Upgrading the Apple Silicon DTK

[@Kaskobi]

What are the chances of you being able to transfer the NANDs back to the DTK without restoring and have it run iPadOS using Mac hardware??

[@shiro3146]

k-kaskobi!?

[@shiro3146]

anyway, IpadOS Macs or MacOS Ipads would be funny

[@dosdude1]

You'd have to transfer the SoC too, as the iPad SoC is fused differently (specifically two of the upper Board ID bits) than the DTK one. The lower bits are set with strap configuration resistors. The same is actually true with the M1, M2, etc. SoCs on the iPad and Mac. I can only assume they did this so you can't use an iPad SoC on a Mac (or strap it to "be a Mac"), and vice versa. Though even if you were to swap the SoC and set the lower Board ID bit straps accordingly, it still likely wouldn't work, due to the device tree used not being correct for the hardware it's actually running on (you'd then be using the DTK's device tree on the iPad, and you can't change this because it is signed). So in essence, in order to make, say, a 12.9" A12Z iPad Pro "think" it's a DTK, you would have to change the Board ID from 0x38 to 0x42. But, you can't do this because only bits 4:0 can be set with resistors... Bits 7:5 are permanently fused into SoC, and cannot be changed.

[@PASRC]

I hope there's some way to get Asahi Linux working on the DTK. It would make those machines a lot more useful.

[@dosdude1]

That is being worked on.

[@hateWinVista]

Sucks Apple decided to unsupport and scrap all DTK, it could have been repurposed as dirt cheap education systems(if Apple had the hindsights).

[@fmt1890]

How about patching modern Mac OS with the DTK Big Sur drivers, kinda like a hackintosh? I'm sure that Open Core Legacy Patcher has to support the first ARM Macs one day, as soon they become unsupported. It's a very predictable game with apple

[@crescentx3]

@@fmt1890I *really* hope OCLP is able to work on Apple silicon, but although it’s unlikely, I still have hope that they’ll figure out how to get a fully ARM macOS on Intel once the last Intel machines are unsupported. Otherwise, that day will be the last day any of those machines are useful to pretty much everyone outside of super specialty cases.

[@ccrserviceslimited9715]

@@dosdude1hi. How can i contact you. I do board level repair on MacBooks but facing some challenges when replacing dead/ shorted NANDs. I just have a few questions. Your guidance will be highly appreciated

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

This is very cool! Awesome to see something like this saved and even upgraded! Definitely a lot of work but it’s a cool thing to have. The DTK is a unique piece of history and now it comes in an upgraded configuration! Great video!

[@bad_collector]

You can see the specs without creating a user account. At user setup screen first open Terminal with Cntrl + Option + Cmd + T Then hold Option while opening Apple menu and "About this Mac" will change to "System Information" which you can open. That's it! This is also really useful if you are checking out a Mac for sale and don't necessarily want to make an account.

[@cromulence]

Woah, it's like shift+F10 in Windows OOBE, but on Mac. You the real MVP.

[@LightTheUnicorn]

Gosh, the DTK stuff just keeps getting better and better. Super cool.

[@hydroponicgard]

Oh hi Mark, or, rather Light. Surprised to see you in wild :P

[@bapt_andthebasses]

Thanks Apple for allowing this video and experiment to exist. If you didn't choose to solder the storage on the mainboard, the poor dosdude1 would only have to remove a few screws to replace the storage... and this video wouldn't be as long. Thanks Apple. You rock.

[@irongo]

I think the most interesting thing from these videos is the software tools that are obscure, look like they're built in China and run on Windows 7. Like Purple Sniff or the JCID Repair Assistant. Wish there was like a whole collection of weird tools like this because you see them used in the Chinese videos but never know what they are.

[@hyoenmadan]

This is something would benefit being OpenSource, and not some obscure tools done in China or Russia controlled by a sort of sindicate groups. Unfortunately, paid repair forum elites would jump on and destroy you for revealing "secrets". Like what happened to "dogbert" and his set of Notebook unl00king tools written in python instead being encrypted binaries.

[@jfbeam]

I wouldn't say they're obscure. Almost all of the apple "hackery" happens in China - where the things are made, and they know more about the tech than Apple. Thus these things are everywhere in China. (I've seen videos of guys getting the device "repaired" under the stairs in a side alley! They got the parts at one of the numerous shops there... you think all of your e-waste is just being thrown in a ditch?)

