PowerBook 170 Air

[Rolard]

So I'm new to the forums but a long time 68k Mac owner. I picked up a pair of PowerBook 170s back in 1995ish for a song and have kept them running ever since. Well the time has come to resurrect one of them in a more modern format. One will remain a working 170 that I love and the other has become the spare parts machine. So I've decided to take the spare parts shell and hack a MacBook Air 11 inch into it. The screen should fit with some trim removal and the lower case should have plenty of room. Just looking to see if anyone has tried this before or has any hints or ideas? Right now I'm thinking the hardest part is going to be adapting the PB170 keyboard and trackball to the modern Mac. I have a lot of pin outs and information for the external ports on the 170 but nothing on the internal ribbon cables. I'm thinking if I can get the internal keyboard back to adb I can then adapt it to usb.

I'm currently on the hunt for at least one or two MacBook Air 11 inches I'm thinking mid 2011 i5 model preferably, one of which could be broken that I could use to determine how best to disassemble the air and use for test fits.

Anyway first post and hopefully I can be of some use to others on these forums.

Rolard

 

[Bunsen]

Skip ADB, go direct from the keymatrix to USB:

http://www.codemercs.com/en/products

 

[register]

For advice how to properly disassemble the units make sure to fully read the appropriate manuals available at Ifixit (it seems the website sets automatically the language according to the calling URL; please set the web interface to the language of your choice.)

 

[register]

If available cheap, consider to fetch a more recent i7 with 8 GB of RAM. Double check if the screens of all 11 inch versions are the same (they might be, as size and resolution have not changed since. You might frankenstein an old screen together with the mother board of a more recent version with broken screen. The excellent PB1400 keyboard provides F-keys and might approximately fit into the 170's case. And think of that huge lot of space to fit more batteries in…

 

[Bunsen]

Possibly the trickiest part will be extending (if necessary) and routing the cables to the LCD through the hinge.