The LC MACAA prototype last mentioned a month ago has required a few more rounds of updates to more thoroughly engineer for the possibility of power supply or regulator chip failure. Latest prototype PCBs are here, and need assembly / testing as usual. A 3D-printed mounting bracket has been designed, and will be improved upon prior to release (it’s kind of ugly).
A new project in the list is a replacement for the eMate 300 RAM and Flash expansion card. These cards are rare and expensive, but only use three reasonably affordable chips – and that makes them the perfect target for reverse engineering. Prototypes are in motion for the original 1 megabyte style plus an upgraded 4 megabyte version. Want your eMate to have as much RAM as a 2100? That’s the goal here. 🙂
I’ve also taken on a reverse engineering task, to redesign the flex cable for a backlit screen upgrade for the Macintosh Portable. That has been designed and I’m looking around for the right connectors now.
All of this while still working on BlueSCSI! The new PowerBook version 4 is up for sale, and it’s 100% surface mount in order to bring the edge connector closer to where you’d find it on an original hard drive. An F4 variant of the PowerBook design is also in progress. And through-hole style mainline BlueSCSI and F4 BlueSCSI prototypes are on the way from the PCB manufacturer (with active termination, of course). Lots going on here.
How many projects do I have in motion? All of them, of course. 🙂