[@pud469]

Huge fan of your work. I love that you still support PowerPC. Been too busy to mess with my old hardware but looking forward to giving you money for some future upgrades. Do you by chance have a Q&A area for some hardware troubleshooting? I have some other old hardware that I would like to get help in proper troubleshooting.

[@Rabbit_AF]

Closest thing I have to DTK level of development is my 2 CHA001 Motherboards by Centaur Technology. I'm glad they didn't drill holes in them. I am surprised how beat up one of my boards is. The board with the later revision is full of scratches and is missing LEDs but functions correctly. Great work Colin! I'm glad you were able to save some boards! I love the huge amount of boards Luke and yourself acquired in order to get some working. Really impressive.

[@alexlefevre3555]

I think getting out some enamel wire and a BGA socket might be worth the time to turn that iPad motherboard into "a NAND programmer"! Tremendous work as always, my friend.

[@jksensei]

Great Video! If the hardware of The dtk is so similar to the iPad, would it be possible to flash an iPadOS image on the DTK? In general, what is preventing an Apple SIlicon mac from booting iOS and vice versa?

[@flamingkillermc2806]

Common W Colin. I have never seen another youtuber soldier M1 Nands on a iPad Pro to have them programmed

[@aether64bit]

technically world's first ARM hackintosh too

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

no, it's MattKC's Microsoft Surface (i forgor)

[@aether64bit]

@@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2 The Surface in MattKC's video is an Intel x64 platform. OpenCore cannot boot on ARM afaik

[@abhimaanmayadam5713]

@@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2iirc that wasn't arm

[@tejasraman6913]

@@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2that was 10th gen Intel based

[@sherme]

i mean they already ran macOS

[@m1cr04]

i love how his “reballing jig” just looks like an old ide dvd drive 😂😂 great work m8

[@Fareke2]

Becouse it is.

[@uiopuiop3472]

@@Fareke2 that makes me ❣ohio❣

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

it is

[@rondavid1272]

I like your calm voice

[@mikecass8306]

Brilliant, well done Colin 😁

[@TheMichael2019]

I would love to upgrade my iPad 10 storage like this.

[@SeanMalseed]

pure magic

[@unitedastronomer]

100k already??? congratulations! 🥳🎉

[@RetroBerner]

It would be cool if you could put sockets on the ipad mobo and flash the chips without having to solder them

[@iBoffRCC]

Amazing upgrade as always, i just wondering how did you know that SDR nand is compatible with DTK? or was it by try and error or we just going to assume that A12Z can support the same config as the M1?

[@David_Phantom]

Something I'm still confused about is when the board was originally cut, which stopped it from working, why does it work properly after you dug out the short? Where those traces not important? Did they not connect to anything? Or are there aspects of the computer that don't work anymore because of that?

[@BenjaminLupton]

Yeah, I'm still confused about that too.

[@dosdude1]

While there are signal traces in that area, all they are for is the debug LEDs in that spot... Everything else is just power planes, which of course have no issue when a bit of those are missing. The only real issue the cut causes is shorts between those layers, once those are cleared, that is all that is necessary.

[@tubehellcat]

What I am wondering (since a few of your Mac NAND videos, actually, amazing stuff you do here!) is can't one just "re blank", i.e. fully erase, the NANDs again, so they'll be seen as new and just work? Or is there some e-fuses that are blown once the NAND has been used for a system and those "marry" the chips to that board for ever? // EDIT: Follow up question: The sysconfig data is stored in an area of the NAND outside of what's actually visible "as SSD storage" to the system?

[@dosdude1]

Unfortunately not... The "blank" NANDs really just have a special firmware on them that makes them such, and I haven't ever been able to successfully dump that to write onto another. And yes, syscfg is stored in a special area of the NAND, along with its emulated SPI block (yes, these NANDs have a section that can be written to as a block device, and is also accessible as if it were an SPI EEPROM), and other stuff.

[@carlandjennifersilva]

Hopefully this provides a potential way to upgrade Apple silicon Macs for the future, albeit not an easy thing to

[@martandrmc]

Congrats for 100k in advance!

[@manlioyllades]

You rock man! How about the Mac Studio? Could the SSDs be upgraded?

[@dosdude1]

They certainly can! Already done that actually, and will have another video made once I do an 8TB upgrade on one.

