PiMac
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This has certainly nothing ground breaking, but I'm happy with it so I thought I'd post it.
I just completed a RetroPie in a Macintosh Classic shell project. I love the form factor of the original Macintosh and find it really cheerful and fun to sit in front of.
The screen is an 800x600 VGA LCD I found on eBay for about $25. Looks pretty good with most systems!
This start screen needs a little work (it's not at the right resolution) but it's nice to see the little guy.
I mostly just use it with a USB SNES adapter and a pair of USB powered computer speakers. I intend to build in an internal speaker eventually but it's been a bit of a pain.
Branded! The back isn't too bad. I was able to use the original power switch and jack. The backplate kept getting pushed out of place by the force of inserting plugs, so I zip-tied it in place. Not too ugly though.
The messy insides. I built a little shelf out of MDF and long bolts which really helped keep everything in place. I'm using USB audio because the Pi's built in 3.5mm is terrible and my HDMI to VGA's audio port didn't seem to work at all. The board in the rear is just a USB hub which I stripped down to make it easier to mount in place. The control board for the LCD is mounted underneath, and below that are all the power adapters and wire clutter.Thanks to everyone who works on RetroPie. I tried this a couple of years ago with a Pi 1 B+ and had a lot of frustrating problems, but now with RetroPie 3.6 and the Raspberry Pi 3 it's been smooth and easy.
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@raygan
Nice job! Beautiful! -
What a great idea! The Macintosh indeed is a fun tabletop to look at, so i love it! Excellent job!
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Very nice job, looks great! I like the fact you have it powered with the original port and switch via a mains cable. Does that new connector in the back of the power socket then go onwards to a stripped down usb power supply or something? Would be good to hear a little about how you wired that up (I'm fairly clueless and looking to learn more about this stuff).
R
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Thanks all. I posted this months ago so I'm surprised to suddenly get a bunch of replies!
The power jack just connects to a small three port power strip inside the case. I have the screen, the USB hub, and a USB power supply connected to it.
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@raygan
I am new here and didn't see the original post until it just got bumped by jackieqi's reply. Thanks for the extra info and again nice work, hope you have been getting a lot of enjoyment out of it! -
@raygan can you tell me how you did the glass front?
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@edmaul69 no glass, just a piece of thin plexiglass cut to fit. I made a frame for the LCD out of black foam core board and put a sheet of plexiglass on top, then screwed it to the original CRT mounting holes.
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@raygan Nicely done! Integrating the switch, power plug and existing port locations is a nice touch, but like @edmaul69 I am interested in the screen mount. Getting that to look nice is tough. It looks like you used existing screw holes in the Mac bezel. Did you build something out of black foam core?
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I hope the macintosh was broken but still nice job dude!
"See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster." -Johan Cruyff
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@raygan
Do you mind share more detail about the size of the VGA screen(9inch)?
I happened to have a Mackintosh at hand and am considering to mod it - inspired by your post!Thanks,
Jackie -
@jackieqi Its an 8" 800x600 VGA/composite screen I found on eBay for about $25. It was a bare panel and controller board, so I don't know the brand name or anything. I made a black foamboard frame to hold it in place.
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@Redstoner Yes, it was very broken. Bad CRT and bad power supply. I'm still looking around for a working Mac Plus or Mac Classic for a reasonable price!
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@jackieqi Its an 8" 800x600 VGA/composite screen I found on eBay for about $25. It was a bare panel and controller board, so I don't know the brand name or anything. I made a black foamboard frame to hold it in place.
Could you put a link for the screen? I do not find it on eBay...
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@raygan ok pffew, i almost thought you ruined a working macintosh
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@Redstoner i just ruined a working apple iie puting a modern computer in the base, a dvd drive in the duo disk ii and a 15" tv in the green phosphor monitor. When the next working apple iie shows up next week i will be doing a raspberry pi in its base and a 15" tv in that green phosphor monitor as well. It sucks doing it but they both will be fully working with the apple joystick and all the apple ii disks on the apple emulator. Taking the face plate of a duo disk in to a local auto body shop to fill in the slots and paint it to turn that duo disk ii into a server.
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@edmaul69 are you able to make the keyboard work as well?
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@caver01 yes. Retroconnector.com sells usb adaptors for apple ii and mac keyboards and ones for the joysticks. He also makes an optical usb board for the mice. He also make apple ii pi cases and working miniature monitors for ii and iic to go on/with the apple raspberry pi cases he makes. He makes a functioning miniature disk ii sd card reader for the pi as well. He also makes some stuff for functioning apple ii's as well.
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@space-invader I bought the screen well over a year ago but this one looks almost identical.
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