Bringing a Mac SE back to life with a Raspberry Pi Pico

[@MichaelKadie]

Well done. I have thought of projects like this, and then generally go lay down until the feeling goes away.

[@lookitsahorner]

Nice work! This is so much more than a simple adapter for your board. People with Mac SEs which have CRT issues can retrofit an LCD using this project too. Super important and useful work for the preservation of these machines!

[@ethanspaziani1070]

It is sad to hear the rest of it was destroyed

[@NANDOFFDataRecovery]

Excellent level of understanding. Impressed. Nice work

[@madson-web]

It looks really neat!

[@kjamison5951]

Oscar: “…I love it because it’s trash!” This is fascinating and gets me one step closer to a color output from an SE/30…

[@slaquers]

So awesome!!!

[@keksmlg]

So thankful youtube recommended this to me! I hope this is a beginning of more and interesting content!

[@bujin5455]

I had the "I love trash" extension on all of my classic macs back in the day (when they weren't so "classic"). The Mac really did have so much character. Great project! I think your efforts are going to help keep these old systems running!

[@spelledfunny]

I feel like @ActionRetro needs to see this to help their Mac resurrection efforts.

[@helmutzollner5496]

Well done! Nice project!

[@MotownBatman]

Nice Vid! New sub, that looks sweet

[@bakkus82]

Love it! So many neat projects are popping up around the Pico now! FYI: There's a high-frequency noise introduced at 8:17 as you plug the VGA to your capture device.

[@theguruofthree]

Thanks, and thanks for pointing out the high-pitched audio! I hadn't noticed it. Hazard of using CRTs every now and then perhaps...

[@mattruddick8919]

@@theguruofthree you may need a low pass filter on the audio or you have and earth loop..

[@BigBadBench]

Very nice work!

[@ChrisHalden007]

Funny, I always wondered if this exact thing was possible. Well now I know it is. Great video. Thanks

[@ScottLynn-gz2hl]

I remember using these Apple Computers when I was in High School.

[@sa8die]

awesome,. youtube just recommend this channel to me !!!

[@TheducksOrg]

Great work! I have a board I'm working on to power a compact black and white motherboard from ATX.

[@scotthansen400]

This is a really nice project; I really enjoy resto-mod videos that feature a problem solving component. I don't know if you've come across them, but there are actually so-called Pico PSU ATX modules made now that would fit in the empty space at the bottom right of your acrylic sandwich which could make this device completely self-contained.

[@theguruofthree]

Yes! PicoATXs are great! As I don't plan to use this full time so I left the option to use whatever PSU was on hand.

[@chrispynacho]

Very nice work! I was goi g to attempt something very similar using a Mac Classic and a Raspberry Pi Pico, but I got stumped early on since I don’t have an oscilloscope available. I will have to try your Pico code with my Mac Classic!

[@memadmax69]

VERY NICE. This gives me an idea for your particular setup: Get that aftermarket clear Mac SE case that Mac84 and Action Retro used and stick in a small LCD screen in it.

[@theguruofthree]

Thanks! That was my initial plan, but the cases were too pricey. For now I'll just enjoy the green PCB + acrylic aesthetic.

[@andrewfraser2760]

Nice job 👍

[@hypertalking68k]

Well, this is nifty!

[@jakubpouzar3365]

Awesome!

[@CDP-1802]

WOW, nice!

[@charlybrown9024]

Genius.

[@JDW-]

I must say this is rather intriguing! You certainly did a lot of design work to make it happen. I would love to see a follow-up video of the display output which demonstrates some of the caveats mentioned in the Troubleshooting section of your Github page (e.g., "The screen is flickering/tearing, is that normal?", etc.) For now, bravo on a job well done!

[@raphi_sch]

This project is a really clever way to revive that old board missing all support hardware. I really want to see more video from you in the future.

[@bobpitt1261]

Full credit for the Pi Pico solution, but given the SE is outputting the correct video signals, that means the problem us in the CRT or CRT power supply. Wouldn't just be easier to fix those assuming you could get another CRT?

[@pseudotasuki]

There's also a project to do DVI output from a Pico.

[@flipkibblez]

that is awesome. many years ago i wanted to try and make laptop style 512k/plus but could never get the video working just right.

[@gnustep]

Very interesting! I tried to do this once with an old Xerox, but was unable to figure it out!

[@kostis2849]

Awwwww you're using an AVID QuietDrive! Being an ex AVID tech this does bring back memories! Aren't they super great (and cheap, I imagine)

[@theguruofthree]

I indeed did find my QuietDrive! pretty cheap and it's a great enclosure. I swapped out the hard drive for a PiSCSI/RaSCSI disk emulator. The disk coming out was amazing, I'd never seen such a chungus full height SCSI drive made after 2000. I can see why designers went all out on the noise isolation. The design is pretty modular too, which made things easier. I was able to hook up the three LEDs for power/bus activity/disk activity and swap the PCB for a direct connection to the disk emulator.

[@kostis2849]

@@theguruofthree I can confirm, have used them as internal drives unpackaged in my friends IBM PC DAW , of 2001 vintage

[@randallsmith2521]

I'm impressed. This is certainly a bit beyond my skill level, but it makes me wonder about doing something similar for the SE/30.

[@theguruofthree]

All the classic all-in-one macs I believe have the same black and white 512x342 video, so this should work for the SE/30 as well. I think just which pins you need to connect on the logic board are different between them.

[@randallsmith2521]

@@theguruofthree I'm pretty sure you could just drop the board from an SE/30 into an SE for an instant upgrade. The others not so much

[@1BitFeverDreams]

Very mean and lean solution. Love it. I've been using the RGBtoHDMI solution for close to 2 years for my Mac Plus and Mac Classic 1 and captured much footage on my channel as well, but it's dependant on sourcing a harder to find pi zero or pi3. The vga to hdmi converters I've used for my dos things are hit and miss unless you bite the bullet with an OSSC. I was wondering, since you're very well positioned and versed in the capabiliites of the pico, would it be possible to do the same for all the resolutions for dos vga machines, including the weird one used by a BIOS?

[@theguruofthree]

I have thought about VGA capture. Annoyingly, video signals that use TTL digital logic, like for the classic Macs, MDA, etc., are comparatively trivial next to VGA. My understanding of the challenges is that to read in VGA you you need to reliable measure changes of 3 mV or so at 40 ns intervals (255 divisions of 0-0.7 V at ~25 MHz). The analogue to digital converter in the Pico takes something like 20000 ns to read, so some external support circuitry would be needed. I think the OSSC uses a TVP7002PZP for this, but hooking that up to the Pico is essentially just recreating the OSSC. Rather than that, I've been more curious about a minimum viable product converter in the forming of reading in 8 colors of VGA by ignoring the graduations of voltage and reading the analogue as if it were digital. Something like that would capture those weird BIOS screen resolutions, even if they might not look perfect.

[@ianpolpo]

Awesome results! I love how capable the Pico is, and how much it can unlock on retro systems.

[@ManOleg38]

So you reinvent a ... scaler!