I was playing around with my oldest Mac mini today (a “Mac mini (Late 2005)” revision), and one odd thing I noticed is the specifications sticker on the base lists the CPU as being a 1.42GHz G4, but it is actually a 1.5GHz G4 - turns out Apple did a stealth upgrade in the last few months before switching these over to Intel.

I wiped the copy of Mac OS X v10.5 that it was running, as I had found the correct “Mac mini Mac OS 9 Install Disc” for this machine and so wanted to install Mac OS X v10.4, as it was the last version to support running older Mac OS 9 applications through a feature called the “Classic Environment”. It is thankfully a rare application that doesn’t run in this mode - and with this machine having 1GB of RAM and a 64MB graphics card, most run quite well indeed! The Mac mini certainly takes up less desk space, uses less power, and produces less fan noise than any of the Power Mac G4 range, as much as those have a special place in my heart.

I should use this as my daily driver - things like YouTube not working would be a productivity enhancer! I can still search the web using Frogfind :)

Currently listening: “Zsauce, Jungle Here (Ambient, Jazzy, Jungle, 90s DNB Mix)"

The classic expression really fits what was just doing - I temporarily needed a display for a Raspberry Pi I was setting up and it was quicker and easier to use my Genki ShadowCast HDMI USB-C capture dongle with a mini HDMI to HDMI adapter and to fire up “QuickTime Player” on my Mac than hook up a “real” display.

Bonus is, I could have recorded it as well if I’d wanted to! Only downside is, it is not pixel perfect…

Currently listening: Jungle Fatigue Vol 3 (2023)

I purchased a big spool of Ubiquiti CAT6 Ethernet cable for home a while back, with the intention of replacing some older cable runs as well as putting in some additional runs. Eventually I’ll swap out the current Gigabit networking equipment with 10G, but that’s a couple of years or so away…

Yesterday’s task was replacing a run under the house that goes to my wife’s office, and adding another so our printer has a wired link. Whilst I was at it, I also changed the mount for the wireless access point, as it was mounted vertically, so now it has a proper wall mount and sits horizontally.

The most difficult part of the process was getting the two cables through the brick wall and into the recess inside my garage where the equipment rack sits - there is a gap between where a rat’s nest of cables live, and even with using the previous CAT5 to pull through the two CAT6, it took some wrangling to have them where they needed to be. Eventually I got there, crimped all of the connectors, ran continuity tests, and finally was able to clean up and put things as they should be…

There are a few more runs to upgrade, as some runs have joiners halfway along - two lessons I have certainly learnt with all this is firstly, to make sure you things plan out and then have additional runs, and secondly, that I would not want to do this professionally! :)

Currently listening: “Captain Sensible - Wot?"

Here’s the ADB peripherals set-up I generally use these days in “The Vault” (AKA my man-cave): an “Apple Desktop Bus Keyboard” model: A9M0330, and a “Kensington Orbit Trackball for ADB” model: 64220.

Great combo as they are highly space-efficient, and aside from the somewhat cursed nature of the arrow key layout, I like the look and feel of the keyboard…

ADB is the connection for keyboards, mice, joysticks, etc used by the Apple IIgs and Macintosh between the mid 80s and late 90s. More info here…

Currently listening: low poly snow mix - (Atmospheric DnB, Jungle Mix)

I have been playing around - sorry, “making legitimate technical notes of”, I mean - the capabilities of my new iPhone 15 Pro over the last week, specifically with regards to the switch to USB-C.

Amongst the things I have tried is the YubiKey with USB-C and NFC (the “YubiKey 5C NFC”) and it worked as expected, in fact I’d personally say it is easier to use via USB-C, I always found the positioning with NFC to be a bit finicky, even after removing my iPhone from a case.

I tried a Satechi dock (the “Aluminum Type-C Mobile Pro Hub” I believe) intended for the iPad Pro which has USB-C / USB-A / HDMI / Audio out, and I was able pass-through charge via USB-C, use a keyboard via USB-A, output to a monitor via HDMI, and connect wired headphones via the Audio out. Everything worked!

