It’s coming! I’m going to have clean, clear, and precise models of my vintage Macintosh hardware that I own, maybe even sharp enough to manufacture a replica of the hardware. Now, wouldn’t that be swell?
More importantly, for my own personal interest, wouldn’t it be swell if I could have a full physical model of my original hardware in virtual space, and only ever need to interact with the virtual model forever more? It would provide everything that the physical model would, without any shortages due to computation speed limits on computers or limits on the features implemented by the emulator that strives for speed by sacrificing accuracy.
So, here we go. For classic Macintoshes. First stop, ROM replacements.
Macintosh 128K, 512K, 512Ke: ROM-inator, Open Hardware, design files available. Check it out. Designed in Eagle because it’s rather old. But, wait… where’s the source? Okay, maybe not totally Open Hardware, but at least there is a refrence design available for you to look at.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/mac-rom-inator/
Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, IIsi: ROM-inator II, Open
Hardware project name mac-rom-simm-programmer. Also designed in
Eagle because it too is old.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/mac-rom-inator-ii/
20200801/https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/programmable-mac-rom-simms/
20200801/https://code.google.com/archive/p/mac-rom-simm-programmer/
Virtually all Apple II and Macintosh computers: Floppy Emu, Apple Floppy disk emulator, almost Open Hardware but not quite. This started out as a small hobby project but quickly had a turn to go very commercial. Now, do-it-yourself prototype builds appear to be discouraged. Some of this may be unintentional, or maybe it really is that the author’s viewpoints/opinions changed over time.
20200801/http://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu-tech-design/
There is a tech blog with a lot of the development story here, but not all of it. Some of the articles were deleted by the author.
20200801/http://www.bigmessowires.com/category/macintosh-floppy-emu/
And who is the author? Steve Chamberlin. Indeed, his site introduction claims the reason why he really liked the Apple II hardware was because you could peek and poke around the memory like it was no one’s business, it was all out there in the open, unfettered. And, alas, the author himself, he gradually went from this all out in the open spirit to a more proprietary one, once manufacturing and sales of his hobby scaled up.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/about/
Check out the Internet Archive Wayback Machine for a link to the deletd article about making your own Floppy Emu.
20200801/https://web.archive.org/web/20160110203450/http://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu-tech-design
20200801/https://web.archive.org/web/20160306174320/http://www.bigmessowires.com/2012/12/15/build-your-own-floppy-emu/
You’ll also find the source code referenced from that article copied to other modern GitHub sites and elsewhere on the Internet.
20200801/DuckDuckGo floppy emu github
20200801/https://github.com/una1veritas/mac-floppy-emu
Yes, about that transition from being open to being proprietary.
Is it really that he transitioned from being open to being proprietary? Or did he just delete that article because the parts on the board as-designed were getting too rare? That he didn’t want to be inundated by E-mails from folks asking him for a spare PCB? Especially, the DB-19 connector, when he made a statement that he made a considerable personal investment to bring about modern manufacturing of the connector. And, hoping to pay back that expense through his own sales, why wouldn’t he want to make things a bit more proprietary?
So, what I’m saying. ‘Tis the price you pay for scaling up to mass production manufacturing, that such centralized control and the sacrifices that need to be made to make it work tend to make people go more proprietary.
So, more articles from the tech blog on Floppy Emu are insightful here. Here, ordering more DB-19 connectors, and the history to get it newly manufactured.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2018/05/10/10000-more-db-19-connectors/
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2016/06/04/db-19-resurrecting-an-obsolete-connector/
Here, on the subject of DB-19, “angering” the Internet, and as a response, the author decided to delete the original post that provoked that conversation.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/03/20/finding-a-db-19-angering-the-internet/
Here, the Yellowstone disk controller hardware for Apple II computers to be able to use a UniDisk 3.5 style disk drive and HD20, languishing in a proprietary storage location for years before being released to the public. Important! This contains an FPGA that implements the IWM disk controller. Very important if you need a replacement for that chip on a logic board!
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/category/yellowstone/
20200801/https://github.com/quorten/fpga-disk-controller
Here, discussion on the issue with parts on Floppy Emu getting rarer, and a redesign to use more abundant and cheaper parts in the current mass production manufacturing environment.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2018/04/06/thoughts-on-floppy-emu-redesign/
Here, relating to development, an interesting article noting the author’s personal deficiencies with maintaining supply chain stock being a personal challenge.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2017/06/02/floppy-emu-back-in-stock-3/
And, finally, here, some of the very earliest articles posted in the early stages of Floppy Emu hardware development. The challenges of finding a board manufacturer, the sobering fact that packing a box must take 10 minutes, details on the first circuit board layout, and so on. The challenge of a 30-year-old ROM bug in the original Macintosh. Finally, ending with the very first blog post.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2014/03/12/how-to-manufacture-a-widget/
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2014/01/06/selling-the-floppy-emu/
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2013/11/09/getting-ready-to-sell/
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2013/10/17/fixing-30-year-old-apple-rom-bugs/
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2011/12/18/floppy-emu-board-layout/
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2011/09/02/an-sd-card-floppy-emulator-for-classic-compact-macs/
And, just a few more fun things. Circuit protection and signal conditioning appears to consistently be the author’s weak point. Take, for example, not being able to get Yellowstone to work fully faithfully. So, here is one article he wrote on the subject.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/04/19/circuit-protection-economics-and-electronics/
Apple Pippin, an ill-fated video game console made by Apple? Ha, that one is a new surprise to me. So even Apple tried to do the Microsoft Xbox trick, but they tried earlier, and it failed in the market place. Also, the article mentions a curious trick on how to get floppy drive support on the Bondi Blue iMac, which came without any floppy drive support since it touted itself as legacy-free hardware.
20200801/https://www.bigmessowires.com/2017/08/18/floppy-emu-and-the-apple-pippin/