Replacing a Powermac G4 (Mirror Drive Doors) Power Supply with ATX parts

This is essentially the same thing I previously did with a Powermac G5. A friend of mine acquired a non working Powermac G4 (Mirror Drive Doors) with dual 1.25GHz CPUs. When the power button is pressed, it lights up for a few seconds and goes out. When he saw my post regarding replacing the Powermac G5 power supply, he asked if the same could be done to this unit. The service center was asking for a huge sum to get the power supply replaced and the former owner did not think it was worth it to still get it fixed.

The difference between this and the G5's is that the Power supply case is much smaller. But otherwise could still hold an ATX power supply's innards.

Because my friend has waited over a year for me to arrive (from overseas), we decided to use a good quality name-brand power supply that is rated more than the original. We settled with a Thermaltake Litepower 600w ATX power supply.

After opening up the power supply. I realized that the board is not going to fit easily without any mods, because the heatsinks are made taller than the Apple power supply case. Most probably this is done for better airflow. So in the meantime I proceeded to take the Power Supply apart and desoldered all the wires from the original power supply.

After that, I found a pinout on this site that showed exactly what I needed. I cut the wires on the Thermaltake and soldered the original wires to the remaining wire. This allowed some room to move the wires around so that the original wires can exit through the original hole.

At this point we wanted to test the Mac just to be sure it is still working and that all this trouble isn't for naught.

After plugging it in and using my ADC to DVI cable, we were greeted by the startup "jeng" sound and this appeared on the attached monitor:

Well, we had no hard disks but this is much farther than it ever got on the old power supply. The next step is to mod the heatsinks so that it will all fit into the original enclosure. After that we tie the cables neatly into bundles with zip tie and put it back into the original case. We cut some loose cintra boards and used double sided tape to attach them under the board to protect it from shorts.

Then finally mount it into the tower case.

Plugging in the hard disk from an old B&W G3 finally boots up

Most of the stuff works. The 2 things that doesn't are: The ADC port cannot power an external ADC display anymore. The Firewire ports don't have power (Not sure if a self-powered firewire device would work). This is because ATX does not have the 25v needed for those 2 to function. If we add a 25v power supply (into the empty space in the power supply) we should be able to get these working again.

Repairing a membrane type apple keyboard

They don't make keyboards anymore like they used to. In the past each key of a keyboard had a keyswitch under it. Every keyboard Apple made from the original Apple ][ ... up to the ADB Extended Keyboard II were made in this manner. (there may be others, but I have not come across them).

The first Apple USB keyboard I have is the one that came bundled with the imac G3. It was bondi blue, had a USB hub with 2 ports on both sides of the keyboard. It also (like the ADB keyboards that came before it) had a power button. I don't quite remember how this keyboard came into my possession, but when I tried to use it, some buttons wouldn't work. Particularly, the ESC key and probably the first few function keys next to it.

Getting this unit open wasn't too hard: just have some patience and remove 50 something phillips head screws. What got my attention was that there are no longer keyswitches under each key. (not in the sense as in my description above anyway). It has been replaced with 3 sheets of what looks like "acetate transparency sheets" we used to use to project presentations. the top and bottom sheets had some circuitry on it, very similar to a flexible PCB. The middle sheet had holes punched on it. By now you'd have figured out the rest. The user would "press" a key and those keys would line up where the holes are. Top sheet contacts with bottom sheet and voila the key is "pressed"

Unlike PCBs, the "circuitry" on the top and bottom sheets seem very fragile. The former owner may have spilled some cola into it (or maybe just water). Parts of this "circuitry" is now a different colour from the rest. Poking my ohmmeter between 2 points that's supposed to conduct shows no connection.

My original solution to this was to take some aluminum foil. carefully cut it to the right size, and then along with some cardboard, get some nearby screws to "press down" on this. This solution did work.... for a while... eventually the cardboard would flatten out and what was a tight fit is now loose... sometimes the keys wouldn't connect anymore. I have opened this unit up again to replace the cardboard.