Then I tried a Belkin USB-C to Ethernet (Model: F2CU040), which worked, and an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter so I could connect an Apple Thunderbolt to Ethernet, but the iPhone came up with the following error when I connected the Thunderbolt adapter:

Currently listening: atmospheric drum and bass mix - (Ambient, Jungle, DNB, VGM)

Looks like I won’t be installing the latest iOS version straight away, there’s a first time for everything!

On the plus side:

Following on from my last post, here is the best explanatory article I have found on aligning the heads on a floppy drive:

Aligning floppy disk read heads

Also, the “TestFDC” program looks to be useful in terms of real time feedback, as used in this “5.25 inch floppy drive inspection, repair, cleaning, alignment” video by FloppyDiskWorkshop.

I am just awaiting a couple more tools and parts to take a decent crack at getting this done.

Currently listening: Cardiacs - “Is This The Life”

I’ve bought a cheap oscilloscope to enable me to align the heads on a floppy drive… Or at least, initially. Hopefully it will have more uses than just that and will prove a useful bit of kit.

The model is a “Hantek 6022BE”, and the official software for it looks like it hasn’t been updated in 20 years! There were some open-source options, but development for the Windows version looks to have been dropped a while back.

Currently listening: “Jamie xx - Gosh”

I received another kind donation at my store recently, a couple of old school hard drive based iPods! They had both been well-loved and well-used, I gave them both a damn good clean and proceeded to pull them apart to assess them.

The first was one of the venerable 3rd Gen with a failing hard drive and dead battery. The tiny internal plastic frame from around the dock connector had snapped, which I removed and carefully glued it back together.

The other was a 5th Gen where the battery had swollen and killed the LCD. I know that scenario is the cause of the “black spot” curse that a lot of the iPod nano models suffer from, but I’d not seen it happen on this model previously. Unfortunately the replacement LCD I’d had for years in my spare parts collection turned out to have some odd blotches after I swapped it in, most likely due to flexing or pressure at some point, so I have another replacement on order. The original 30GB hard drive surprisingly passed a surface scan, which is great news.

All in all, great to work on these two, I fixed so many iPods 2003-2007 that it really did bring back memories :)

Currently listening: Total Science Volume 2 (1996)

Following on from a previous post where I replaced the RTC module on a Socket 7 Motherboard, I wanted to resolve a similar issue with a couple of other Motherboards I have; a 286 and a 486. The 286 motherboard was missing the CMOS battery when I received it, and the 486 had a dodgy barrel battery that I was surprised to see had yet to leak. Time to fix them both!

The option I went for was the “Vertical Barrel Battery Blaster”. I uploaded the gerber files of the PCB to OSHPark, ordered the battery holders and diodes, and a couple of weeks later had everything ready to assemble. Quick solder job later, ready to go. I built a few extra just in case I need a couple more.

I have just been installing and testing them both today, and everything indeed works as it should. Hooray!

Today was a little frustrating, I spent a couple of hours trying to get a “MacSD” working with Windows 98.

The MacSD is a device that allows for mounting of ISO images of hard drives and CDs stored on an easily sourced/fast/cheap Micro SD card.

It was dead easy to get working with a Macintosh SE/30 - literally the very definition of plug-and-play! However, despite the webpage listing compatibility with Windows 98 and specifically the family of Adaptec SCSI cards I was using, no luck.

I know the SCSI card itself works, as I was able to connect a SCSI2SD v5.5 and format/mount a couple of virtual hard drives through that without issue.

The Adaptec EZ-SCSI utilities from that era were helpful, as they allowed me to confirm the SCSI card could detect the virtual devices I specified.

What was odd was the closest I could get was Windows displaying an Audio CD roughly the same size as the ISO, which the Audio CD player would report as a data disc…

More experimentation is required!

