Imac G3 Into 3.1 Pc Case!!!

[customisbetter]

i was thinking that since i was going to hook this sucker up to my 47 in tv, i might as well get a new case.
i designed one thats awesome (looks strickingly similar to a mac mini) and two pieces of metal bent to form the enclosure (drafting guy) but i dont have the resources to build it. so my friend , the one im in the imac war with, is helping me put the mother board and stuff into an old pc case. itll be ugly and we are incorporating a cooling fan.
if this works then we shall overclock it to possibly 600mhz and then ill have a sweet basement entertainment system computer. WOOO!

please give me responses yay or nay because i think this is cool and want your guys' advice.

p.s. we are working with my white imac g3 500mhz, 256m ram... (more coming), with OSX 10.3.9 and 16mb video ram. and i got this one for thirty bucks. DEAL!!!

[toru173]

Dunno how awesome it will be with respect to HD decoding etc - the G3 is a little old. Fantastic idea, though.

[KingYaba]

Post pictures through the entire process. Some of us may wish to replicate it.

[customisbetter]

its happening tomorrow so ill get some pics up of the process. here is what the final result should look like in my basement. its gonna be done this weekend.
http://a714.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/73/l_c2360151d6b52d9f5146127f755cad21.jpg

[customisbetter]

its all apart and we need a power supply and do an atx conversion as descibed here, http://www.ct-scan.com/iMacATX/#future

[CRAZYBUBBA]

i might as well get a new case.
i designed one thats awesome (looks strickingly similar to a mac mini)

how is that possible? these machines have large crescent shaped logic boards.

[4JNA]

one example of this mod can be found HERE (http://www.macmod.com/content/view/192/192/).

good luck, and keep posting pictures!

[customisbetter]

http://a198.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/95/l_e316d8363087dceffabe0b86f2321365.jpg
this was my idea for the case but it didnt work out.

got a 145 watt power supply out of an old pc, dont know if its got enough power. we think that the total requirement is about 130 watts buts thats our calculations. we'll see...

[CRAZYBUBBA]

one example of this mod can be found HERE (http://www.macmod.com/content/view/192/192/).

good luck, and keep posting pictures!

I must say, that looks interesting. However as the photos show the logic board itself is larger than a mac mini case. The case would need to be at minimum the size demonstrated in your link.

[Schtumple]

this was my idea for the case but it didnt work out.

got a 145 watt power supply out of an old pc, dont know if its got enough power. we think that the total requirement is about 130 watts buts thats our calculations. we'll see...

I'd just like to say you've inspired me to redo this very same project with a imac G4, thanks, don't give up on it, it's hard work, but it's worth it in the end.

[customisbetter]

ok so we didnt get it done yet but we are moving slowly...
i have an alternate power supply that i havent installed yet because its hard. second, i turned on the mac with the analog board plugged in but not the actual crt. i get the boot noise but its cut off and then it shuts down. this is to be expected no? btw, the boot stops right when the screen usually would come to life.
so my conclusion is that the power has to go into the crt for it to run and secondly,im not sure if the power supply adapter will work correctly, although i havent built it yet. im using this guys site for help.

http://www.ct-scan.com/iMacATX/

any help is appreciated.

[customisbetter]

heres whats going on. im sorry im doing it on carpet and i know thats a sin but i dont care and im using one of those wrist bands. 56k beware!!! 28k get off the internet!!!


http://a499.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/25/l_d5669c977559c373415f1a51546a071a.jpg
http://a216.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/96/l_a1ad1882765d60969aa88f9e46fcc69f.jpg
http://a150.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/42/l_0b7ab676071001463396d757c2da9fa5.jpg
http://a436.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/42/l_24a87a359af0235639bac98f4980557b.jpg

[wakka092]

HOLY .....! That old POS had a 25 MHz processor AND 1280x1024 resolution?? Shocking. Please continue posting pictures. It's quite interesting. Good luck!

[DoFoT9]

woow amazing, please keep posting pictures and updates, so interesting.

[Gabriel Cazali]

NICE!!!
i want yo see what happens at the end
good luck!!! :cool:

[customisbetter]

were getting there. all we have to do is desolder the ATAPI? connector off the power board and rewire it to the atx power suply. after that we have to splice the pre-existing video cable into a vga cable and we will be done!!!
then come the case fitting...

[tidytrev]

id love to see how this turns out, good luck!

[customisbetter]

ok so i have the power connector on now and when i plug it in the led binks once and the powersupply fan spins once and then nothing. so it gets power but im not sure if im on the right track. if anybody can help a little on this that would be great.
should i splice the video cable going to the analog video board into a vga female, and then run a vga cable to the monitor. or can i splice both video cable s directly? here are some pics so far...

http://a364.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/44/l_d1d76590ea878017b9b5156859a2fc4b.jpg
http://a861.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/82/l_e8a5b840a849307b098ee318e674c8bc.jpg
http://a321.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/25/l_38c7bcb69c36e366130eaa4a6dda1df0.jpg

[customisbetter]

ok so i have it booting now but im stuck on the vga conversion.
the table on the guys website makes no sense to me and its apparently the only one on the internet. i need some help because i can't read whats on the screen!!!!!

http://www.ct-scan.com/iMacATX/#convertvideo

make sense of it and get back to me please.
i have a video of it booting...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KI4w-pYPs4

please help!!!!!

[minutePulsation]

just connect the corresponding pins (ie. GND 03 on the iMac Display Connector to GND 05 on VGA Display Connector)

1 is the pin with the arrow (or some other mark) on the plastic connector (if it's there : P)

The ones that don't match up, just don't get used.

