Mod G4 iMac with Intel Mac mini innards?

[DavidFulero]

Couldn't you just put any micro-atx board in it?
At least if it would fit, plus with any of these mods wouldn't the i/o ports be blocked?

 

[ballin805]

Couldn't you just put any micro-atx board in it?
At least if it would fit, plus with any of these mods wouldn't the i/o ports be blocked?

Hey people i finally got it i ordered this kit and it seems to work the only thing is that i forgot to order the power adapter it uses 12v 3.5amps i managed to plug in a 12v 1.5a but the picture cuts off because it needs 3.5amps or Higher for it to get a perfect picture. but my bad luck kicked in i went to all the major electronics stores around my area fry's electronics,radio shack,best buy,office depot,i even tried wall-mart and target but no luck next i went online and tried to order it from where i got the board and its $20 bucks Plus $30.00 SIPPING from Korea to US so i guess ill wait till next week when fry's gets their inventory
and ill only pay $14.99+tax
i am planing to put the zotac itx 330 motherboard inside my imac g4....and connect it to my digital cable receiver "use it as my TV"......... PC & TV cool...

 

[centron-sg1]

May have found a solution

Hi Guys

Long time watcher, first time poster,

I have read this thread from top to bottom and decided to take the plunge.

I found a company (via ebay) that builds AD board to control LCD panels and after providing them the details of the panel they have agreed to ship me a board with longer cables (50cm) to avoid the soldering in the neck issues it seems so many folks have had.

Details:
http://www.pelcode.com/sub03/sub03P_ad_board_FPDController.htm

Looks real similar to the one above that ballin805 has procured....

The board that should be compatible with the 17" imac 1440x900 monitor (which I believe is a LG LM171W02(A4)(M1) ) is the PMB200X which is 170mmX105mm in size and should fit fine in the iMac G4 body (some dremel mods may be required) along with the inverter and the guts from an intel macmini and a new SATA DVD drive to replace the frontloader in the mini. Pretty sure I am going to void my warranty (and applecare).

I intend to strip the original mainboard as flat as possible, cut most of it away and solder extensions from the mini's ports to the original boards connectors (usb/audio/firewire/e.t.c to maintain the fit in the round shell. (should be fun and keep me out of the pub). The mainboard on mine is dead anyway.

This PMB200X board should be compatible with 20" versions too as far as I can tell. (and 15"ers for that matter).
I supports TMDS or LVDS or TTL and has a swag of exciting inputs (see attached spec sheet PDF) and an optional remote control.

I have accepted that here is no plug and play type solderless solution for this mod and I am sure dis-assembly and re-assembly of the neck will also still be required to thread the new cables anyway.

Cost:
The quote I have received is:
$30us shipping to Australia
$75us for the AD board
$12us for the inverter
So for $117 (via paypal) I just may be able to rescue the beautiful "lamp" from landfill....

(just realized that I too forgot to order the powersupply but it may be included we'll see)

This includes all required cables.
Should take a fortnight to arrive so I will keep you all posted...

 

[jindor]

i found the pin out to the 15" imac g4 LCD

http://hidekyan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/07/index.html

This looks too good to be true, and so hard to believe. You don't even have to touch LCD panel at all. I'm sure someone told me long time ago that DVI and TMDS are not compatible at their signal level, therefore simple remapping wouldn't work. This article disconfirms it, making me feel like we all took a long detour to get here. Lesson learned: never underestimate the power of Japanese otaku...

 

[jberg44]

TMDS and DVI

DVI uses TMDS signaling so it certainly is possible that you could relay an image to the LCD glass without a controller board. But, the AD board also allows you to alter the image with contrast, brightness, position etc. And probably most importantly the AD board controls the backlights through the inverter. You would need a way to independently signal the inverter or backlight the lcd in some other way.

 

[illitrate23]

Pretty sure I am going to void my warranty (and applecare).

lmao!!
please let us know how you get on with this? can you ask the company what details they would need to be able to provide exactly the same as you ordered? if you find it works well then i'll place an order myself as while i've kept my iLamp all these years, i find i can't make any real use of it alongside my intel iMac. i'd love to throw a modern mac mini inside it and bring it back to usefulness

 

[milesg]

I have a imac g4 that has working hardware 700MHz, 384mb of ram, 40Gb hardrive, working but needs os the screen works but has waterdamge on the screen if anybody is looking to buy let me know should be easy to fix screen if you choose, really cheap. The only problem it has is the lcd and that turns on and works. I also have one more that has working hardware but the lcd does not work, it powers up but no picture.