Currently listening: [Overdrive: A DJ Mix By Aphrodite] (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHcPTPk2B4owjwXR_YDBjiFdMkEOeA1j-)

HP t5730 Thin Client: I received the longer IDE ribbon cable I’d ordered, which has given me enough slack to position the mSATA drive/adapter in an area inside the case with enough room. I’ve then been able to close the casing all back up and have sitting it upright on a vertical stand, thereby resulting in an even smaller footprint for the machine!

The unit I have has WiFi hardware, but I have it disabled as I prefer wired networking, especially given that it would only support older encryption types over WiFi anyway. Generally I don’t have this machine networked all the time.

Lastly, I am just waiting to try out the DVI to HDMI adapter which also “injects” audio into the HDMI output. Hopefully Windows XP will recognise that USB audio and output through it correctly. I’m currently lending to someone the monitor with an HDMI input that I use with the KVM, but I should have it back in the next 2-3 weeks, and can try the adapter then.

Pwnagotchi: All of the required hardware components arrived, I have to now print the correctly sized case (yep, the one I printed was not the right one, oh well), and follow along with the “Pwnagotchi Tutorial, Pt. 2: Software” video.

Colour SE/30: The 8.4-inch LCD arrived, and despite my concerns when I saw graphical glitches on the initial “No Input” screen, it works fine! Now to look at assembling it all inside the transparent SE/30 case.

Currently listening: Oliver Tree - “One & Only”

I had a customer very kindly donate to me an “Intersil Intercept Junior” recently, along with some add-ons cards.

I believe it was literally a “barn-find” as it is in need of a damn good clean!

One interesting thing with this is the CPU is a PDP-8 in a chip:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inte…

I hope I can get this going, as it will be earliest system in my collection :)

Currently listening: KNOWER - I’m the President

The last couple of weeks I have been having a lot of fun revisiting some late 90s games under Windows XP running on an HP t5730 Thin Client.

This machine takes up very little room, has powerful enough graphics for Unreal Tournament, and thanks to a lack of internal fan runs silently :)

I upgraded the RAM from 1GB to 4GB, and swapped out the 1GB 44-pin IDE Flash Memory for an adapter to a 128GB mSATA module.

Using a DVI to HDMI adapter, I’ve connected to my KVM, so it is easy to switch between it and a couple of other machines I have at the same desk.

Last things I need to do are figure out a better way to mount the storage so the internals aren’t exposed to the world, and when it arrives, try an adapter I’ve ordered that should route the audio through the HDMI connection, so I can leave my speakers connected to the KVM.

Currently listening: Vulfmon - Vulfnik (Full Visual Album)

For some reason, the YouTube algorithm decided this week that I should see this video where someone has begun vlogging their build process of making a Pwnagotchi.

Now, the main reason these exist is to aid in testing WiFi security, but I knew I had to build one when my daughter fell in love with its facial expressions :)

Well, I had been looking for something to 3D print anyway!

So, I printed a verison of the “Slimagotchi” casing I found here, and picked the bright “Pineapple Yellow”, unfortunately choosing PETG rather than PLA accidentally when slicing the files. I think the resulting print is slightly off as a result, but should still be usable.

I have the battery, RPi Zero W, and small E Ink display on the way, I will post again when those arrive and I put it together :)

Currently listening: Hélène Vogelsinger - “Contemplation”

This week I pulled the trigger on deleting all of my Twitter accounts, some of which I’d had since 2007.

It just felt like the time was right, I hadn’t used any of them since Twitterrific had been killed off.

I am no longer interested in taking part in any social media, unless you count this blog, it just seems all of these platforms have descended into their equivalent of the Biff Tannen alternate 1985…

Inspired by Mac84 and others, I had been working on the different parts of building my own colour SE/30…

Step one was getting my Lapis ColorServer PDS/30-17 working. The supplemental VRAM modules brought it back to life! So, it wasn’t that the existing ones were faulty, it was that the replacement ROM I had burnt was for a model of card that expected more VRAM than mine. Good to have diagnosed the issue correctly and have that now working happily.

