Any ideas for hacks, etc.?

13 posts / 0 new
Last post
Offline
Last seen: 19 years 2 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 1
Any ideas for hacks, etc.?

I have two powermac 7200's, mac SE, and a powermac 4400. I already have my g5 for home, my tibook for work, and my B&W for the wife and kids. Any suggestions on what I can do with my older macs? It's a shame to keep them in a closet.

Offline
Last seen: 18 years 1 month ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 37
A few ideas

Home theater/home automation/backup server/ and the se is good for some of those older mac games, i still think there fun every now and then

catmistake's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 4 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 1100
SE is gold

I think the SE (and the SE/30) are the coolest looking boxes Apple ever released. I think the sky is the limit on what you could do to it... but I think the fish tank thing is a waste. I've mentioned it before, all I want to do is get a pismo board working inside one (with a 900MHz G3), add a PC card with fw 800 port, and a LCD from a 2300c, and fill it up with firewire drives, maybe even the terabyte drive... and run Darwin on it... but I have no electronic skills.

As for the 7200's and the 4400?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=45046&item=3808751242&rd=1

bid early!

Reverend Darkness's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 5 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 502
PC Compatibility Card

Stick a PC Compatibility Card* in the 4400 and install Windows 95 on it. Then, show clueless Mac neonates that you installed Win95 on a Mac, and see how they freak. That's what I'm working on...

*soon to be available in "For Sale or Trade"

This is supposed to profound or witty or both, but I don't feel like it.

jt
Offline
Last seen: 17 years 1 month ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 447
Aha!

Somebody else noticed that the 2300c LCD might work in the compacts! I knew you wanted to do the interfacing, but you hadn't mentioned the application, AFAIK. Have you done any serious fittings yet or did you just notice that you can bend back the electronics to get it centered? I'm not doing this hack, I'm putting that LCD in BabyPB my very first PowerBook, the only Mac I've ever bought NIB for myself, a maxed out PB100.

That SE hack is a good one, just do it with a 2300c mobo for now. Wink

jt

Perpetrator of the 68kMLA's text format impaired: Peripherals Links Project(tm)
. . . and LinksProjectClassic(tm)

catmistake's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 4 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 1100
I wasn't sure

"might" is the right word... I don't know if it will fit, but from pictures, it looks like it definately might... I'll know soon enough, I found a guy that has a bunch of new 2300c displays.

What I'd really like to do is get a piece of shaped glass or molded plastic, shaped like the surface of the original CRT, to use as a lense to sit flat against and cover the LCD, to make it look like it is a CRT (and protect it from people who insist on touching the screen when they are pointing at something).

As for the 2300c mobo... not enough power... the pismo is such a sweet board, I know it fits, but I don't know how to anchor it yet. I think I may need to construct a whole new chassis, to maximize room (although without the CRT and analogue board, there is plenty of room) .

You know, I'm not a control freak or anything, anyone interested is welcome (of course) to do this hack themselves... I wouldn't mind the help at all, as I know so little about electronics. I wish Apple would just do it!

jt
Offline
Last seen: 17 years 1 month ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 447
GRRRRRR!!!!! >8-|

[quote]I wasn't sure

“might

catmistake's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 4 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 1100
Subject not part of the sentence

What I meant was, definitively, "might" IS the right word...
my subject line merely showed that I wasn't sure about anything, not that I wasn't sure "might" was the right word. I was trying to use a play on the word as both "may" and "strength." I didn't realize it looked like something else until you posted.
So, you know, cool your jets, I am in agreement, and I'm not gonna debate over things I am ignorant about (unless I truly am bored). Thanks for your wisdom... I may be asking some questions about that later...
and although I look young, still get carded for bubblegum, I just (ack!) turned 33, and my first Mac, enjoyed vicariously through a friend, son of a doctor, was 128K.

jt
Offline
Last seen: 17 years 1 month ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 447
I'm bored too . . .

