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Extreme Makeover: Macintosh LC Edition

This instructable has been removed by the author.

44 comments
Aug 16, 2008. 10:43 AMDr_Stupid says:
Wouldn't it have been more useful to take the old case and adapt it to a modern motherboard?
Dec 10, 2008. 1:41 AM486dx4 says:
thats what i wuz thinkin, ima have to find me one of these, i think I know of one lying around at my old highschool.
Aug 17, 2008. 12:12 PMdombeef says:
yea no one would steal it
Aug 29, 2008. 3:00 PMscienceboy63 says:
Who would throw away a beautiful piece of computer history.
Jul 23, 2008. 5:43 PMLordSTITH says:
Wow... Just... Wow. Firstly, just because something has the same connector that definitely doesn't mean that's the same type of port. The ADB and S-Video females are both the same mini-DIN connection but are otherwise dissimilar in pretty much every way imiginable. That the port that keyboards and mice connect to. But anyhow, that's why they label that stuff. It's pretty dangerous to go plugging stuff in willy-nilly if you don't look at your label/icon and figure out what it's for. you're getting a display on your TV because the ADB data line is probably being connected to the S-Video luminance input, so as the ADB controller sends out a device discovery packet the TV is interpreting that voltage as an analog video signal and the cathode ray is rapidly switching between hard black and hard white. Point is, this is a pretty bad idea and if S-Video voltage tolerances are anything like those of composite video which expects things to be in a 0-1V range, you stand a good chance of destroying your S-Video input with the 5V from the ADB signal. As well, @ comment #3, that mac doesn't have a "nonstandard" HDD connection, it's SCSI. Pretty standard for the time.
Jun 18, 2008. 11:10 AM=SMART= says:
heh i like the 'ible name :P
Jun 7, 2008. 7:15 AMjonross says:
do you know how i could supe up a macintosh LC? like give it a new hard drive and turning the floppy into a disc drive
Feb 25, 2008. 8:01 PMYerboogieman says:
how big is the HD? you can put music on it and make it into a jukebox
Feb 27, 2008. 1:53 AMmichaelk42 says:
lulz... IIRC, that machine can't even play mp3s; not enough processor.
May 30, 2008. 6:57 PMbenjgvps says:
MP3s didn't exist when that computer came out! Why would it play them!
May 30, 2008. 7:26 PMYerboogieman says:
wow, so close minded, be a true diy-ist, anything can happen if its a computer
May 31, 2008. 6:08 AMbenjgvps says:
There is a program for Macs that can play MP3s, though they have to be 40 MHz or higher and the MP3s are low quality if you want smooth playback. Just because it is a computer doesn't open up too much potential because of the age. I have a few good uses for my old mac laptop: Serial terminal to my BSD server (With the right cable, or the materials to make one), old gaming (Glider FTW), School computer (Save them into a RTF. Nobody steals this thing), and It is just so fun to mess with (Putting a flash hard disk in there in a while). The biggest problem with the author is that he doesn't have a monitor and he doesn't understand that this machine came out in the the early 90s, where 300 MBs was a good size, the internet was not around (There were BBSs), and this computer cost over $2000, that was not too expensive for a computer back then.
Apr 27, 2008. 1:31 PMapprotech says:
I suspect you're trying to use the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus - for keyboard and mouse) socket as the S-Video socket, since they are the same type of connector. You won't get -Video out of the LC. The Mac video out is the big 2-row 15-pin socket, for which you should be able to pick up a HD-15 (VGA) adaptor quite cheap. They usually come with 8 dip switches to configure the monitor size - early Macs couldn't change resolution on the fly, so you had to tell it (via the switches which link to sense pins) what size/resolution screen you have. Hope this helps!
Apr 11, 2008. 4:39 PMYerboogieman says:
i have an old 366mhz laptop that was even more expensive new than the one i got a few days ago my new one was $2300 new..
Mar 18, 2008. 2:06 PMbeff50 says:
i have the same exact soldering kit. woks great.
Mar 22, 2008. 1:44 PMbeff50 says:
ya i sanded mine and got it almost all off. but within 5 minets of useing the tip and barral was almost the same again:(
Mar 23, 2008. 9:17 AMbeff50 says:
lol
Mar 19, 2008. 10:33 PMplumbiumpenguin says:
I was able to get the video working using an adapter I made with the instructions here
