Tag: Reverse_Engineering

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Mac Portable Hybrid Module Now In Production

The long-awaited date has finally arrived. After testing this module on two of my Portables, testing by some community members, writing documentation, building a crazy looking tester system, I think it’s ready for release.

The Macintosh Portable Hybrid Module Recreation is now an open listing.

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Macintosh Portable Projects Progress

  • Backlit Macintosh Portable Screen Cable Recreation:
    Prototype cables have completed production and are on the way to me now. They should arrive by the end of the week. I don’t own a backlit Portable, and will be sending two cables out to testers once they arrive. Presuming they work, I’ll place a larger order for them and will start selling them here.

    Pricing is likely to fall around $40 to $45 per cable for the raw flex only. You will need to move your connector from the original cable to the new, because I couldn’t find connectors available which are the same. If you want me to move the connector for you, that’ll cost a bit more and require sending in your cable. My fancy desoldering setup makes moving the connector pretty fast.
  • Non-Backlit Macintosh Portable Hybrid Module Recreation:
    This is a recreation of the original Hybrid module, using new old stock parts. The first round of PCBs are for prototyping only, and are pretty ugly. I created a ‘downstream’ board which mimics the components in a real Portable so there’s no fear of blowing things up as I tweak high-precision resistor values.

    Looks aside, these recreations are working quite well and only a few things remain to be worked out.
    Things which work: Main 5v power rail, 12v enable, -5 enable, battery charger, battery charge indicator signal (to the power manager chip), battery charge cutoff (HICHG)
    Things which still need work and testing: -5v power rail itself (-6 for some reason), under-voltage lockout, A/D feedback line voltage, and testing in a real portable for functionality

    Picture of the setup for fun (like I said, not exactly pretty):