 

[jberg44]

Success - Finally!!!

After seeing blugray's mod I decided to see if I could get the monitor wired through the neck. I thought about again going the TMDS controller route, but I've been frustrated with all the AD boards I've been able to find. I decided to wire LVDS and inverter cables through the neck of a 20 inch iMac G4. I could not be happier with the results. I do not have a mac mini or mobo in the base, instead I am keeping only the blu-ray player in there. (For me I intend to use this as a large monitor for my macbook.

I am detailing this all on my blog - so please check it out if you have questions. I'm probably about halfway done with the blog post. I'd certainly like to thank everyone on this forum for help and support. Its amazing that so many people love this computer and want to give it a second life. I feel like now my iMac G4 will remain on my desk forever. Please let me know if you have any questions on the mod and I'm looking forward to see where the next person can take this.

 

[Tomasso]

Female JAE 50 Connector - Contact in Hong Kong

I am interested in the contact in Hong Kong that can supply cables with a Female JAE 50 connector that adapts to 40/44 IDE. Want to connect desktop cd drives to a laptop. Need that cable. If you can help, I'd really appreciate it. Tomasso

 

[billib]

Rev. 2, 12" JAE 50 Cable

I am interested in the contact in Hong Kong that can supply cables with a Female JAE 50 connector that adapts to 40/44 IDE. Want to connect desktop cd drives to a laptop. Need that cable. If you can help, I'd really appreciate it. Tomasso

I purchased my "JAE 50 CABLE 12 Inch" from "Clive At Five".
He had some made in China. He still may have some left.
$51.00 plus postage This will attach an "IDE DVD/CD Drive" to the Pre 09' Mac mini.

Try and PM "Clive At Five" on this Forum.

 

[Clive At Five]

I am interested in the contact in Hong Kong that can supply cables with a Female JAE 50 connector that adapts to 40/44 IDE. Want to connect desktop cd drives to a laptop. Need that cable. If you can help, I'd really appreciate it. Tomasso

Tomasso, what I offer is a JAE50 extension cable, which pairs very well with the male JAE to Female IDE adapter (hard to find). If you want to connect JAE-enabled desktop-sized devices (they do exist), all you would need is the cable. Since no laptop board has a profile that supports the surface-mounting of a desktop-sized drive (and sometimes even the JAE -> female IDE adapter itself!), you will most likely need my cable as a riser. FIND THE ADAPTER FIRST to check it out. I don't want to sell you something you don't need.

Now, I lost touch with the fellow ("Willy" in Hong Kong) I got my JAE -> Female IDE adapters from and he doesn't seem to be responding to my e-mails anymore.

Fortunately, something like this may work for you as well. You will have to dissect it and remove the adapter board (which again, may not fit your particular laptop, and therefore would require my "riser" cable). Note also that you will have to supply 4-pin-molex power to your desktop device, which might be hard to come by inside your laptop. Plan for external power.

If you do determine you need my cable, please visit http://paul.thejennis.com/JAE50/About.html for more info, pics, YouTube vid, and, of course, an order page.

-Clive

(Thanks for the plug, Billib! )

 

[Tomasso]

JAE 50 Tips - Thank You

Thanks Clive and Billib!
You understand what I'm doing.
The cable is cool but it just brings my problem (the male JAE 50) outside the box. This is helpful since desktop drives won't fit in there anyway. I will look closely at the other things you suggest to make the conversion. If I do this I'll supply the power externally. If I find an eloquent solution I will certainly share. Thanks again for your help.
Tomasso

 

[Clive At Five]

Thanks Clive and Billib!
You understand what I'm doing.
The cable is cool but it just brings my problem (the male JAE 50) outside the box. This is helpful since desktop drives won't fit in there anyway. I will look closely at the other things you suggest to make the conversion. If I do this I'll supply the power externally. If I find an eloquent solution I will certainly share. Thanks again for your help.
Tomasso

JAE50's gender is pretty ambiguous. Are you positive it's male? If so, perhaps all you're looking for is this? That adapter is typically used to convert JAE drives to work with PATA motherboards, not the other way around. I'm about 90% confident that you'll want the adapter in my previous post, coupled with an adapter or two on the IDE end to plug into a PATA device.

