I Built a "Mac Minus" With a Real CRT

[@ActionRetro]

Check out the Bambu A1 3D printer and filaments I used here: Bambu A1 printer: bit.ly/3WiJ9e5

[@SuperDavidEF]

That printer is priced at $489 but in your video when you went to the website, it was $339. What happened? EDIT: Nevermind, just watched the next 2 seconds of the video, and saw that the $489 price is a combo that includes filament. 😬

[@Daveyk021]

Cool. Yes, Bambu it the best. I do have need for a X1C-XL, which doesn't exist. So I'm not sure if I'll wait for them to come out with a larger bed or not. At a show, you just have to tell people this is a very rare McIntosh MINI that Apple never released but you found one of the prototypes in a storage locker.

[@Daveyk021]

That looks like it was a really fun project!

[@paulluce2557]

Hey Sean, A very kind friend gave me one of those tiny monochrome CRT televisions in perfect working order earlier this week...Maybe I should make my own Mac Mini? Or maybe just a tiny pc in general..

[@NicVandEmZ]

Should try it with m4 Mac mini

[@georgeh6856]

It's a little-known fact. AMTEL is the Sony of miniature CRT TVs.

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

So, they're good

hell no I had that tiny tv the build quality is horrible​@@DryPaperHammerBro

[@0ka354]

This TV has like 10 brands, they look exactly the same. I think vwestlife has a video on it

[@Silly-g]

​@@DryPaperHammerBro the original comment is a joke. I'm pretty sure there was a technology connections or vwestlife video on them explaining it was just leftover electronic stock shoved in a brittle plastic case when crts were on their deathbed.

[@DanTDMJace]

@@Silly-gVWestlife

[@deltakurshiva]

I'd recommend using a Pi 3 for this, it still has composite video (on the "audio" jack, it's TRRS) and is much faster - might even get decent emulation speeds with it. And you can route the GPIO to your empty slot in the back!

[@Giuliana-w1f]

I was about to say this. Also, a 4:3 resolution would probably cover the whole screen, and messing with the CRT adjustments could improve the image (mainly the geometry)

[@lenni-builder]

Even the Pi 4/5 still have it, you just need to solder on your own port on with the RPi 5

[@gamerboygb6041]

​@Giuliana-w1f I have a similar 5' CRT, and none of the potentiometers I've adjusted really helped :/

[@lorenzoporciani]

​@@lenni-buildersame for pi zero and pi zero 2 I also highly suggest setting progressive 240p mode and especially disabling color burst on such b&w CRTs

[@kFY514]

Pi 4 has a composite output on the TRRS jack as well, it's just disabled by default there - due to quirks with clock configuration enabling the composite output required downclocking the CPU, at least on the early Pi4-compatible Raspberry Pi OS builds; those clock configurations have been overhauled since, so it might no longer be the case. But then again, on current Raspberry Pi OS builds, the composite output is disabled by default on all models...

[@legomasterj]

If you haven't seen mine, I built the Big Mac @ Open Sauce, which went the opposite direction with a 21" screen-sized Mac Plus and everything else scaled up to fit.

[@Robert-we9jp]

Link to see it (or even a KZbin video)?

[@RamLaska]

3:00 Powering a CRT off of a SATA connector... My mind just exploded into a million pieces of meme-shrapnel. 🤣

[@timwilliscroft9615]

You must add an "AMTEL Inside" Sticker.

[@citrus.airways]

🤣

[@usagold8]

You might be able to get better quality if you output a black and white (luma) signal from the Pi, not sure if it’s possible but I’ve heard on old black and white displays the contrast and legibility can improve.

[@dennissdigitaldump8619]

Yep, you can color kill the output. With some clever timing hacks 720x480(maybe 512) output could be achieved. I did this eons ago on PC & Amiga for a viewfinder experiment.

[@kargaroc386]

you would also need to remove the color carrier filter cap from the circuit, but you'd need to find it. Really ideally you'd file the board down to just the things needed to run the CRT and drive video to it. That would make it waaay smaller and improve video quality. But it's a project that most people don't dare try because it involves the letters C, R, and T.