The next piece of the puzzle was building a custom power cable to directly supply the main logic-board the inputs it requires. Within a typical SE/30, the mains power goes to the analogue board which powers the internal CRT as well as then powering the main logic-board. With the setup I was working on, the display would be connected through the Lapis card, so I could thankfully leave off the 30+ year old power supply and CRT and replace the former with a relatively new ATX power supply (this is the typical PC desktop type power supply). The only voltage rail missing is the -5V, which did in fact used to be part of the ATX specification. To get around that I found a project on Tindie which uses a voltage regulator to add that power rail back in. I also ordered an ATX extension cable, an inline power switch that connects the ATX pins that tell the power supply to switch on and off, the smaller Molex Mini-Fit Jr. connector that most of the compact Macintoshes used for the main logic board power (AKA the “J12” connector), and a small form factor ATX power supply. Finally everything was assembled this week, I removed every wire from the ATX power extension, cross referenced the pins, inserted just the necessary pins/wires, double-checked all the voltages and ran through the first test of connecting everything (AKA the “smoke test”).

Success! I can now run this machine quietly and safely on my workbench, in glorious colour :)

Pour one out for these examples of greatness.

Well, the good news is I haven’t been using Twitter any more, and come the end of the month, Reddit either…

Gee, maybe this should be called “What’s not behind my TV?”…

I had pre-ordered a few months back a new bias lighting / back lighting kit called the “Lytmi Fantasy 3” to replace a failing LED strip that I had connected via a Smart WiFi plug and the tiny Apple 5W USB adapter. That LED strip in the end only worked when held at an angle using duct tape, and I had been on the look-out for years for the right replacement. I knew I wouldn’t be happy with one of those back-lighting kits that had terrible latency, let alone one that used a camera at an angle above the TV aimed at the screen.

When I saw a YouTube review of this model, I was very interested! It ticked all the boxes… My unit arrived this week, and so now time to install.

When I took the TV (65-inch Sony Bravia) off the wall, I thought I would take a picture to go over all the other clobber that is hidden there…

From middle top clockwise there is a wall-plate with two HDMI outlets that come from across the room where a sideboard sits, that connection is for a Wii U and a Switch, there is a HDMI repeater there as well due to the signal being borderline with the 7.6m Amazon Basics HDMI cable - most likely due to an HDMI splitter at the other end. I was originally planning to use one HDMI run for the Wii U and one for the Switch, but ran out of inputs on the TV.

There is more cable conduit on the right, mostly for additional capacity when needed, along the bottom right to left is a power outlet for the TV and the Apple TV, the centre speaker below with the IR bar for the Wii U, a wall-plate with 3x Ethernet outlets (the fun part with that was drilling through the concrete slab below and behind the wall to reach the rack I have in the garage), then a bunch more cables hidden in the conduit on the left, including an IR repeater. Top left is the Apple TV and next to it is the Home Assistant Yellow, between them a recessed power outlet. Finally in the middle is the TV wall mount, and behind that a recessed wall alcove to fit the console of our Bose CineMate 520. There is gap below that which contains a bunch of the speaker wires, as well as a special (optical?) HDMI cable I had to run for the PS5, also across the room.

All this so I could replace an IKEA cabinet I had previously wall mounted below the TV, everything else that had been in that I moved to a side-board I mentioned which sits across the room. I also moved the TV down slightly as it had been too high before.

I will post again once I have set up and used the new back-lighting kit, hopefully it meets my high expectations!

Currently listening: LTJ Bukem - Twilight Cosmic D&B Set

I had bought a couple of [RTC modules] (https://monotech.fwscart.com/DS12887_RTC_Drop-In_Replacement/p6083514_19810725.aspx) a while back from a company in New Zealand, and I finally got around this week to fitting one. It was to replace a defunct OEC12C887A on an old Socket 7 Motherboard (Pentium powah, baby!).