[@manlioyllades]

@@dosdude1 Thanks! Looking forward for that video

[@jeeptrail08]

I've got a PowerBook that could use some of your upgrade magic and G4 1.5 Mac mini

[@DimezEntertainment]

Hey, I know this isn't related to this video but I've been trying to disable my GPU on a late 2011 MBP using "nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00" but it doesn't seem to fix the screen distortion after reboot. Is there anything else I can try to type in to bypass this?

[@bennaambo2716]

awesome video Collins. just an idea but would it be possible to get a Socket for the NANDS so u dont need to solder them to the board always? like on the ipad board otherwise the constant soldering to it would kill it with time

[@BenjaminLupton]

With all those spare boards you have, I wonder how viable it would be to do a wholesale business, where you buy cheap or damaged boards, fix them up, optionally upgrade them, and resell for a profit. If the final product is cheaper than buying second hand, might be good business. I've been looking at getting a new mac, but can't justify the prices of the new machines, and any m-series chip is fast enough - the trouble is always finding 16GB ram and 512GB+ storage configs second hand that are affordable - at least where I live in Australia.

[@dosdude1]

Well, the main issue is that most of these I have are drilled through the SoC, making them useless... Only around 10 or so I have are actually undrilled (but cut) and fixable. Also, these are not suitable to use as a main machine... The A12Z lacks a lot of instructions that the M1 and later have, which most programs are compiled to utilize. When such programs are run on a DTK (which includes pretty much all web browsers including Chrome), they simply crash with "invalid instruction". A custom version of Firefox had to be compiled just to get that running on it.

[@jesusmartinez8508]

Does Rosetta 2 works on the DTK?

[@nagomizik9358]

My maaan!! Wow!! Just a few days ago I was thinking about when will someone start upgrading these silicon beasts!!

[@thor_]

Is there a way to trick the ipad into starting up without a battery connected, eg putting a certain voltage across the battery connector pins? Just need to do a backup from an ipad using a macbook so it can be restored to a different ipad.

[@brycepsi]

Interesting how it displays its restoring an iPhone while you restore bigsur onto the iPad A12z bionic chip.

[@taurylad]

hello😀 i have an unrelated question about an iphone xs. i recently swapped the screens of 2 xs devices one screen is cracked the other one was fine and both screens works totally fine. but after swapping, the top part of the good screen stopped working so i swapped the screens again and they both working fine in their original phones. so the issue is the cracked screen works fine on both devices but the good screen works only on the original device. is there any fix?

[@nagomizik9358]

Only a matter of time!!🤞🏾

[@Mikumikku]

Have you tried soldering nand chips from this particular iPad onto the Mac? Wouldn’t it even allow for larger capacity

[@dharmeshsolanki4354]

can you add type c port on fire tv stick 4k 2nd gen....... amazon launched it last month and it still have micro usb...

[@healeydave]

@dosdude1 I'd be interested in seeing a video of you are doing with the DTK now you have it up and running.

[@thechannelwithnoname7921]

Do you think that you could use OCLP so it can be updated?

[@andrasszabo7386]

I wonder why are there 3 pieces of 2032 sockets?

[@senorstrong]

would it be possible to transplant the ram from one of the dead DTKs to an M1/M2 mac?

[@dosdude1]

No, as the RAM chips they use are different.

[@minerzcollective6755]

Is there a way to send my M1 Mac Mini to be upgraded?

[@dosdude1]

Yeah, just send me an email.

[@MStrong95]

How much does it cost? I have a failed base model M1 Mac Mini. Basically I think that the SSD failed.

[@dosdude1]

@@MStrong95 Usually I do the upgrade for $200, plus the cost of whatever storage config you choose and return shipping.

[@MStrong95]

@@dosdude1 I assume it's cheaper than Apple charges for it at time of a new machine purchase. But what do the chips cost for the different upgrade tiers?

[@erkinalp]

@@dosdude1 for the countries that require special customs handling, is the customs declaration to be handled by you or the receiver?

[@breakinggames6356]

I am curious how many of these DTK logic boards do you have?

[@ottf24]

Nice job 😊😊

[@StevenJoseph-ob6ru]

Dude.. I'd totally part with a grand for one of these!

[@arthurswart4436]

I hope these DTKs are used to develop a new generation of Hackintosh machines.

[@mdniazakunji4010]

hey dosdude is there anyway that i can upgrade from 4 gb to 8gb on my 2011 macbook air however its an 11 inch also model is a1370

[@AbdAlgani1999]

i want to see you using ram on these to upgrade m1 air

[@naikrovek]

That is a heck of a lot of work to upgrade a DTK. Aren't DTKs more or less useless?

