Pi inside an eMac G3

rockyhill

Successfully removed logic board from en eMac G3, activated CRT circuit
with an arduino(actually using the original CRT!!!), wired in a raspberry pi 3 and installed retropie.
Here's a video of it in action.

The process took a while but I'm currently documenting it in a wikibook. If you know something else that can help please add to this. Your additions are appreciated!
https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=How_to_modify_an_eMac_to_use_as_an_external_monitor

some more videos

backstander

@rockyhill awesome build!

I agree, high end CRT monitors/TVs do have great color and blacks look their best!

I've never tried olive oil to oil an old fan but have used all purpose machine oil and copper grease. Those also work pretty well but WD-40 does not work very long.

Also you should setup a Soft On/Off Circuit because you might kill your OS if you just power it off while it's on. Or you could use a PowerBlock or ControlBlock.

rockyhill

@backstander
Thanks!
The way it's set up now, the arduino is always on monitoring button presses. I've been contemplating implementing a soft on/off mechanism by wiring the pi via i2c to the arduino and have the arduino send it a shutdown command before cutting power to it. That's probably a next month thing though.

It's my first time using olive oil, let see how long it lasts!

Thanks for the comment!

markyh444

@rockyhill This is very impressive. Good work. Only watched half of the videos coz I've had to go out, but I'll be taking a better look later on.

moosepr

@rockyhill that's mega! Getting the old CRT working is a genius move!

rockyhill

thanks!
I just wanted to point out that this is an eMac G4 a two time tired typo on my part.

rockyhill

@backstander forgot to give you a 1 up for liking CRTs.

harpingon

Is there some reason I'm missing for using arduino for the I2C work instead of doing that with the raspberry pi? Sorry if that sounds like a dumb question @rockyhill

seffyroff

Hey man, what did you use to get the RPi3 HDMI output to VGA? I've seen a few convertor dongles online and was wondering what you used. I'm about to do the same thing here. Got my eMac, my RPi3, my Arduino and am just missing this info I think!