A while back I bought two of those Maclocks with the intention of modding one into a tiny Mac.
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@paulrickards @WiteWulf Any chance I could get some close-up pictures of the original PCB? I'm interested to see if there's any opportunity to do any mods to that hardware. I see what could be a debug header of some kind, and I'm also curious what the other 2 wires coming from the USB-C connection might be for.
@samedwards @paulrickards I’ll get some pics later, but:
- re. USB-C connector, 2 wires to mainboard and 2 to the 18650 cell in the bottom of the case. The little IC on back of the USB-C board must handle charging
- re. original PCB, not much to see bar two ICs with no identifying marks at all. Doesn’t look like they’ve been scrubbed, more like never there at all -
To make a Mac, I'm using a Pi Zero 2 W, a Waveshare 2.8" DPI LCD, and the MacintoshPi image which includes Basillisk II and SheepShaver already installed, and they work without X11 running, perfect for the thin-resourced Pi Zero.
https://jm.iq.pl/macintoshpi-mac-os-7-8-9-for-raspberry-pi/
One thing that was missing was AppleTalk support but I solved that by installing sheep_net from these instructions. And works over WiFi!
https://www.ecliptik.com/blog/2025/Live-Laugh-Localtalk-with-Basilisk-II/
@paulrickards Very nice! I've been keeping an eye out for low cost eInk designs that have enough memory to do a Mac clock. Something like this:
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@samedwards @paulrickards I’ll get some pics later, but:
- re. USB-C connector, 2 wires to mainboard and 2 to the 18650 cell in the bottom of the case. The little IC on back of the USB-C board must handle charging
- re. original PCB, not much to see bar two ICs with no identifying marks at all. Doesn’t look like they’ve been scrubbed, more like never there at all@samedwards @paulrickards as promised.
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@samedwards @paulrickards as promised.
@samedwards @paulrickards here’s another of the front of the board in better light
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To make a Mac, I'm using a Pi Zero 2 W, a Waveshare 2.8" DPI LCD, and the MacintoshPi image which includes Basillisk II and SheepShaver already installed, and they work without X11 running, perfect for the thin-resourced Pi Zero.
https://jm.iq.pl/macintoshpi-mac-os-7-8-9-for-raspberry-pi/
One thing that was missing was AppleTalk support but I solved that by installing sheep_net from these instructions. And works over WiFi!
https://www.ecliptik.com/blog/2025/Live-Laugh-Localtalk-with-Basilisk-II/
So sheep_net seems to work great for AppleTalk traffic but struggles with TCP/IP. It'll work for a few seconds then stop.
Curiously, running tcpdump on the machine causes it work, presumably because it puts the interface into promiscuous mode. And enabling promiscuous mode manually also works.
No mention of that on the project page, but that was 10 years ago.
#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac
https://github.com/cebix/macemu/tree/master/BasiliskII/src/Unix/Linux/NetDriver
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So sheep_net seems to work great for AppleTalk traffic but struggles with TCP/IP. It'll work for a few seconds then stop.
Curiously, running tcpdump on the machine causes it work, presumably because it puts the interface into promiscuous mode. And enabling promiscuous mode manually also works.
No mention of that on the project page, but that was 10 years ago.
#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac
https://github.com/cebix/macemu/tree/master/BasiliskII/src/Unix/Linux/NetDriver
Hey maybe the #TinyMac works well enough to be a #GlobalTalk router? Certainly uses a lot less power (avg. about 400mA with screen on).
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@samedwards @paulrickards here’s another of the front of the board in better light
@WiteWulf @paulrickards Thanks! Looks like the main MCU is a FT61E0A5 (datasheet https://www.fremontmicro.com/fmdweb-en/web/get/detail/files/download/response?autoid=24) and the pads along the side are a ISP header, but it looks like it's all proprietary tools, so probably not a good chance to do anything with it. There are 4 pins coming from the battery/USB connector, but the other two probably just signal when it's charging, not anything else accessible over extra USB-C pins.
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Hey maybe the #TinyMac works well enough to be a #GlobalTalk router? Certainly uses a lot less power (avg. about 400mA with screen on).
More #TinyMac progress. Wired up some smol speakers to a smol audio amp.
Designed and printed a volume knob in the style of the original to fit the B50K pot. Biggest issue is how to mount it inside (the amp board has no mounting holes).
The amp turns out to be too noisy, I can hear WiFi and BT traffic. Also draws about 300mA even when the volume knob is switched off.
I think I'll leave it out.
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More #TinyMac progress. Wired up some smol speakers to a smol audio amp.
Designed and printed a volume knob in the style of the original to fit the B50K pot. Biggest issue is how to mount it inside (the amp board has no mounting holes).
The amp turns out to be too noisy, I can hear WiFi and BT traffic. Also draws about 300mA even when the volume knob is switched off.
I think I'll leave it out.
@paulrickards the power consumption looks quite high. Is there a DC component that is fed to the loudspeakers, by chance?
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More #TinyMac progress. Wired up some smol speakers to a smol audio amp.
Designed and printed a volume knob in the style of the original to fit the B50K pot. Biggest issue is how to mount it inside (the amp board has no mounting holes).