[@joelavcoco]

@@kargaroc386 Yeah, I have boxes of these old TVs that I pick up for $5 or so from thrift stores for just this kind of nefarious purpose. A really great project would be a CRT controller board for them that would take MDA or mono VGA inputs with separate sync.

[@SianaGearz]

I have one of those CRTs mini TVs. It works. And a pi. And random PSUs and voltage regulators. And a 3D printer. And a VCF nearby. Nah.

[@ActionRetro]

Yesss

[@jeffsabados8075]

Dew it

[@MatroxMillennium]

I have two or three of those 5" black and white TVs that I never use, something like this might be a good use of one of those

[@D0Samp]

The opposite would be a Mac/2, a cursed computer with a Frankenstein GUI running on top of OS/2 1.0.

[@ActionRetro]

Genius

[@timwilliscroft9615]

This should run a Apple IIGS emulator. (Check out the History of GS vs Macintosh.)

[@TheOldTelephone]

​@@ActionRetroi actually have the tv in the video, except its branded livingsolutions and its silver. Its a cool little tv

[@SmeddyTooBestChannel]

it would be running an apple lisa

[@gammongaming9081]

I used to have a Mac Plus as a child, it was my dad's, and my first computer. I played many games on it until it was stolen in a robbery

[@TitaniumNitro]

:(

[@liverslife18]

@@TitaniumNitro ℜ𝔦𝔭

[@retrotails]

linux on the pi very recently (6.11 kernel) added the option to set monochrome output, which makes for a much sharper picture without the color burst giving it dot crawl

[@JeanRodo]

Is that something you can do on on just the stock pi image or can you do that for all Linux based images?

[@retrotails]

@@JeanRodo seems you can put "video=Composite-1:720x480i,tv_mode=Mono" (or 576 for PAL) for example in your kernel boot parameters, as long as you have a new enough kernel. looks to be part of the DRM video driver, so it should work on any kernel that supports the pi.

[@TaijanDean]

The Mac Plus has always been my favourite Macintosh so seeing a smaller, more portable version complete with CRT, is a real treat!

[@mibnsharpals]

DankPods would call him Shrek-minus.

[@Sayakas_Digital_Attic]

Wow, miniaturizing a Mac with a working CRT is an incredible idea. The glow-in-the-dark filament is such a cool touch! :D

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

"Glow in the dark green! That's what we're using!" Of course you're using the dumbest option, Sean. Never change! ❤

[@KheldarLars]

I'm a simple guy. I see a radioactive mac, I click

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

@@KheldarLars RadioMactive, if you'd like.

[@liverslife18]

@@DryPaperHammerBrothat’s cool

[@SuperDavidEF]

If you could make that "floppy drive" slot at the front take a Compact Flash card, that would be perfect!

[@vorg_]

I never finished it because I killed the tube in mine, but my original Mac Minus is set up to take an SD card slot there. I did succeed in hiding USB-C in the "phone port" for the keyboard, and even got a curly cable for a mini keyboard.

[@Zeem4]

As a British person of a certain age, the appearance of RISC OS fills my heart with joy.

[@asm1]

And mine. Heh. The Acorns on my Living room table approve.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

BOOP!

[@BastetFurry]

As a German i always envied them when seeing one, if you folks had marketed over here a tad bit better it might have had crushed the Amiga quasi-monopol. RiscOS was in every point better than AmigaOS Workbench.

[@alop53O1]

@@BastetFurryone way that amigaOS was miles ahead was the fact that it used preemptive-multitasking while risc did and I think still does use cooperative-multitasking which when used with multiple tasks running concurrently can lead to major performance loss

[@snowdog993]

Sean: "Maybe I'll just be careful" LOL!

[@paulstubbs7678]

As a mod, that back panel that you thought of using as a USB port, do that but with a twist, data lines from the 'Pi, but 5V direct from the power supply, not the 'Pi, so bye bye keyboard power issues.