Now... many months after that, a good friend of mine acquired a powermac G5 and suspected that the power supply may not be good. While working on this unit, he let me use a white Apple USB keyboard (not the aluminum ones)... I was trying to get front row to appear by pressing the keyboard shortcut command-ESC. This did not work. After some more testing, I worked out that the ESC key, along with F1 - F6 are not working. I was ready to try my aluminum foil solution again. Unfortunately for me, the connection was broken over a wide area .. almost 2 inches wide. I could not get the foil and cardboard to be pressed down enough to make a lasting connection. Then I remembered:

Surely I can use this to repair the dissolved circuitry. A trip to the local electronics store snagged me the last unit in stock.

I had another identical keyboard at home waiting to be fixed. This is how the membranes looked like after opening. Note that the fluid has seeped up deep into the keyboard due to capillary action:

After using some baby wipes to clean out the fluid, you can see the damage that was done:

In the above picture, some of the lines are darker. Testing these with my ohmmeter reveal that they no longer conduct. After using the conductive pen on it and being careful not to bridge connections that aren't supposed to be:

An xacto knife can be handy in scraping off accidentally bridged connections. After letting the ink dry (did not take more than 5 minutes), I tested the unit before putting all the screws back. I also took the opportunity to clean the insides of some nasty looking stuff (mostly crumbs and spilled drinks). Keyboard is all working again.

Converting a non navigation 2006 Prius with an OEM factory nav unit

It has been a long time since I dealt with automotive stuff. Last time I did anything that can be considered major was a few years back. Stuff I did before, in no particular order:

1. Took all the insides of a 1995 Honda Civic "EG" from Japan, and assembled them all to my friend's Philippine made Civic. I had to redo all the electricals (Japan's steering wheel is on the right, Phillipines is on the left). I basically took the Philippine harness and "merged" in the Japanese harness. It was more than making it mirror image because the engine was in the same orientation on both cars. The Japanese model also had a lot more features that was not released outside of Japan and I tried to the best of my abilities to get them all to work. The drawback is, that car now has a 180Km/h speed limit (something required by law in Japan, but you're not going to really find any spot to even approach this speed anyway).
2. I tried to rebuild a Nissan CD17 diesel engine. I learned a lot from this, and one of them is if the shop manual calls for a machine shop to do something, do NOT try to do it by hand. I also converted a Nissan B12 with Japanese parts similar to the above procedure. The original car had manual transmission, non power windows/steering. All of which I replaced with Japanese parts. The only "weird" thing is the master power window switch has the "auto" switch on the wrong side. This car does not have the 180km/h limit. (not that it will ever get to that speed)
   
3. I have assisted in a few more procedures similar to the above, but unlike the above where I did everything myself, I just did some of the work. Mostly following a schematic and making the wires work. One of them was a total conversion (the whole care was from Japan).

We recently got a 2006 Prius. There are only 2 variants sold here in Australia, the base model with "nothing", and the "I-Tech" model with "everything".

Having used it for a few months you realize that it's a bit hard to find a good spot to attach a 3rd party navigation unit. The windscreen is tilted at an angle such that if you attach it near the bottom, it will be beyond your arm's reach (plus it will look so small you couldn't even make out the writing)

So what I want to do is attach a factory nav unit and make it appear on the built in multifunction display. From the fairly large amount of reading I have done, this has never been successfully performed.

Many people also shared with me what they know (so I don't repeat other people's mistakes). One of them was Steve, who told me that:

1. I need a screen from a Nav model, because there are extra PCB's inside that are not on the non-Nav model.
2. I would need steering wheel controls from a Nav model.
3. I would need the mic that goes to the overhead console
4. I would need the radio with the external amplifier (JBL)
5. I would need the wire harness from a nav model as the non-Nav model does not have the wires.
6. I would need the GPS antenna.
7. I would need the Nav computer and the disc for my location.

The steering wheel controls and the nav computer arrived. It came with the mounting brackets. This unit came from under the driver's seat in the US. I still have to look under the seat in the Australian model and see if it is still under the driver's seat (right) or if they just left it in the left.

Anyway. First step is to construct connectors. I took some DB9 shells and cut up the flat surfaces with a dremel. I then poked the pins into the nav unit's port and epoxyed them to the pieces of the shell. The results weren't very pretty at the moment, but hopefully no one is really going to be taking a peek under the seat.

This is the connector after one row is in place:

Once I got one connector (the one for the display) all done, it's time to hook it up to my commodore 1040s monitor. This will give me a clue whether I should proceed or if I am wasting my time.