The amp turns out to be too noisy, I can hear WiFi and BT traffic. Also draws about 300mA even when the volume knob is switched off.
I think I'll leave it out.
@paulrickards Nice try - shame it didn't work out.
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@paulrickards the power consumption looks quite high. Is there a DC component that is fed to the loudspeakers, by chance?
@davbucci How would I check for that?
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More #TinyMac progress. Wired up some smol speakers to a smol audio amp.
Designed and printed a volume knob in the style of the original to fit the B50K pot. Biggest issue is how to mount it inside (the amp board has no mounting holes).
The amp turns out to be too noisy, I can hear WiFi and BT traffic. Also draws about 300mA even when the volume knob is switched off.
I think I'll leave it out.
More #TinyMac:
- Swapped in a Raspberry Pi 3A+ for the Pi Zero 2 W. Slightly faster and has 5GHz WiFi which is so much better.
- Mounted the LCD/Pi to the back of the front case with some hot glue.
- Kept the front floppy switch as a power switch when floppy is inserted.
- Installed a LX-2BUPS (2x18650 UPS) inside for power, exposed a USB-C port on the back for charging.
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@davbucci How would I check for that?
@paulrickards try with a multimeter in DC, you should have less than 100mV across the loudspeaker terminals with no sound. Alternatively you can check if the loudspeaker moves and stays in a position different from rest when the circuit is switched on (no sound).
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More #TinyMac progress. Wired up some smol speakers to a smol audio amp.
Designed and printed a volume knob in the style of the original to fit the B50K pot. Biggest issue is how to mount it inside (the amp board has no mounting holes).
The amp turns out to be too noisy, I can hear WiFi and BT traffic. Also draws about 300mA even when the volume knob is switched off.
I think I'll leave it out.
@paulrickards I found exactly the same noise problem with mine. The 3D printer is very nice. I tried filing down the Maclock one to fit in the slot cut in the pot and just wound up snapping it 😔
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More #TinyMac:
- Swapped in a Raspberry Pi 3A+ for the Pi Zero 2 W. Slightly faster and has 5GHz WiFi which is so much better.
- Mounted the LCD/Pi to the back of the front case with some hot glue.
- Kept the front floppy switch as a power switch when floppy is inserted.
- Installed a LX-2BUPS (2x18650 UPS) inside for power, exposed a USB-C port on the back for charging.
@paulrickards oh, using the floppy switch is a nice touch! Does it do clean shutdown when you eject?
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@paulrickards oh, using the floppy switch is a nice touch! Does it do clean shutdown when you eject?
@paulrickards love the mounting behind the screen, too. That’s much neater than having it in the case, which I’d been trying to figure out.
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@paulrickards I found exactly the same noise problem with mine. The 3D printer is very nice. I tried filing down the Maclock one to fit in the slot cut in the pot and just wound up snapping it 😔
@WiteWulf I can post the STL if you want.
Funny, the noise isn't present until you stuff it all inside the case in close proximity to the antennas 🙃
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@paulrickards oh, using the floppy switch is a nice touch! Does it do clean shutdown when you eject?
@WiteWulf Nothing fancy, it just switches the power to the Pi on and off.
I would love to use the touch sensor on the top of the case for a soft shutdown though! Any ideas what's in the top?
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@WiteWulf Nothing fancy, it just switches the power to the Pi on and off.
I would love to use the touch sensor on the top of the case for a soft shutdown though! Any ideas what's in the top?
@paulrickards no idea; mine’s held in firmly with hot glue. There are scripts available that trigger a clean shutdown when you put a signal on a GPIO pin. I’m sure you could rig the fdd switch to that.
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More #TinyMac:
- Swapped in a Raspberry Pi 3A+ for the Pi Zero 2 W. Slightly faster and has 5GHz WiFi which is so much better.
- Mounted the LCD/Pi to the back of the front case with some hot glue.
- Kept the front floppy switch as a power switch when floppy is inserted.
- Installed a LX-2BUPS (2x18650 UPS) inside for power, exposed a USB-C port on the back for charging.
Two tiny Macs, my converted one and an unmodified Maclock.
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@evan who's using the project? am i in a hurry to get it finished for some reason or is this a hobby project? do i have the tools in place or are their restraints on when i can get them and use them? am i doing this full-time or part-time? do i have other stuff going on?
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@evan "how much time should you spend on a woodworking project?"
a chair?
a table?
a wardrobe?
a system of cabinets across a house?
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@evan I'm choosing "4 hours or less", not because the volunteer should work less but because they should be paid more (i.e. at all) 🙃
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@evan if I decide tomorrow to stop working on any OSS I’ve ever done as either a contributor or creator that’s…. Totally fine. I’ve never promised anything else.
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@evan what do you mean done? Anyone can be done whenever they want. The project has no obligation the maintainers have no obligation the community has no obligation. I’m sorry I don’t understand what you’re asking.
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@evan coaching a kid's soccer team is an amount of work that can be approximately quantified in some way because that implies the scope of the necessary work
not so of the original question. give people a break. :)
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@evan @mitchellh that question couldn't be answered without knowing the size of the project, how active its development is, etc. no general answer can be given.
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@brooke nobody's under any obligation to coach a kid's soccer team, but coaching a kid's soccer team takes 10-20 hours per month.