[@Loogieiphone]

I just got a little ctr tv and I have been looking for hours for a 3d print like this! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LINKING IT that saved me a lot of time!

[@cjsebes]

As I was watching, I was thinking, "He really needs to bring that to VCF East." Ha! I'd love to see that in person! So cool.

[@theantithesis1]

Having been doing some research on these 5" CRT's, you don't need the composite inputs because it is piss easy to hack into the composite video signal line that comes out of the main chip when decoding the RF signal from the air (that they don't broadcast anymore). I have a PDF of schematics of a very similar set featuring the KA2915, that does all the TV and radio decoding and pin number 5 is video out and 11 is audio out. But, it is best to know what you're doing when working with a CRT.

[@WolfTheDog]

This needs to be a kit that anyone can build.

[@lorenzoporciani]

You should try to force progressive 240p mode and disable colorburst on the raspberry to have a better source image!

[@Henderson101]

RISCOS is basically the OS I used in school. It was BBC B at first, but RISCOS through most of my later years. It was the educational OS of choice. We never had Apple in schools in the UK, at least not where I was.

[@W4rH4wkXX]

Mac Plus was my very first computer.... aaahhhh the black and white crt and 24000 baud memories are following back 🤓🤓

[@laynesamba]

I am actually working on this same project right now! My plans to hold the front and rear cases together is to make an internal chassis similar to what the Macintosh has and use that to attach the rear with screws.

[@adjusted-bunny]

Congrats! You are doing some awesome work.

[@A-random-nerd1]

I love my Mac plus, I’m not that old but one of my friends brothers got me into retro computing then I found this channel which is a great channel. I watch it all the time and it’s so cool to see a portable plus

[@smileyface8124]

these types of tvs were very common and were even still on sale brand new in 2009 or maybe ever 2010

[@mrnmrn1]

Here in Hungary, analog broadcast was shut down in october 2013. I saw these TVs on the shelves of Media Markt literally a week before the shutdown. It was also criminally overpriced. After the shutdown, they probably went straight to e-waste, in their unopened boxes. It's a shame, if they would have made a huge discount on them, I'd probably buy a dozen or so. If I could get my hands on them towards the e-waste facility, I'd get all of them, even if it was 500 pieces. Unfortunately I couldn't.

[@smileyface8124]

@@mrnmrn1 you can probably find them at like goodwill or something

[@metallurgico]

2:45 "I'm sure it's safe" Electroboom intensifies

[@beefglobb]

I'm impressed how SMOOTH that print turned out!

[@epictaco8589]

Was lining up to do a similar project to have on the shelf but got stuck on power solutions, the pico ATX power supply is genius!!! Gonna snag one of those and get to soldering!

[@BobM925]

Glow in the dark filament is great. A couple of years back I printed a 12 inch Enterprise 1701-D in the stuff, and its still awesome

[@familymiller1854]

That is awesome, my talented friend.

[@otter-pro]

another idea for CRT monitor is to find monochrome 9" VGA monitor used for POS. I see them a lot in Ebay and is affordable, and offers much sharper image.

[@eDoc2020]

But then it would be full-size.

[@MegaManNeo]

The CRT gives this thing an authentic look to it 😀

[@Michael-Archonaeus]

Dude... I recently saw one of those tubes in a goodwill, you are tempting me to pick it up!

[@pelculator]

Love it, but in my opinion should have gone one step further and install System 6 or 7 (i think, not an expert) emulator on the pi.

[@Mainyehc]

What about an FPGA-based or otherwise re-engineered but shrunken version with a BlueSCSI instead of the floppy drive? Or even a smaller version still, while you’re at it 🙃

[@milkgang1940]

Mini mac with mini ActionRetro thats amazing

[@BigBadBench]

Fun project! Your soldering skills are leveling up!

