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Lisa to Mac Plus conversion

Canby Fat Mac

Canby Fat Mac

6502
Sorry if this has been asked before. My Lisa is in sad shape and will take time find another I/O board and software. What im thinking of doing in the interim is making a custom motherboard tray with the 30/60 male card end connector for disk, keyboard, and power switch feeds, and a 15/30 male card end connector for speaker, video, and power all running back to a plus motherboard. I want make it swappable so can put the original Lisa 2/5 board tray right back in and Vice versa. I realize the power switch will need a custom circuit to trigger the PS, and I'll have to bypass the Lite card.

But how realistic is it to attempt this swappable convention?

Only thing online is a Pi conversion but that doesn't keep to the apple Spirit of things.

 
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Sounds fun, but personally I wouldn't touch a highly collectible Mac worth a lot of coin to house a $50 Mac. It could be easily damaged along the process, and you'll never find replacement Lisa parts again.

 
That sounds pretty ambitious, but would be cool if you could figure it out.

I can't find the thread now (or remember if it was even on this site) but there was an eBay listing where someone had shoe-horned a Mac motherboard into a Lisa case, using the built-in CRT, but having to  hack a hole in the front for the keyboard connector. Can't remember if it used the Lisa PS or not...

 
Yes. I got one. It has an special card to convert the video. Build by the former owner maybe. If you have one like that it is possible. But not sure how to make it.....

 
That is one SWEEET hack! :approve:

Thanks for those interface pics. I hope g was right and that board is tacking some of the missing features he mentioned onto the Compact's video implementation to bring it more into line with the implementation of a real monitor.

Could this be a missing link in the recreation of the TTL(?) output converter used in CatMacs/Hackintoshes of yore?

To add on to mineral's comments about using the yoke from a 12" Monochrome in a Lisa, I've gone one further with that notion. All I have is a Lisa II front bezel, but the 12" RGB tube nuzzles right up to it in my custom sheet metal chassis. Haven't checked the depth of the real deal, but if someone had a rusted out hulk to play around with a color Lisas's not all that far fetched a notion.

 
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Grabbed a torch and lighted up the board. Hope you can see the traces better now. Also removed the WP cap. Seems to be some kind of a battery underneath ....

IMG_9372.JPG

IMG_9373.JPG

 
What does the transition from A/B cable to the ribbon cable extension look like? Did they just rewire the board connector to the longer, lighter duty rainbow cable and where the heck does that IDC ribbon cable go?

 
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Ok. I made three more pictures of the cable. The coloured ribbon goes to the motherboard and the grey one to the power switch.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]IMG_9377.JPG[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]IMG_9378.JPG[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]IMG_9379.JPG[/SIZE]

 
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