28 May
2009
28 May
'09
9:24 p.m.
One problem is that the video circuit for compact Macs
is bizarre.
The display circuit was optimized for square pixels at 72 dpi on the
tube. Here's the stats of the Mac video circuit I was able to dredge
up...
Do what I did. Subistitute the entire analog board for a small (9") vga
mono monitor :o)
All (or most) picture tubes are compatible. I have an old mac 128 who
came to me without the analog board. When it happened, it was hard (and
expensive) as hell to put my hands on an analog board. Since I wanted that
mac to play, I gutted an old 9" mono vga monitor I had and installed
everything but the picture tube on the mac. It is my "secondary PC monitor"
up to today, running windows and like :D
If you want a colour monitor, install everything - incluiding the
picture tube.
As for the keyboard, the original Mac keyboard (128K
and 512K) lacks
arrow keys, a control key, function keys and a keypad. The Mac Plus
Why would I use the (arrrrggghhhh) original mac keyboard? The newer mac
keyboards are nice, and you can always build an ADB -> PS/2 adapter. Or mod
the source of the VT-5 to use an ADB keyboard :) I took a (very) fast look
on the schematics, seems that the keyboard decoder is very simple.
Or, do like me, use a PC keyboard :o)
EDT user. I don't know anything about Mac keyboard
protocols or
signaling method, but with the modular-jack keyboards (pre-ADB), it's
probably similar enough to what everyone else did (power, ground,
either data+clock or bi-directional data over the 4 wires) that it
shouldn't be too hard to reverse-engineer.
ADB is not hard, it is well documented in apple's site!
If you could find an old 9" mono VGA monitor, that
might be easy to
physically adapt to an old Mac case, but I don't remember those being
too common, even back when they were making them (since they were
really only popular with hardcore DOS users).
you can use a 12" monitor circuit with a 9" tube. Did I made it easier
for you? :o)
I have some photos of mine, I can send to you, my site is offline