The left connector in this picture is the RGB, the one on the right has power (I used an ATX power supply, fed 12v to +B and ACC)

Success:

I tried to see if I could eject the nav DVD.

Ok I'm beginning to feel more confident that I could actually pull this off... Let's see how it looks like on my TV ... just for fun... I used an RGB to component converter (that I actually constructed for my Apple IIGS) that is not shown in the picture, and the composite cables on the left is unrelated and goes to a different device

Since I don't have the MFD yet (or rather, I am not ready to take the dash apart) I have no easy way of pressing the "I Agree" button. So that's how far it gets. Plus I don't have a GPS antenna so if I went ahead and attached it to the car right now, I won't really be able to see anything.

27/09/2009

I have some free time at the moment and I was very curious to see what will happen if I went ahead and attached it to the car. After going through priuschat and reading the many "stereo removal" guides (such as this one by Chris Dragon http://www.techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/chris-dragon-dash.pdf ), I went down to the car park to figure out how accurate they are (my steering wheel is on the right side, all the guides I've seen are for cars with the steering wheel on the left). Except for the fact that the "power" button is on the rightmost vent, everything else is just mirror image of the guides (down to the location of screws and clips).

Since I have no plans of leaving it permanently installed at this time, I just dumped all the equipment on the passenger foot area.

I then hooked up only the wires needed for the display, plus the communication lines.

I also needed to power it up. There is the plug that goes to the clock. It conveniently has all the signals I need (batt, acc, gnd). I hooked up the batt and acc to the clock plug, but decided hook up the ground in the spot the 10mm hex bolt previously went:

Moment of truth. Hit the power button:

Note that it has used my display settings and the background is now blue instead of the default green background

Now that I have the touch screen hooked up. Let's see if pressing the "I Agree" button does anything... Success:

Since I have no GPS antenna and that I'm 6 basement levels underground, I won't be getting any GPS signals. It defaults to some location.

The INFO button also now displays several new icons that wasn't there before:

While all the stuff is removed, I took this opportunity to install the steering wheel controls. I disconnected the 12v battery first (something recommended when working near SRS components). waited 5 minutes then proceeded to remove the existing steering wheel controls.

I then carefully unclipped the cable tie for just the right side controls. It looks like they used the same number of wires too.

Then I hooked up the controls with the nav buttons:

And the good news is, it actually works. Pressing the voice button beeps the speaker (and then does nothing because I haven't got a mic). The phone buttons don't do anything, probably because I don't have bluetooth. Info button cycles through the energy screen and the consumption screens. Map button shows the map.

I have left the steering wheel controls in place. I have removed the nav system and reassembled the dash. I will probably do some more tests when I get more stuff in.

Screen finally arrived!! Along with the antenna!! I immediately installed both. After which I am able boot the US disc and go into the hidden menu (the one under volume). From here I chose "loading" and changed it to "Australia". It then goes back to the "please insert correct map disc" screen. Ejecting the US map disc and inserting a locally supplied "whereis v15" dvd that I borrowed caused the loading screen to appear. It looks like this is going to work.

These are pictures on how the system currently works.

Screen still off:

Turn on the key:

That's really great. All my fears that the MFD will have units in miles are for naught: (click to enlarge)

I hit the "menu" button:

Then press on the "I agree" touch button:

The DEST button works too:

That's all for now. I still have to connect the reverse line (I am having a hard time looking for it). I also have to get an overhead console with a mic so I can use the bluetooth. Sadly I do not think the australian software supports voice control :(. Pressing the voice control button on the steering wheel does nothing. It used to beep when I had the US maps disc running.

22-11-2009

I have finally located the reverse wire. There is nothing connected at the point where it's supposed to split it up for the nav unit (probably because it's a non-nav model). I have instead, traced and finally found the wire that leads to the back of the car to turn on the reverse lights. This was well hidden behind a panel on the driver's (right) side near the accelerator pedal.

After hooking this up, I also found the wires that led to the overhead console. I connected 3 wires: Mic +, Mic - and MACC. These went straight to the back of the MFD into M14.

