Classic computer systems are true collectors’ objects, so we don’t condone hacking them aside. However generally the unique electronics are past restore or lacking altogether. In such a case, we help modification to carry new life to those retro beauties. Such was the case for Dave Luna, who added an enormous ePaper show to a Macintosh Traditional II shell.
The Traditional II was the final Macintosh (and Apple pc normally) to launch with a black-and-white display screen. So this 16-color grayscale ePaper show appears to be like proper at house rather than the unique cathode-ray tube. The display screen comes from Waveshare and is a big 9.7” mannequin with a decision of 1200×825, making it only a tad wider than a conventional 4:3 facet ratio monitor. Waveshare supplies a HAT for Raspberry Pi computer systems to make video output simple and that’s what Luna selected to make use of for this venture.
With the entire authentic digital parts lacking, there was tons of house accessible within the Traditional II shell for a Raspberry Pi 3 Mannequin B single-board pc, the Waveshare HAT, and even a pair of powered Acer USB audio system. An Arduino Micro board acts as an adapter between the Raspberry Pi’s USB port and the unique keyboard and mouse. These initially related to the Apple Desktop Bus, however a TMK Arduino library handles the interpretation to allow them to connect with any trendy pc as USB HID peripherals.
Luna’s main objective for this transformed Traditional II is displaying household pictures. He wrote a customized Python script with a GUI that mimics the Macintosh desktop and exhibits every photograph in a window. However Luna selected a singular technique to get the pictures to the pc. These pictures reside in a household Google Photographs album and Luna didn’t wish to fiddle with the Google Photographs API. As a substitute, he related a Chromecast to the Raspberry Pi’s digicam port by means of a particular Waveshare adapter. An HDMI splitter strips the usual copy safety from the video sign and the Python script captures stills from the feed because the Chromecast runs in ambient mode.
That’s a reasonably convoluted solution to show a photograph album, however it works. The Traditional II may also act as a easy digital clock if Luna will get bored with pictures of his household.