20
Mar 12

My pressure sensitive iPad stylus

I’ve been getting a lot of links and traffic for the G4 IIc (thanks, the Verge!) so I thought I’d take a moment to link to the other hardware hacking project that’s been taking up a lot of my time.

PressurePen - pressure sensitive stylus, Beta prototype

The PressurePen is a pressure sensitive stylus for iPad and Android tablets. The plan is to commercialize a more final, refined version as open source hardware. What you see here and on the PressurePen site is the Beta prototype – functionally complete, and ready to put in the hands of developers. The necessary code to incorporate into an iOS or Android app is free and open source also. The goal is to allow others to create compatible products and improve on my designs.


20
Mar 12

Meet the G4 Apple //c

Meet the G4 Apple //c

[Welcome, RetroMacCast listeners!]

This is my latest Frankintosh project – housing a G4 Mac Mini in the case of an Apple //c. From all outward appearances, a stock Apple IIc or //c with a little wear and tear. Inside, it sports a 1.4GHz G4 with a gigabyte of RAM. A far cry from its original 1MHz 65C02 and 128K of RAM.

Everything you see is still fully functional. The original keyboard is rewired and run through an Arduino (Teensy) so it can be used as a USB keyboard for the Mini. I’ve also maintained many of the original ports, and repurposed a couple for updated peripherals. For instance, the mouse/joystick port has been wired up to a USB port on the Mini. To plug into this, an M0100 mouse has been fitted with the guts of an optical USB mouse, wired to the original 9-pin connector.

To attach to the original Apple monochrome display, I built a VGA adapter that outputs monochrome NTSC via RCA. Instructions and pinouts for the adapter were found here. To adjust the sync and refresh rate, I use SwitchResX.

You can see a complete gallery below (via Flickr)

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157628540220857″]


23
Feb 09

hey! i’m on Engadget!

my Disk II Mac mod made it to Engadget. sweet.

[update] and gizmodo!


08
Feb 09

my latest hardware project

Disk II Mac

in the same vein as the G4 Mac Plus, i recently finished up a quick little hack that combines a Mac Mini and a Disk II floppy drive, ca. 1978.

view the Flickr set here.


23
May 08

Mac Plus G4 completed.

Mac Plus G4

see the details, and more info about construction here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15994009@N06/sets/72157605213095006/detail/


22
Apr 08

Mac Plus G4

Mac Plus G4

my latest creation, a Mac Plus G4. more images and build process description coming soon.


31
Oct 07

mouse hacking for giggles

Optical mouse guts inside an old Apple ADB mouse

i’m thinking of hacking the guts of an old iBook into a classic Mac Plus case. In preparation, though, i thought i’d start small, by shoehorning the guts of an optical mouse into the Plus’ ADB mouse. i documented the process here.