. . . and fooling around here is one of the things I do for fun. Things have been so slow around here and over at the barracks that I was kidding around with you just to vent some of the frustration. WHERE IS EVERYBODY!?!

I wasn't debating anything either . . . taking things over the top has sort of become my trademark around these parts, or it was in another lifetime on the old forums.

It looks like I won't have to mod the bezel opening of my PB100 at all, the 2300c LCD is a PERFECT fit in 640 x 400 x 16bit and that's where this one will be staying, behind BabyPB's ubmodified bezel if it's humanly possible. There are just a couple of thickness issues to tackle.

You gotta love that 2300c, decouple the inverter board and that LCD cable stretches out to about 12" long! Is your LCD coming with all the parts & casble taped up inside the EMI gift wrap or just as a bare LCD?

. . . and by the way, I'm MUCH older than I would need to be to have been your father! Heh! Wink

jt

Perpetrator of the 68kMLA's text format impaired: Peripherals Links Project(tm)
. . . and LinksProjectClassic(tm)

catmistake's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 4 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 1100
okay

Just so long as nobody's offending anybody, then that's ok...

You gotta love that 2300c, decouple the inverter board and that LCD cable stretches out to about 12″ long!

AWESOME... I worried about that, I'm gonna need it all... now... how does this thing connect to this other thing...?

to have been your father! Heh!
Noooo! Ben... Ben... Why didn't you tell me...?

jt
Offline
Last seen: 17 years 1 month ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 447
NoPro!

okay

Just so long as nobody’s offending anybody, then that’s ok…

I had a couple of run ins with Eudi way back when, but we've had a lot of fun together here since we' figured out that he's just a lil' acserbic sometimes and I'm at just a lil' crazy . . . err . . . most of the time. =8-/ How long have you been hanging around here? I didn't recognize your username from the old forums.


AWESOME… I worried about that, I’m gonna need it all… now… how does this thing connect to this other thing…?

Dunno, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's a workaround. I'm trying to unravel the innards of the 2300c and its kin, head back to your thread and we'll both pick dr. bob's brain! Wink Now that we know the 2300c is the MacHacker's dream in terms of flexibility and size, there ought to be a lot more action on the LCD research front. I lopped off the inverter cable feed for the backlight and put an 18" extension on it, so we KNOW the LCD works like that and the 2300c's LCD cable has the same awesome flexibility as there is built into the rest of that wonderful little NuBus jack of all trades.


Noooo! Ben… Ben… Why didn’t you tell me…?

HEH! Biggrin

jt

Perpetrator of the 68kMLA's text format impaired: Peripherals Links Project(tm)
. . . and LinksProjectClassic(tm)

catmistake's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 4 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 1100
friends helping friends

How long have you been hanging around here?

Since I got my pb, early December, I think... I had a deal with Tom that I (ahem) had to back out of, felt terrible about it, but I'm sure he had no problem moving the stuff. I had been here before, of course (this place is famous), but never posted, just pokin' around. It took getting a decent machine to let my inner hack child out. I've really gone overboard.
I remember 2 revs of this board already.
What's weird is that when I first started frequenting, it seemed like everyone was super-knowledgable and working for the Forces of Good, then... it seemed like there was a teeny bopper trend going on... these days it feels kind of desolate... takes days to get a (decent) response to some queries, when before it was nearly instantaneous that I would get at least 3 or 4 really good insights... I have a tendency to get under peoples skin, so I thought that might be it... but now I think people just have real lives. Someday, I hope to get one too.

DrBunsen's picture
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 8 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 946
Re: Any ideas for hacks, etc.?

Course, the simplest upgrade for an SE is to drop an SE/30 motherboard into it, but that hardly counts as a hack.

Is someone here implying that the 2300 LCD will work with a Pismo mobo without intervening electronics, or is it speculation and wishful thinking?

Log in or register to post comments