29-11-2009

I have received my overhead console from a with-nav unit. It does contain the Mic and the Mic amplifier. After hooking it up for a quick test last wee, I found out that it did ... NOTHING. The bluetooth hands free doesn't do anything. I then went back to the schematics for another round, and my continuity tester just to make sure all the wires from the overhead console, to the MFD, and then to the nav unit are all correct. They all checked out, but then, what's this? There's an extra wire connected to nowhere. It was pin 3 of M14 from behind the MFD. The schematics say SGND (signal ground) to instrument panel Brace. I was thinking: "No, that couldn't be it." Most grounds in automotive parts are connected to the chassis. The MFD had a metal case bolted to the chassis, and I had assumed this was also linked internally. Well, I ASSUMED WRONG, and that IN FACT, WAS IT. After connecting pin 3 of M14 with a wire to an exposed part of the chassis, the mic finally worked.

What now remains for me to do is to wrap the wires into neat bundles. Some of the cables for the nav box should be fished under the carpet. I also need to place the GPS antenna somewhere, preferably close to where the original one went. At the moment I sticky taped it just behind the MFD. I should also fish the cable under the carpet through the center console. I also got an auto dimming mirror that's supposed to automatically darken the mirror when the car behind you is shining bright lights at you at night. I know the correct wires needed for it, but I'm not sure they are all available near the overhead console area. I think this will be the same as the Mic, the wires would be there, but they are not connected anywhere.

Apple IIc plus 240V modification

I have recently acquired an Apple IIc plus. This is the fastest "stock" Apple II made by Apple Computer. It was only available for a short time, and only sold in the US.

Because of that, they only have a 120v power supply available. I initially plugged it into my 240v to 120v transformer. It's a bit inconvenient (because it is both big and heavy) and I don't really like lugging the transformer around. At first I thought there might be a provision for a switch inside... nope, no such luck. The other option would be to substitute an ATX power supply. Mark referred me to this:

http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/item/22157

It looks ok.. and it *might* even fit into the IIc plus case... but it looks more like the size of a IIe power supply.

My intention was to keep everything looking "stock". The power supply had to stay internal with no power bricks, etc. I also considered using James Littlejohn's LittlePower Adapter IIc+:

http://www.reactivemicro.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_28&products_id=150

and placing a picoPSU-60WI and a 12v supply inside, but I am unsure I will be able to fit everything inside. I may reconsider going this route later on if I ever decide to make the IIc plus a truly portable battery-powered computer.

I then did a random google search and found this site:

http://homepage.mac.com/jorgechamorro/a2things/a2c+Web/index.html

Jorge has posted schematic diagrams and how he modified his IIc plus to allow it to be powered directly from the 240v mains.

This is the power supply after I took it out of the IIc plus.

This is the space it used to sit in.

Unfortunately, The replacement capacitor I got was too tall. It would fit just exactly but I did not want the metal shell pressing down on it. So I decided to mount the capacitor sideways

This is the replacement capacitor beside the original one:

This is how it looks mounted:

The electronics shop I get all my parts from (Jaycar) did not have the 20v 5watt zener diodes that Jorge used. I thought that instead of 7 20v ones, I could use 10 15v ones.

7*20v=140v (Jorge's mod)

10*15v=150v (My substitute)

This should give me Vab of 190v (which means I don't really have to replace the capacitor)... But as my luck would have it, they only have 9 remaining units of the 15v zener diodes.

9*15v=135v

Giving me a Vab of 205v.

So I took a pcb and soldered the diodes on the solder side (that way I don't have to worry about insulating the other side from hitting other high voltage stuff). This is how it looked:

Before closing the lid, I cut off a corner of the PCB because the yellow wire is a bit stretched. I also placed a piece of clear tape on the cover in case one of the legs touch the top of the case.

Then I tested it with a multimeter and the voltages looked right (I know. I should not power up a switching power supply with no load... but.. but it's only for a little while). Then hooked it up back to the IIc plus, and it fired up without a problem. (no smoke, nothing)

The unit does get warm in the area near the diodes. I have left it on running a BASIC program drawing random stuff on the hires screen. It's a bit warmer than what I would like but seems to be acceptable. If you do a lot of disk access (continuously cataloging the disk, it tends to get hotter).

Overall I'm happy with the way this turned out. The IIc plus still looks stock on the outside and I'm now able to plug it in anywhere without lugging the oversized transformer around. I have kept the jumper I took off and the capacitor in the event I want to restore it back to default.