 

[jberg44]

17" iMac G4 External Touch Screen Monitor

Hey all, I have finally completed my 17" iMac G4 with resistive touch screen mod. This mod uses a monitor replacement with standard LVDS. All connections go through the neck and hookup to the back of the base through extenders. To be honest there is probably room in the base for a caseless, driveless mac mini even with the monitor components. But, I think I'm just going to hook it up to a mini externally and either display it next to the iMac or hide it under the desk. I've detailed the process at:

http://dremmeljunkie.blogspot.com/2010/04/17-imac-g4-external-touch-screen.html

I have a video of this mod at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOm4hS_bvEA&feature=channel

Hope this helps.

 

[amicusqt]

alternatives + using ??Mac mini 1.5 Ghz

hope this topic isn't exhausted yet - I'd like thoughts on

1)transplanting the non-intel mini mac 1.5 Ghz into a G4 body etc - would we face the same probs with the screen etc

and

2)is there a simpler idea to try - like we all want to keep the ever beautiful G4 flat panel shape etc - but we all seem to desire a more powerfull processor and/or even a more powerful graphics card .....

So - so many years later after the initial manufacture of these incredibly lovely machines - can we get stuff that would do that without hacking into it - isn't there a way to replace the processor or increase the graphics capability - like software and/or hardware ideas ????

I only ask this because all that time in this thread basically was following the assumption - which might yet be the only one - that replacing with the macmini guts was the only way to go.
BTW - have found that that list of user manuals DOES work for download = where the files ares still available = http://home.earthlink.net/~strahm_s/manuals.html

We are 5 yrs further along from the end of the macmini's - and the imac g4's - is there anything out there that we can use for upgrades - or any 'fixes' - like there seems to be for the Cube -which is another lovely design

 

[gregounours]

Trying something else

Beside the possible yet ambitious solution of putting a mini-ITX board inside the dome there has to be solution easier to implement.

How about keeping the G4 innards and just use it as a client to power the screen and the mini be the brain. Like with the ScreenRecycler software except that the G4 would be the main screen and not the secondary screen.

I am no techie but there are several path to be explored. First one would be to convert the HDMI signal and cabling into something that can be sent to one of the g4 port. The other one would be even more simple. It would be to send the mini's main display's signal through the network to the G4. There should be a boot screen with a timer that would revert the signal to the HDMI port so when tings go wrong the mini can still be accessed.

Anyway that would be much easier than anything else I have seen (well read) attempted. I would actually be willing to spend money on this because I love my iLamp to death.

Greg

 

[LvX]

Hi all,
just for sharing some infos:

I've followed instructions in http://hidekyan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/08/imac-g4-dvi-4-9.html?cid=68274206#comment-68274206, i've soldered a dvi-d connector to tmds cable and used the original screen inverter.
the screen work really good, without needing of luminance modifications, i've so fitted a ionitx d e board inside the dome and a regular atx psu (only the board).

the only problem left is that screen doest works until windows boot, maybe a problem with edid informations sent by the display.. i'm still investigating.

here is a photo

Luca

tdms pinout:

inverter infos:

http://hidekyan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/08/imac-g4-dvi-3-7.html

 

[fhall1]

Hi all,
just for sharing some infos:

I've followed instructions in http://hidekyan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/08/imac-g4-dvi-4-9.html?cid=68274206#comment-68274206, i've soldered a dvi-d connector to tmds cable and used the original screen inverter.
the screen work really good, without needing of luminance modifications, i've so fitted a ionitx d e board inside the dome and a regular atx psu (only the board).

the only problem left is that screen doest works until windows boot, maybe a problem with edid informations sent by the display.. i'm still investigating.

here is a photo

Luca

Looks great....thanks for sharing

 

[gregounours]

Brightness adjustment

Can you adjust the brightness of the screen from Windows?

Hi all,
just for sharing some infos:

I've followed instructions in http://hidekyan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/08/imac-g4-dvi-4-9.html?cid=68274206#comment-68274206, i've soldered a dvi-d connector to tmds cable and used the original screen inverter.
the screen work really good, without needing of luminance modifications, i've so fitted a ionitx d e board inside the dome and a regular atx psu (only the board).

the only problem left is that screen doest works until windows boot, maybe a problem with edid informations sent by the display.. i'm still investigating.

here is a photo

Luca

 

[LvX]

no, windows cannot control brightness, maybe it can be adjusted with a trimmer attached to brightness pin of the inverter cable.
However the default brightness is perfect imho.