The ODIN OEC12C887A is an encapsulated package which has a small coin battery and a crystal oscillator on top of a chip. In keeping with the fine tradition of planned obsolescence, the coin battery is not designed to be replaced and the whole thing is soldered on to the motherboard not socketed! Given the battery is pushing 25+ years old, it no longer holds any semblance of charge. This means the time/date is lost when the power is pulled, but more annoyingly, all of the BIOS settings have to be redone as well.

To replace it, I first dremeled off most of the top half of the ODIN package - nasty material to go through. I removed the coin battery and the oscillator inside, then used the Dremel to shave down the sides of the chip below, meaning I could then use side-cutters to chop the legs off the chip. I then used my soldering iron to heat each pin on the underside of the motherboard, and pulled through the remainder of the chip legs with ceramic tweezers. I then wicked up as much of the solder as I could. Finally, I (very!) carefully used a pin vise to drill through the solder still remaining in the through-holes.

I’m sure there is a less labour-intensive way - I do own a hot-air station - but hey, the end result is, after soldering on a socket and installing the replacement RTC module, the motherboard is much happier now, and a lot less of a pain in the rear to use :)

Currently listening: Brother’s Gonna Work It Out - A DJ Mix Album by the Chemical Brothers

The HDMI connector for the VersaTerm arrived, I soldered that on and all is well. Last step is 3D printing the case, I have chosen an era-appropriate drab grey :)

With the E Ink Display, I have assembled and tested it using the demo program Waveshare provided, it is working fine… Where I am stuck is finding something that will let me update the image more easily, as I have yet to come across a simple program that will work with this panel. Ideally I want to be able to press a button on the Stream Deck and have the Raspberry Pi update the graphic shown. Easy enough to have a button that issues a “GET” for a local website in the background, that part is covered. I tried this project, but it didn’t seem to be compatible with my panel. More research is needed!

Another project that I have been working on is resurrecting a colour video card for the Macintosh SE/30. It is a Lapis ColorServer PDS/30-17, and when I first connected to either of a couple of SE/30s, nothing would be output on the display connected to the card, the internal screen would remain grey, and there was no HD activity… So essentially just stuck.

The first thing I tried was burning a replacement ROM, after fitting that the card has the below output. Not perfect, but definitely on the right track… I assume now that one (or more!) of the video RAM modules is faulty, I have some replacements on order. When those arrive I will swap and test ‘em out, hopefully that will take care of this and I will have a functioning card - then that’ll be part of a bigger project I am working on :)

Currently listening: Trans-Central Connection (1996)

Received my order from Mouser Electronics this week which included the bulk of the rest of the components I was waiting on for the VersaTerm, the final thing still on the way is an HDMI connector. Given the VersaTerm has a VGA out as well, I decided to finish the assembly process anyway…

The trickiest bits were soldering on the surface mount diodes and running some wires to a couple of pads on the RPi Pico. Last bit was copying across the software, which involves holding the “BOOTSEL” button down whilst connecting the RPi Pico to a machine via a Mini USB to USB cable, dragging across a UF2 file, the RPi then disconnects and reboots.

After that, I fired it up and it is indeed working, F12 brings up a settings menu with a plethora of options… Now to try it out with some serial devices!

In other news, here’s a fun website toy my kids have been playing with recently: Orb.Farm

Currently listening: Atmosphere Chapter 2 - Deeper Drum And Bass (2007)

I ordered one of these handheld Android gaming devices recently, and it will be arriving soon. As processors in the mobile phone space rapidly improve, it’s interesting how other use cases become feasible - enough power/different form-factor and a device focused on emulating a vast range of older gaming systems even up to the PlayStation 2/GameCube/Dreamcast is realistic. I’ll also be trying out builds of Mini vMac and DOSBox, hopefully they’ll be usable also. TBH, I will probably get more jollies from setting it up and tweaking things than I will from actual game time…

I chose “Clear Purple” pictured as it resembles the classic “Atomic Purple” colour-way that sets off a whole bunch of old school Nintendo nostalgia vibes :)

Currently listening: Peshay Studio Set (1996)