into the edge connector, does the conversion, and just sends the signals straight to the monitor's AB connector. We'll see how much spare volume I have to play with inside the case. Elegant will take more effort but way less room.

The 575 ribbon loom also has an extra SCSI ribbon/edge-connector for the CD-ROM drive in the 5xx machines. I think I'll just hack it off. I'm also strongly considering putting a regular 50-pin connector (and 4-pin molex plug) on the end of the SCSI cable I'm keeping instead of the edge connector for the slide in HDD/sled system in the 5xx series. I really wish I still had a stock CC ribbon-connector set up. Anybody do a Takky hack and have an old CC-loom in a drawer somewhere?

I still want to mirror the sunburst of holes on the CCII's left side onto its right and have stereo.

I'm still planning to use the LC power supply, since I'm not adding any new power-thirsty devices to the system. It should run the lobo, floppy, and HDD in this just like it did in the LC. I need to do some simple wiring to supply power to the monitor and LC power supply from the case's power socket and switch (I'm going to unsolder everything else from the analog board and just use it as a place to mount the LC PS and monitor AB).

I'm going to print the rear case sticker, and front Quadra Classic sticker. I need to go to Kinkos and see what my options are for this.

The body work on the front is mostly done. I still have some sanding to do, but the pout looks good, and the paint color looks close. I might mess with the paint formula a bit. If I wind up doing major body work on the back, that'll need finishing too.

TL;DR - Still working on this. Send me a Color Classic ribbon/connector-loom if you have one.