[@drushed7387]

hey, seeing these videos, i was wondering if there is a way to install ipad os on m1 mac mini just like this works. i am getting a mac mini for cheap and want to add it to a touch oled to make a better and cheaper ipad??

[@meme-eg8uw]

my only guesses it might be a power issue with putting 2 TB

[@googleevil]

is RAM the next? Would be amazing, because storage upgrade for T2 and M1/2/3 chips were already covered by other bloggers.

[@dosdude1]

RAM cannot be upgraded on any of these Apple Silicon SoCs.

[@cemkofoglu]

is there any way to upgrade macbook air?

[@PKZAIT]

can't install newer macOS on this?

[@_kicaBo_]

Master!

[@windowsfan95]

What are the 3 coin cell battery slots used for?

[@jozsefizsak]

That's great!

[@clementnaze5645]

Why is there 3 clock battery terminal

[@CoriolanBataille]

In theory, could the ram being removed from the CPU to be upgraded in a similar manner?

[@whatTheblue]

Can you upgrade iPad storage?

[@abccomic8869]

can you install latest macos version in dtk

[@elektrokinesis4150]

how hard would it be to get an ipad logic board to think its a dtk?

[@ILLAILLS]

Glad I found ya

[@chimplove2006]

you think its possible to get linux or windows on these things?

[@DiegoAlly]

Hello! I don’t know if anyone will read this message but I had a MacBook White 2009 with 8gb and it ran well with macOS Monterrey, but I decided to change the motherboard for the White 2010 that is physically the same and I felt that it took a big leap in improvements and speed, but now I’m thinking of changing the CPU, I’ve seen videos where they do it, I just have to see the model and make it compatible, I’m thinking of removing the Intel core 2 Duo CPU of 2.26ghz model P8400 and changing it for an Intel core 2 Duo of 3.06ghz model T9900 what do you think?, I know that DosDude did it but not exactly the same model I have but I think it would be an interesting project, I would love to contact him and see how we could do it together

[@morton6141]

Here we are at the "hero" level.

[@AddicteServer]

What if we try to use ipados on the dtk

[@nickolaswilcox425]

odd idea, but have you ever tried a gpu swap on something like a wii? ive got a destroyed rvt-r, but the gpu and nand may have avoided fatal damage

[@marat61]

M chips are also called "bionic"?

[@davide.saliba1302]

Where can we buy these Mac mini DTK?

[@Matthew28845]

Would you be open to selling one of those drilled DTK boards? Would be cool to have as a collector’s item

[@thunderbolt10031]

So does it matter if you reball a chip using solder paste or solder balls? I never thought of using solder paste with a stencil instead of solder balls.

[@dosdude1]

It depends on the chip, usually with large BGA chips I prefer to use solder balls, as solder paste will have issues producing uniform size solder balls if the stencil warps even slightly. With small chips like this, though, solder paste works great, and with some very tiny, tight-pitch, tiny-pad BGA chips, you have to use solder paste.

[@thunderbolt10031]

@@dosdude1 that makes sense. I’ve been quite intrigued with Xbox 360 repairs, so I found this interesting.

[@MarcPorlier]

This is not the same board you rescued. The white power led socket isn’t there and the filed section looks bigger. Am I wrong?

[@dosdude1]

Yes... I was able to get multiple of these from the same seller in China with similar damage.

[@pacmn3]

@dosdude1 can you upgrade a laptop gpu memory from 4gb to 8gb or more?

[@__RANDOM_GUY__]

Can you try change s22 ultra snapdragon 1 chip to snapdragon 2 chip

[@admkukuh]

is it possible to upgrade iphone x/11 to 1tb nand chip?

[@dosdude1]

I think only iPhone 12 or later can support that.

[@Ryan_SCD]

Heeeeeeelloooo I came from ufd tech

[@fastrockproductions9788]

If I may inquire where would be a good place to try to buy these boards?

[@dosdude1]

They unfortunately are no longer available.

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

can't believe I expected a DTK that runs iPadOS

[@Vovchikwolf7]

You are really cool, author. I have an idea for a video: Can you make a redesign and update of Mac Pro 2013 by making a transition bridge from FCI Meg-Array to normal PCI? Then you can replace the processor with a more powerful one and add a normal video card like RTX 4070. I'm really wondering if this is even possible? If you are also interested, please like this comment!

