Mac 512K (or 128K!) shuts itself off, using WeMo and IFTTT.

[napabar]

Here is my latest video showing how to give a Mac 512K the ability to shut itself off using Siri, iCloud, IFTTT, and a Wemo.

What's really cool is that this could easily have been a Mac 128K and accomplished the same thing! It may be time to re-evalute what we can do with a Mac 128K, using these services and devices in tandem. Like I mention in the video, it's really limited to our imagination and scripting ability!

 

[volvo242gt]

Cool.

Wouldn't surprise me. For that matter, I bet it could be done with an Apple II equipped with the echo speech synthesizer...

Anyway, keep it up with the cool videos...

-J

 

[napabar]

Thanks, J!

I had the same thought about Apple II computers. I remember my brother had one in his II+. I went to You Tube and listened to a few different 8-bit voice synthesizers, from Apple and Atari. The truth is, the Mac's speech is in a league of it's own compared to the 8-bits. There is just no way Siri is going to understand them. Heck, it has trouble with more words than not with the Mac. I used a lot of trial and error to make these videos.

 

[volvo242gt]

It's a shame that Macintalk 2 (or Pro) is too big to run under System 6 on a 512Ke... That would work fairly well, even though there is some stuttering heard in some of the voices, like "Fred", etc.

-J

 

[Ike]

fantastic video and experiments! love all the different routes that that one command has to go before it actually switches off the Mac

 

[onlyonemac]

Write a note:night, night

LOL :lol: .

 

[RickNel]

OK, neat enough demo of remote command possibilities, but limited to the mains power on-off if I understand correctly.

To be more than a one-trick pony, this setup would need to be able to boot the 128/512 as well as shut it down. How can you get around the need to push in the boot disk after power-up? I don't know of any software hacks that stop the 512 ejecting its disk on shut-down and on power-up. Maybe they exist.

Your WeMo would have to activate some kind of robotic finger to push in the disk, but how would it know the Mac was ready for the disk? I guess you could program a long delay into the relay circuits to activate the finger, because you only get one chance to turn on the WeMo. The length of the delay would depend on how much memory the Mac ROM has to test before it starts looking for the floppy disk. It's only a few seconds for a 512, but a Plus with 16Mb or more can take over a minute.

I believe my attached human finger is not yet completely obsolete :beige:

Rick

 

[napabar]

There's no way to have it speak to power itself on if it's off!!!!! My modern iMac can't turn itself on through sheer will! LOL!

I could have left the disks in there and not do the software shutdown. The Mac 512K would have powered off, and the disks would have remained in the drive for the next time it was turned on.

 

[onlyonemac]

Your WeMo would have to activate some kind of robotic finger to push in the disk, but how would it know the Mac was ready for the disk? I guess you could program a long delay into the relay circuits to activate the finger, because you only get one chance to turn on the WeMo. The length of the delay would depend on how much memory the Mac ROM has to test before it starts looking for the floppy disk. It's only a few seconds for a 512, but a Plus with 16Mb or more can take over a minute.

Won't it work if the disk is in the drive before the Mac is ready for it? That's how I used to boot my Performa 475. I would always put the disk in then turn it on. Are earlier ROMs different?

 

[napabar]

The disks can be in the drive before I powered it up with the iPhone app. I also could have skipped the software shutdown and just had the power killed to the Mac.

But then I thought someone would chime in on here about how that's not best practices with Macs...

 

[RickNel]

Well I don't know if it's just me or my 512 (with Plus ROMs), but if I leave a disk in the slot after power-off, it always ejects that disk when I next turn power on, even if it is a boot disk. It seems to be part of the ROM boot sequence.

I'm not a Creationist, so I realise that the MAC can't initiate its own power-on

I was thinking that with the entire global Internet as your communication option, a remote power-up via WeMo would be more "useful" than the on-site power-down, which is just kind of fun. Not that anything we do here has to be strictly useful :beige:

Rick

 

[napabar]

Rick,

Watch my video again. I do "Power up" the Mac 512K remotely....on the iPhone....using the WeMo app!