[@janno288]

You should adjust the end magents of the CRTs electron gun to center the screen. You also shoukd try the on board adjustments to improve the picture quality

[@МаксимСмирнов-л4ш]

Шон, огромное удовольствие смотреть твои работы. Спасибо тебе большое!😊

[@Sb129]

It's too cool that it uses a real mini CRT, perfect~

[@AAT30-90]

If someone could print these up based on your crt mod and sell them on Etsy or something, I'd get one in a heartbeat. Those portable TVs are practically free at thrift stores.

[@psergiu]

Hi Sean, can you please post your updated STL files (with the standoffs for mounting the CRT) as a Remix on Thingiverse ? I have the exact model mini-tv. Thanks !

[@ActionRetro]

Sure!

[@eduardoavila646]

Having a pico PSU and sata, you could even put a spinning laptop hard drive in there for a good amount of space and authentic spinning disk sounds!

[@petemc4190]

there's not enough buttons for how much like this computer needs!!! Unbelievable work!!

[@hardrivethrutown]

wow this is almost identical to a project I'm working on, I have an almost identical TV with composite and a Raspberry Pi 1B

[@MotownBatman]

This is d0Pe as Hell! Well Done Sir!

[@TheDigitalOne]

Another cool project, she’s alive! 😺👏👏👏🥰⭐️💎

[@ScottDuensing]

Watching this video while also watching my Bambu printer print. They really are amazing machines!

[@D4236.]

"when in doubt, solder directly to the board." best phrase ever.

[@SmokeyWire56]

I found an IBM monitor in the trash. The horizontal output transistor was smoked. I used a 5inch b/w TV guts to power the IBM tube. The tube socket is the same!

[@paulstubbs7678]

Nice, I have that exact TV, Raspberry Pi, & power supply, shame about the 3D printer that is way outside my budget, maybe I should follow Google in one of their budget builds an make a cardboard version. Actually on second thought, a polished and oiled wood version could come out really nice.

[@kjamison5951]

I worked in a high school with its own elementary department some years ago. While we mostly used Macintosh, including 512 and Plus versions, the elementary department used only Acorns with RiscOS. I detested RiscOS. They had early versions, and different variations of the OS. The teachers would buy a printer and complain at me when it didn’t work because there was no driver available. The local education authority published a list of printers and drivers which they had available for free distribution but the teachers ignored this. Print cartridges for the approved printers were expensive and only supplied by one local IT company. One of the guys at the local authority HQ would generate new driver software but only if the number of requests reached a certain quantity. Oh, and the printers were bought from the same local IT company. It was easier for me to remove an old printer and fix it, than it was to get a driver for a new printer. But the teachers still complained at me about the lack of support.

[@JanusCycle]

That is extremely cute, well done! I didn't know there are Pi's with composite video out. It seems to be more common that I realized.

[@indy1725]

I've been planning that if I can't get all my Mac Minis and SEs fully refurbished that I'd take an old 9" CRT and turn one into a Raspberry Pi game console, but now I'm liking this project too!

[@AlexDaDermahurr]

i love watching mac content on a mac

[@jimi-w]

RISC OS! Sean you are a man after my own heart. I’d also argue that keyboard is much more BBC Micro keycaps than Commodore 64 (again, very appropriate). Can you jank one of those USB Y-cables to get more power to the USB port? The output could sit in that top slot (or even route to the front) for bonus (Plus) points!

[@moeskido]

Damn right, it's adorable. I love how you bring me in to get fascinated by projects I thought I wouldn't have any interest in. Until I do. Dang it!

[@JakeR0bH]

This is what an Apple Archimedes would look like!

[@fbc8458]

Great content!!! Keep it coming!!!

[@T04STY64]

i have an obsession with functional miniature versions of vintage/older devices

[@rebootretro]

You need to add the Apple boot chime as a perfect finishing touch :D

[@echobucket]

Wait, I want that Commodore themed keyboard, holy cow.