[@michellek938]

U would be a Frankenstein no one’s ever thought of MacOs on Xbox

[@cocusar]

is a 32/64gb of ram upgrade possible?

[@welovecallbassa]

I believe it's not. cause of unified memory

[@betweenthewater]

nice

[@welovecallbassa]

but am I the only one who thought what prevents us from putting those same nands back in ipad. or mb there is a way to restore ipad with that bigsur ipsw

[@BR0KK85]

Now flash big sur to the ipad please 😅

[@miznitic5574]

I would love it if you would start a business doing this.

[@dosdude1]

I actually already do!

[@tacokoneko]

these DTKs are extremely hard to build, but if you and others gradually find more of them over time, then eventually hector marcan, rene rebe and others can compile asahi linux for it, greatly extending the usable lifespan and saving them from e waste

[@broggl]

using an ipad to program a nand for a mac is somehow the most insane and most makes sense thing at the same time.. that's apple for you i guess

[@adnanalam6201]

If i had known about this channel before, i would've bought an M1 mac Instead of A " Gaming laptop"

[@djksfhakhaks]

I still dont understand why there are three baytery holders on the thing. A single 2032 3 volt battery will provide enough power for the cmos to keep time for probably 50 times as long as this device was designed for. I cant imagine the board needing 9 volts for anything, or tripple the amps. Its super facinating how you've reverse engineered this board though. Tim Apple is probably mad!😂

[@dosdude1]

Being an iPad chip, the A12Z is designed to run the RTC/SMC coprocessor off the huge iPad battery when powered off... As such, even with the three batteries, it drains them in 6 months.

[@djksfhakhaks]

@@dosdude1 ohhhhh. That makes sense. Its not just powering a CMOS.

[@djksfhakhaks]

This is hours later. I have to explain that its crazy how much I've learned from your videos. I wasn't trying to be rude. Somehow you figured out how to dremel through the board and make it work again. That's about 50 levels above what I could do. Tim Apple is crazy mad. He probably popped his cork when you showed how to get essentially free storage.

[@OsX86H3AvY]

its amazing that you do this stuff, well done...but its just sad that in their greed apple has taken away so much of what we just really take for granted on the PC/win/lin side of things...i know i would love to work on these and i really do like macOS (until i can no longer hackintosh) but i just dont have this level of skill....but thinking back to the idea of woz building the apple 1's with his bare hands - i dunno - apple has lost its way imo.....theyre a marketing company that also sells some tech, not a tech company that also needs marketing and its jsut so sad

[@smartperson1]

It's too bad there's no way of clamping the NANDs onto the iPad instead of having to solder and desolder it for programming.

[@emperatorgaming]

what is a DTK ? sorry for asking :P

[@dosdude1]

Check out the first video I made on them, I explain everything there.

[@abhimaanmayadam5713]

Developer transition kit. Basically it's a Mac mini with an ipad pro soc. It was sold to developers so they could build and test programs prior to the releae of the m1 macs.

[@emperatorgaming]

@@dosdude1 thanks i will

[@emperatorgaming]

@@abhimaanmayadam5713 thanks kind sr

[@alexisverity47]

Does iMessage/FT work here?

[@dosdude1]

It does! Even iCloud works.

[@alexisverity47]

@@dosdude1 That is amazing

[@jfbeam]

@@dosdude1 I'm surprised Apple didn't blacklist all the DTK serials.

[@erkinalp]

@@jfbeam why would they? they just needed to make them not trivially usable, not totally damaged.

[@Rhythmattica]

Sure.. Im not a Programmer , hacker...... But , thats a messy desktop on that Computer.... LOL....

[@Taru_slays]

clean up your desktop and yes ik what its like when ur working with a bunch of different things always. still be better

[@carlv8415]

3:44 - Anyone else get PTSD looking at all them icons

[@Tetracera.]

what do you mean? he has less icons then me.

[@Arek_R.]

Why does this guy sound like he's 100 years old

[@MargaretSosa-v5z]

Lopez Kenneth Gonzalez Lisa Lewis Sandra

[@κΥκΥ]

Now run big sur on ipad a12z (jk)

[@1st_ProCactus]

Why upgrade any computer not designed to be owned ?

[@freedomlinux]

"Because I can" I wouldn't say these DTK repair/upgrade efforts are "practical", but a challenge for what is possible.

[@1st_ProCactus]

@@freedomlinux yep, that about sums it up. Interesting, just a shit brand to enhance LoL