Feb 24, 2008. 1:32 PMbenjgvps says:
You ruined a good Mac. I would not touch my PowerBook 150 or 145B to change the case. The only thing that made them not original is the fact that I swapped the keyboards.
Mar 8, 2008. 7:38 AMbenjgvps says:
I use my 1994 PowerBook 150 regularly! There are tons of resources to make that things fun and useful, There are tons of games that are so damned fun for old Macs and if you save you documents in rich text format with .rtf added to the end, they can be opened on modern computers easy! Check ebay for a monitor adapter, they are pretty cheap and its fun to have an old machine to play with. For the people who whine that I can't play MP3 files or do anything that your brand-new Core 2 Duo machine can't do, I have a simple question, do you need another box this size to to so. Once you get that thing running go to www.68kmla.net and ask questions about what you can do with that machine. Don't give up with it, they are nice little machines.
Mar 6, 2008. 5:40 PMbikerguy7 says:
great idea i have a 3 y/o IBM someone around. it just needs a new power supply.
Feb 25, 2008. 7:51 PMOutlander says:
lol, been a mac tech since the mac-II, LC days. There is NO S-video port on an LC. lol. Those 2, 8 pin mini din ports are the "modem" port, and the "printer" port, basically RS-232 ports. In fact I cant even remember if the LC had two ADB ports and one serial, or the other way around it's been so long. Man those were the good old days! I'm not even 30 yet and I feel so damn old.
Feb 24, 2008. 4:41 PMwestfw says:
Did you find Low-end Mac ? (it includes a link on making modern monitors work with old Macs.
I'm pretty sure there's no S-video output from the mac-lc; you're probably looking at the ADB (keyboard/mouse) connector, which is similar.
Feb 25, 2008. 4:57 PMironsmiter says:
LOL@ s-vid on an LC... no really,that is NOT an s-vid port. I've looked at all3 models of LC I have(all work) and NONE of them has an s-vid port. I think you're either hooking upto the abd port(for keyboards/mice) or to the RS-422 "Macintosh serial port" they both LOOK sort of like s-vid. That would also explain the "flashing" as the computer is trying to communicate serially(probably at 9600 baud) with your tv ;-) As far as i know, the first macs to be able to do s-vid... did it through PCI add-on video cards. and the LC series has no such expansion port(yes, there's the PDS slot, but if you have a video card for THAT, I'm gonna come steal it :-) To add functionality to it... there ARE network adapters for the LC. but a better solution is to get a scsi external zip drive. hook it up to the db-25 scsi port, and off you go :-)
Feb 25, 2008. 4:21 PMGorillazMiko says:
Heh, I don't know why, the last sentence in the first paragraph is funny. Great Instructable, maybe you could put it in a case or something, then give it a paint job (paint job BEFORE putting it on, actually.), it could come out great, maybe add in some awesome looking stuff. Nice job!
Feb 25, 2008. 1:39 PMbvicarious says:
lol @ this entire instructable.. but yeah, griffin makes a universal adapter that lets you use any d-sub monitor with a mac: http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/monitor#

Worth the investment if you plan on finding more old perfectly functioning macs.
Feb 24, 2008. 3:33 PMmichaelk42 says:
Can't you just track down a db-15 to hd-15 converter and an old multi-sync monitor (should be able to find for almost nothing) and try that?

http://lowendmac.com/ed/rosen/ar07/vintage-mac-monitor-mania.html
Feb 24, 2008. 2:22 PMicanryme2002 says:
Wow why take it apart when you can use it as a web server
Feb 24, 2008. 1:18 PMgmjhowe says:
very nice, you should now turn the case into a pc, it would make a sweet case, specially with a nice paint job.
Feb 24, 2008. 1:27 PMTrans_Am says:
Oh, I had one of those computers. We bought it in about 1997 for $50, along with monitor and printer. Just got rid of it a couple months ago. The monitor had a resolution of half VGA, I think. The only thing it was good for was Word. Nice Idea though.
Feb 24, 2008. 1:23 PMLinuxH4x0r says:
Cool!

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Author:Xellers(Zayats Electronics)
My name is Daniel Kramnik, I am an electronics hobbyist and high school student from Boston, Massachusetts. Starting with my latest Tesla coil project, I have been trying to improve the quality of my ...
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