I've been hunting for the right forum to post this; hope this is the right place.
I'm planning on putting a motherboard from a slot-loading iMac without video mirroring/firewire into a color classic. The original monitor will be replaced by an LCD display. I wonder if anyone out there has done this before. It all seems possible (barely) but I am trying to find a way to convert the video connection on the mother board to something an LCD screen can use.
I have started a Web page detailing my progress. At this point, it's not much:
http://homepage.mac.com/northernleitz/Sites/comiclife/index.html
Then click on "ColorClassiX."
Any advice (Other than don't do it, are you mad?) will be appreciated.
I like the comic layout
http://colourclassicfaq.com/mobo/imacc.html
...has half the job you're doing.
A few others, including Stuart Bell who admins the CC forum here, as well as Dead Elvis, have successfully installed LCDs in CCs, with control boards converting the VGA from the logic board to the LCD. Earth LCD has control boards for the LCD.
Keep us posted!
I'm glad this page is still up!:
http://www.ct-scan.com/iMacATX/
That should tell you everything you need to know.
As for an LCD, there are several 8 inch LCD screens with VGA input which are generally promoted for the car-puter market, which I would absolutely recommend over trying to match a controller to an LCD panel, which is a nightmare.
Thank you both for the links. I have fully disassembled the iMac and CC, got most of the parts I need. Looks like the iMac motherboard will just... barely... fit in the CC. I am planning on using/modifying a SCSI ribbon from an LCIII to connect the CD drive back to the iMac mobo. I'm going to get some cables to route the USB/sound out the back from frontx.com. Then I am going to eBay an Airport card for it. The plan is to eventually use this computer as a jukebox.
Eight-inch LCD with VGA in marketed to car-puters? Those are 12-volt, yes? The ATX power supply has a 12-volt connection, correct? Might go with a touch-sensitive screen just for fun.
This is _exactly_ the right Forum! Welcome!
A Japanese company put iMac boards in CCs a while back but, ISTR, only with l/bs from tray-loaders. I looked at a slot-load l/b and concluded that the power-supply system is so complex, including the 'Down Convertor' board and A/C running all over the place, that I didn't want to start it.
My 'Taco' with beige G3 l/b and LCD used a separate LCD and VGA-LCD driver boards at a total cost that I'd rather not calculate. That design concept has now been surpassed by VGA-input LCDs for car-puters, as noted above.
Just watch out that the LCD doesn't have too much 'real estate' around the visible area, which could make fitting it centrally and neatly in the CC's 'window' problematic.
And keep us posted on your progress!
Stuart
Yes, what is this for anyway? When I was taking the thing apart it looked like it just supplies power to the hard drive. The CD drive, though, gets power from the mobo via the ribbon. I may either get a tray-loading optical drive and power it from an ATX power supply (which I will also do with the hard drive) or just forget the optical drive altogether.
I also have an old Apple external SCSI CD-ROM that I might convert to an external ATA slot-loading optical drive. Looks like the CC could sit right on top of it and look very natural.
Stuart, I too am concerned about finding an LCD that fits properly. My plan is the next time I get to "town" (Fairbanks or Anchorage, AK) I'll take the front of the CC and hit the electronics shops and do some test fittings. I'd reuse the original monitor but I'm afraid I'm not that good with electronics, and I want it to run at 800x600.
If you want SVGA, and LCD is the only way IMHO. Some have tried it with the CRT, but it gets very hard, if not impossible, to produce a screen with good geometry at that resolution.
Stuart
Just a reminder, if you only use external cd rom youll never be able to boot from it... just in case
Depends what you mean by "external". If it's a USB CDR, sure, but if it's "external" only in the sense of being outside the CC case, but attached to the internal ATA connector on the motherboard, it'll boot.
I'm thinking way outside the box here, but I am hoping to use an old SCSI ribbon to plug into the mobo, find/steal/make an internal to external SCSI converter, along with an external to internal SCSI converter, and modify the Apple CD case to take the slot-loading CD. I'll have to modify the SCSI ribbon by lopping off connecters and grinding bits so it will plug into an ATA hard drive. Essentially the ribbon will be ATA but for the extra conductors that carry power to the CD drive.
Or I might surrender all attempts to make it look like an old CC and just stick the CD drive in there behind the LCD and make it a slot-loader from the top ala the G4 Cube.
I've definitely decided to go with a flatscreen LCD monitor, touch sensitive even.
While I am sitting here thinking of SCSI... if anyone wants an old Pioneer SCSI CD-ROM changer, let me know. I would be willing to exchange it for a 25-pack of DVD-R media. I also have a huge cache of AppleTalk dongles.
Sounds feasible. You'd want to make damn sure you or anyone else don't accidentally plug any SCSI devices into the chain. Maybe it would be worth considering some other connector type, so they can't possibly get mixed up.
Myself, I was picturing just a flat ribbon cable running out a discreet slit in the rear or base of the CC to a separately-powered CD. If you're using a SCSI external box, it should have a working PS in it.
Well, that doesn't sound at all bad aesthetically if it was done right. It's have to look better than some of the clumsier front panel mods around.
Personally, I'd do an extension of an existing opening, if possible. Even with lots of experience, it's hard to make a good looking slot. In such a visible place it's risky. I'd either extend the floppy slot like Stuart did, or extend a side ventilation slot, depending on your preference and what works with your innards design. And in any case, practice a lot with scrap beige casing. You only get one shot on your CC case.