[@dglcomputers1498]

RISC OS, brings me back to my school days as all three schools I went to had Acorn machines, my secondary school even had an econet installation (though unused). Perfect school machines with their ROM based OS meaning students couldn't mess with the OS too much and you could get away with no HDD (though it did mean that they needed a battery which does leak and can kill the MOBO). Also some machines used the very first SoC. You need a real Acorn machine now!

[@vorg_]

You really did a great job with my unfinished model. Keen eyes will see some mistakes on the design, but it's a good 10 foot Mac clone.

[@Borgedesigns]

I love those little CRTS, shame they are so much harder to find these days

[@TorutheRedFox]

the moment you flicked the switch on the phone started to ring lmao

[@PresJPolk]

Congratulations. Very well done build.

[@aaron71]

Curious what the best material would be for this? ABS? And what infill did you use?

[@FreerunMediaService]

I think you already done that but in Raspbian you can set the aspect ratio to 4:3.

[@jackpijjin4088]

YES PERFECT. Here's my excuse to bring out my 3d printer again. Stuff I'm interested in printing is finally popping up.

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

That is really cool Sean

[@johnpendleton1647]

Add in a ADB to USB adapter and use the Macintosh keyboard and mouse! I have one and use the keyboard with several systems!!

[@chrisschanneloftechnology4743]

Is there a way you can make it ding when you turn it on like the original ones did?

[@VagrantCode]

I wonder if you can mod it to run a better video signal than S-video

[@StrikerTheHedgefox]

I wonder if there's a way to adjust the display geometry to fill the screen?

[@vorg_]

There is, just like a real Mac. There's horizontal and vertical deflection potentiometers on all the analog boards.

[@DanielMReck]

4:12 Sean, buddy, how is it possible you haven't mentioned your new studio is built on a hologrid‽ Now we know why your production value is so unreasonably awesome.

[@SmokeyWire56]

There should be a vertical or horizontal adjustment pot on the board of the tv to fill out screen. I know theres one on the back theres another one inside those tvs.

[@damson3413]

CCTV monitors are much better fidelity since they were designed and intended specifically with b&w or greyscale input already and usually a similar size to a macintosh plus's CRT, they can usually be had for near to nothing used as well. I have one I use as a stand in for an analog monitor for old games consoles, the lack of latency in such simple displays with the minimum required circuitry between the input and screen is simply unbeatable.

[@cpace123]

Ha Ha, I picked up one of those little BW TV to have for a project similar to this. Though I might do a apple II. I will have to get some green acrylic or photo gel though. Nice project

[@hyakin7818]

It would be interesting if someone made a mac minus with a working floppy drive and real connectors

[@krzbrew]

It is so adorkable!

[@stevvieb]

I wonder what my next project will be now

[@matthewday7565]

Maybe it should use a CF card in the slot

[@maliciousbugman]

Give me Mac. Mini Mac. Mini now. Me a Mac needing a Mini now.

[@u1f98a]

when i'm on the 'tube i wanna see those mac classics, those mac mac classics

[@LukeTheJoker]

Well done Action Retro and Bambu Labs, this is the way to do a sponsored video!

[@coolduder1001]

I wanted to do this exact thing at one point, didn't know someone else already designed it. I did want to have os 9 or older running on it though

[@rex15267]

That miniature CRT is the exact same one my great grandpa has I remember using it back in the day to play my Nintendo Wii when they wanted to use the main television in the living room

[@blee3275]

try e6000 adhesive - neat stuff

[@4kleidisc]

glowing green is actually sick, but will you have plans to make another in the classic beige, or shell swap it?

[@CRCBenjamin]

Oi! WTH?!?! Where is the mini vMac experience???? That would be perfect! Great video :)

[@alexandrecouture2462]

Super fun video!

[@Brian-qg2qw]

I had the same CRT as a kid,i had a blast playing nes games on my bed on black and white until the shitty internal circuitry melted,some years algo i found a larger one and been holding it for making a project similar to this,glad someone thinks the same way about how classic mac replicas feel weird without a crt.

[@bobweiram6321]

Check out Kevin Noki's 3D printed macintosh. Unbelievable!