Apple as a company, has staked most of its future around being a “walled garden” where it controls everything from the hardware up through the user experience. In some ways this is good for users; the hardware is generally high quality and vetted by the company creating the software, making for a very uniform experience. This won’t stop some people from trying to get Apple’s operating systems and other software running on unapproved hardware though. These “Hackintosh” computers were much more common in the Intel era but this replica goes even further back to the Macintosh era.
Originally [Kevin] had ordered an authentic Macintosh with the intent of getting it working again, but a broken floppy disk drive and lack of replacement parts turned this project into a different beast. He used the Mac instead as a model for a new 3D-printed case, spending a ton of time sanding, filling, and finishing it to get it to look nearly indistinguishable from the original. The hardware going in this replica is an old Linux-based thin client machine running the Mini vMac operating system, with a modified floppy drive the computer uses to boot. A hidden SD card slot helps interface with modern computers. The display is a modern LCD, though a sheet of acrylic glued to the front panel replicates a bit of the CRT curve.
Click through to read on!
While in the end, the build uses an emulator to get the Mac operating system running, the video is worth a watch if not simply for the incredible amount of work [Kevin] put into replicating the overall aesthetic of the original compact macs. The only thing missing is a decade or two of plastic yellowing to give it the full retro feel of computers from this era. If you prefer a more modern take on retro electronics, have a look at this Macintosh which uses an iPad for the screen instead.
Thanks to [hypercube33] and [Joe] for the tip!
That’s really cute, I like how the chassis was being preserved and how the original input devices can be used. :)
On the other hand, it’s an emulator box, still.
How about re-plicating the original hardware using a real M68k or parts of the original electronics of the moth.. logic board?
Or simply re-use the CRT? A monochrome VBS circuit isn’t much more difficult than building a basic oscilloscope.
There are integrated circuits who can keep the component count very low.
“The hardware going in this replica is an old Linux-based thin client machine running the Mini vMac operating system, with a modified floppy drive the computer uses to boot.”
Speaking of Mini vMac, the original vMac emulator has a DOS port.
http://www.vmac.org/download/DOS/
It can be run on an single-board computer (SBC) with VGA.
That vMac runs on a 486 of mine, using System 6.0.8 as a boot image.
Anyway, just saying. In case some has a broken x86 laptop or something.
By using VGA port, the laptop’s motherboard can still be used for such little projects..
Preserved? What?
Yes, he did have an original.
He non-destructively took measurements from the original.
Then he set it aside for a future restoration if/when he manages to find a floppy drive for it.
This was about making a whole new device.
He 3d printed a new Chassis.
“Preserved? What?”
He did preserve the look and feel, I meant.
And he did preserve the original chassis in the form of a 3D model.
If it wasn’t being available (as a file) already, I mean.
I think the automated floppy eject mechanism is really cool, too!
Though I wonder why it needs a fancy microcontroller.
A serial pin of the thin client wouldn’t have done the trick?
I am surprised about the high amount of super glue that was used in this project.
Is this realy a long term solution? I become a fan of Stabilit Express for this usecase.
However, I know from my own project that most of the time of this kind
of project is filler&sanding again and again. :-)
Olaf
“The only thing missing is a decade or two of plastic yellowing to give it the full retro feel of computers from this era.”
No. I don’t get the whole “patina” infatuation that collectors have.
Are you trying to recreate what it was like to use computers in the past? I remember these things in the classroom when I was a kid. They were bright like the replica, not yellow like the original. Dirty yellow isn’t what we experienced in the era. It’s what you experience cleaning out a closet decades later.
You want to create the feeling of living in a landfill? Keep it yellow. You want to recreate a 1980s experience? retrobrite or print new.
+1
That’s same reason why some of “us” still keep a little, “inferior” CRT monitor.
We want to enjoy same experience as the programmers or users did back then.
Hmmm Wagos. It seemed like for about a year my Youtube feed was full of people talking about how Wagos are good and safe when used right. Now it’s pivoted to the opposite. I’m sure it will be fine, wouldn’t houses be burning down all over Europe if they weren’t good?
Sure. For house electric wiring go with whatever the poindexters with the slide rules endlessly tested and underwrote. Actual Wagos are probably included with that, check your IEC 60364 (or whatever applicable) and then with what local code allows.
Houses in europe run at twice the voltage, that’s half the amperage. Sooo, its different?
Just use the real thing. The Wago 221 series is UL- and VDE-certified, can take wire from 0.14mm² to 4mm² and is rated for 450V/32A. Preferred stuff also for industrial use because they can endure vibration and thermal cycling without the wires getting loose. Chinese knockoffs are crap, besides having no certifications at all, they cannot reliably hold AWG24 (0.25mm²) wires.
The most obvious difference is the color screen. There never was a tall box Mac (128, Fat, Plus, SE or SE/30) with color.
Do the Macintosh Color Classic / Color Classic II / Performa 250 / Performa 275 not count?
Wow, I love the auto-ejecting floppy drive mod!
I’m guessing, using a USB floppy drive this isn’t going to read an actual Mac disc but rather only PC formatted ones?
I suspect directly reading and writing Mac formatted discs would be possible if an internal PC floppy drive was used combined with a GreaseWeazle or similar. Still, you would have to write the low level software for it since existing software is about reading/writing images, not mounting. That might be more of a career/life’s work than a project.
“I’m guessing, using a USB floppy drive this isn’t going to read an actual Mac disc but rather only PC formatted ones?”
Good point, I thought about same thing. I guess it’s so that 800KB disks (originals, using GCR encoding) won’t be readable, but PC disks will (MFM encoding).
Later Macs shipped with a so-called “SuperDrive”, which could read/write PC formatted floppies as well as the old 400/800KB floppies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperDrive
How sweet would a 4k panel that can replicate the fuzzy pixels and the CRT picture expanding and contracting with temperature? 😂 I’m sure we’ll get there eventually.
Actually, a monochrome CRT had no screen mask.
There weren’t individual pixels, as far as the CRT goes, just lines.
That’s why b/w CRT often have that soft glow to them.
Green and amber monitors can be a different thing, though.
They often were of higher quality and adjusted to have a finer beam size.
The most popular example might be IBM MDA monitors (TTL monitors, for Hercules cards).
“In some ways this is good for users; the hardware is generally high quality and vetted by the company creating the software, making for a very uniform experience.”
Allows for a certain amount of controlled experimentation as well.
Gotta love the willy nilly swapping of Line & Neutral on the power bricks. The uncased brick had L & N swapped, I’m sure the brick for the usb hub wasn’t polarized to begin with, but still care should be taken with these things. Nothing like getting a tingle from what should be grounded but is referenced to mains, or having an RCD pop every time you plug your device in.
Common-mode interference (CMI) is also a huge problem, especially among cheap switching PSUs.
(Traditional transformer based PSUs do have galvanic insulation “built-in”, if not being messed up.)
I have watched an interesting video about the problem, albeit in German.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKB_buROM7s