 

[gregounours]

I had a hard time following the foreign language part of the discussion on the website you refered to Could you clarify where you get the power for the inverter's from?

I just bought a mac g4 15" for $35 to experiment with before I try anything on my main rig (20"). I think I am gonna give it a try.

Thanks in advance

no, windows cannot control brightness, maybe it can be adjusted with a trimmer attached to brightness pin of the inverter cable.
However the default brightness is perfect imho.

 

[Gustav.A.]

Hi there, I have also just purchased an iMac G4 to try this mod. I have found some information on another site http://gifuken023.blog122.fc2.com/blog-entry-18.html. This outlines how to wire the TMDS cable, and also power the inverter - this was the exact same problem the gentlemen on the site had. This will really be a truly amazing mod if it is sucessful, as obviously the iMac g4 is the most asesthetically pleasing mac ever to have been manufactured, it is a shame it was discontinued.

Anyway, here are all the sites I have used so far in reference to this mod, which will hopefully help get the ball rolling to make an easy to follow tutorial.
http://gifuken023.blog122.fc2.com/
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=194409
http://dremmeljunkie.blogspot.com/
http://hidekyan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/08/imac-g4-dvi-3-7.html
http://www.ethernetworks.de/pics/iMac_G4_166_top.jpg

I think a better approach to this mod would be to try and leave the cables in the mac as intact as possible, not only to conserve the mac if anything should go wrong, but also to make the job slightly easier. Therefore i think we need to identify the tmds cable socket on the imac mobo. . The DVI -D/I connectors are widely available, but I am unsure on the exact nature of this socket. I do not believe it is a proprietary apple connector, but I do not have the knowledge to identify it. It is 21 pin, with two rows, 10 and 11 pins. If this socket could be identified, one could easily make an intermediate pcb which will connect a dvi cable and the tmds cable together, which will prevent damaging any of the screens cables.

I would love to see this mod succeed, and I will start modding my own iMac when I receive it. Many thanks, Gustav.

 

[gregounours]

If we can find supply of that connector we can actually have a batch of cables made. I am sure we will find a shop to do this for us. Parts would probably as little as a buck or two and I would buy that cable for $25 in a minute. May be we can convince DealExtreme to do it I am gonna post on a couple of forms and if that doesn't work I'll call or write Infinite loop see if they are willing to help identify that mystery connector

 

[LvX]

Hi, i've translated the page from japanese to english using google, is not so readeable but you can understand most of it.

http://translate.google.it/translat...imac-g4-dvi-3-7.html&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

the power from the inverter is taken directly from an empty hd/cd power plug.

I'm now trying to take power directly from the dvi connector to allow display to sleep, to do this i think you could power the tdms cable pins 1,2 directly from pin 14 (5v) of dvi.

Also, i've used a 15'' imac, i think the 20'' one would be different

 

[C00l00k]

Just for info:

Hi all,
I am trying to mod this iMac also.
At the moment I am trying to use a Hanns G 171A monitor to replace the original 17 inch, Jon (http://dremmeljunkie.blogspot.com) successfully managed to get it to work with Hanns G 171DBB, here in Italy I am finding it extremely difficult to get hold of a 17 inch monitor with A/R 16:10.

The one I've now, managed to get it from Germany, uses a FFC ribbon cable (UL style 20624 30 pin, 0.50mm pitch) for the LVDS signaling. I will be trying to extend this cable, half FFC and another half (to help the passage through the iMac neck) LVDS wire. Just found on eBay a FFC cable, now looking at to get a LIF connector to simplify my lack of soldering skills.

The power supply board on this monitor fits on the Faraday without issues, the video board is very small, but, it uses only VGA-D-sub input. I will have a go at it!!!

For the original monitors (I have 2 -17") I am in touch with www.pelcode.com a guy called Lee is working on a solution to make their board to work with the original inverter (board id: PMB200X - you can also find it on eBay) although I think their own inverter will work, by extending the backlights cables.(Jon on his mod proved it is possible) I will keep this post updated about the PMB200X board!

Other useful info:
For backlight wire take a look at this site - http://www.ccflwarehouse.com/hivowiandha.html great to use extenders on single runs.

For cables assembly, connectors etc - http://en.esskabel.de/produkte/produktuebersicht/ I haven't been in touch with this company, I plan to get info from them about the LIF connectors.

Hope the above might be useful for some of us here, and if anyone has any ideas to help me to extend this crazy paper-thin cable, your help would be much appreciated.

Happy modding,

B4N,

Roger