A while back I bought two of those Maclocks with the intention of modding one into a tiny Mac. After seeing the success of @WiteWulf I decided to give it a go.
Opening the case is definitely the hardest part. Gary said to use guitar picks to start, so I began on the bottom and opened a gap to get a stronger metal spudger inside to lift up the rear case to release the six clips (circled in third pic) from the front. We're inside!
To make a Mac, I'm using a Pi Zero 2 W, a Waveshare 2.8" DPI LCD, and the MacintoshPi image which includes Basillisk II and SheepShaver already installed, and they work without X11 running, perfect for the thin-resourced Pi Zero.
https://jm.iq.pl/macintoshpi-mac-os-7-8-9-for-raspberry-pi/
One thing that was missing was AppleTalk support but I solved that by installing sheep_net from these instructions. And works over WiFi!
https://www.ecliptik.com/blog/2025/Live-Laugh-Localtalk-with-Basilisk-II/
So sheep_net seems to work great for AppleTalk traffic but struggles with TCP/IP. It'll work for a few seconds then stop.
Curiously, running tcpdump on the machine causes it work, presumably because it puts the interface into promiscuous mode. And enabling promiscuous mode manually also works.
No mention of that on the project page, but that was 10 years ago.
#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac
https://github.com/cebix/macemu/tree/master/BasiliskII/src/Unix/Linux/NetDriver
Hey maybe the #TinyMac works well enough to be a #GlobalTalk router? Certainly uses a lot less power (avg. about 400mA with screen on).
More #TinyMac progress. Wired up some smol speakers to a smol audio amp.
Designed and printed a volume knob in the style of the original to fit the B50K pot. Biggest issue is how to mount it inside (the amp board has no mounting holes).
The amp turns out to be too noisy, I can hear WiFi and BT traffic. Also draws about 300mA even when the volume knob is switched off.
I think I'll leave it out.
More #TinyMac:
- Swapped in a Raspberry Pi 3A+ for the Pi Zero 2 W. Slightly faster and has 5GHz WiFi which is so much better.
- Mounted the LCD/Pi to the back of the front case with some hot glue.
- Kept the front floppy switch as a power switch when floppy is inserted.
- Installed a LX-2BUPS (2x18650 UPS) inside for power, exposed a USB-C port on the back for charging.
Two tiny Macs, my converted one and an unmodified Maclock.
Obligatory flying toasters.
The top of the Maclock includes a touch sensitive area that would turn the backlight on and off, this area marked in red. It doesn’t move, it’s just plastic.
Underneath is a board that is likely difficult to remove, embedded with glue. It has two leads coming off of it.
Without seeing the board, can you theorize how it works and how it could be utilized with a Raspberry Pi GPIO?
I added a Circuit Playground Express board to the #TinyMac and connected the capacitive touch sensor on top to it.
The CPX board connects to the Pi via USB and acts like a keyboard. When the top sensor is touched, it sends a key press waking the screen from blanking.
@gjherbiet I tack soldered wires to the USB test points on the Pi 3A+ to JST connectors. The other end goes to a micro USB solder tab connector for the CPX. See the post linked here.
I didn't do audio in mine, aside from the sound effects on the CPX but @WiteWulf had success so worth looking at this posts for sound to reduce noise.
paulrickards
Guillaume-Jean Herbiet