Cheers

[customisbetter]

ok i have a site that explains the vga...
http://www.cryogenius.com/hardware/imac/

but i dont have a vga connector to apply the pins.
my friend might get one at school today off an old pc card or i can take the existing one of the mobo but thats a last case scenario.

point is, its almost done and we will put it in the case or in a larger but equally old case and present it at the nerd show at our school where everyone brings in their systems and i dont know, wanks? but it will surely be awesome.

[customisbetter]

ok the vga will get done this week. i don't think i can fit it in this case so i got another case thats much larger and equally old.
just need some scsi cable to go to the drives and put it all back together and i will be done!!!

more pics up soon!

[customisbetter]

ok i have news. i connected the imac display cable to a vga cable and plugged it in but....
IT STILL LOOKS HORRIBLE!!!!
i don't understand, i expected there to a line of pixels gone or weak picture but this is exactly the same result as connecting the monitor the the vga port. im confused.
if anybody can help me that would be awesome.
heres some pics of the process.
http://a953.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/121/l_d22fe71a4c4853610411c11360a60f88.jpg
http://a857.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/128/l_273721b109cdc227cbe650206f3e6328.jpg
http://a966.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/95/l_9ee695443d6928af85eea176617ea4e5.jpg
http://a669.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/11/l_24dcc54b38be38bed0370a3a23f8a084.jpg
http://a108.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/76/l_660bf39e82dce2a91b258eaefefa13db.jpg
http://a319.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/94/l_efcbdf4b12de95f72ce14fd05a2f80c6.jpg
http://a509.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/87/l_1cf3003c79a06466668feb0bd0c70f04.jpg

[customisbetter]

i tried it with a crt but the picture is still F'd up. there is some ghosting and the picture is duplicated?
heres a pic...
http://a241.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/26/l_3db9313c5ee48bb0788b7fe4708c3390.jpg


and the crt does work, heres proof...

http://a693.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/23/l_f3d283655e56d32f7b3cdb740e2973fc.jpg


im thinking that the cable is too long? how long is too long?

[JG271]

How long is your cable?
Is the whole length of the cable shielded? You may be getting some kind of interference.

[customisbetter]

its probably 4.5 feet and the only part that isnt shielded is in the above picture.

and the crt is being used through the vga port and not the video cable because the cord is hard wired to the monitor. Doh!!! does that change something?

ill try it when its not near anything.

ok its still bad when i cover the connection with the faraday cage, then i plugged the lcd monitor in to the vga port instead and they look exactly the same. i then unplugged the vga port and something shorted and turned it off. its probably my unsheilded power adapter but if that helps...

[JG271]

Probably not the length of the cable (I've had a 6 foot one before) or the power adapter. I don't really know what else to suggest, you've checked all your solder points etc? Perhaps posting a thread on another forum that deals with this sort of things. Keep us posted!

[customisbetter]

i can't find anybody with the same probem as me.
i checked some of my connections here...

http://www.macmod.com/content/view/414/

and they seem correct.
i did everything on this guys site...

http://www.cryogenius.com/hardware/imac/

except this because i don't know what it means.

"Finally, I routed the green pin 11 Power On signal to the power board's ATX Power On signal inverter."

what is the power on signal inverter?

[customisbetter]

he said he used an orange cable from the 14 pin connector, pin 2, to use as ground to pins 5 and 10 on the vga but my pin 2 was pink so i connected 5 and 10 to pin 9 on the 14pin connector bc/c its orange and now the screen is mostly white and slightly easier to read. still Fck'd though.

http://a363.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/122/l_e60087bd1ee6d118b05b15d4e45551ca.jpg

[customisbetter]

ok, i remade the cable to a slightly different spec but i have yet to try it. my mobo is at school... presentation on how computers are similar to animal cells... anyway i will test it tomorrow.
i really hope this works. i think it might because i have been trying to sell this 80 gig harddrive on ebay and it won't sell. maybe god wants me to keep it so i can use it in the new mac, eh? idk, we'll see.

[customisbetter]

its still f'cked. i tired reversing th ecolors and now everything is black and white. i give up. im done. if anybody needs a 500 mhz g3 board im here.

thanks for the help

[ickystay]

Damn! Very sorry to hear you can't get it working.

What a drag these things are made so you can't just scrap the CRT and run video out the little mirroring adapter thingy.

I got my eMac cheap because there was some screen burn-in from the school or library it came from. I thought I'd do the "eMac LCD" conversion. The more I looked at the process, the less I minded the screen burn.

Thanks for sharing your experience. No one can say you didn't give a hell of an effort. Pity the sad ending...

[JG271]

Thats a shame, any chance you can put it together or sell the parts on ebay?

[customisbetter]

i trashed the video board. the power board is ok, but the downconverter board is toast. ill just keep the stuff and wait. i am looking to overclock and lcd-itize my emac when my main comp(hp dv9008nr) gets back from the "Thief-Squad".
then run it with two screens. it looks much easier than the damn imac.
http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/eServer/

thanks

[ickystay]

How about a change of plan for ypur imac?

http://www.macmod.com/content/view/414/193/

[customisbetter]

i actually used that site as a reference too. my video is messed up. i used those connections hatt he used. maybe ill just make the thing headless...
thanks though!!!

[MacHappytjg]

its still f'cked. i tired reversing th ecolors and now everything is black and white. i give up. im done. if anybody needs a 500 mhz g3 board im here.

thanks for the help

me