Dremel Junkie

Apple Cube Mod II

2012-01-28T02:06:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of PCMag Article
12 Biggest PC Duds

While the computer did not sell well and was undeniably overpriced and underpowered, it was beautiful. Similar to the Early iMacs no machines before looked anything like it. The ports came out from the bottom, the entire computer was removable from its enclosure by releasing a handle. Impressively, this computer had no fans (though it was designed to have one) and utilized an immense heatsink for its cooling.

In July 2010, I had intended to begin a project a purchased a damaged cube. This post was the first and (up until now) the last post I would make on this subject. My focused returned to the G4 and then somewhat the G5. One thing that kept me from pursuing this was the amazing work being done by some modders. Here are a couple examples from tonymacs forum. This one by 61mg73 and this one by eelmod. Another amazing one is this one on 123macmini by khisayruou. The one thing all these talented modders have in common is that they are master craftsmen who in many cases rebuilt their cube's inner structure to suit their purposes. I did not feel that I could offer any improvements over what they had built. My experience with the iMac G4 has shown me that there may be something I can offer with a different approach. I'd like to point out that this approach is in no way better (in fact it likely offers non of the amazing enhancements these projectes added).

Most of my iMac G4 mods involved complete rewiring of the neck, alteration of the lcd and its case etc. Even my current project/variation involves LED backlights and a capacitive touchscreen. However, my favorite mod actually came about by altering almost nothing. Only the components of the dome were replaced. I liked this "minimally invasive" method because it is visually the same as the original iMac G4 and because its simplicity allowed others to reproduce it. When I started this blog to visually show my ideas, I under-appreciated how enjoyable it is to see others reproduce my work and get to do a project they likely would not have pursued had they not read my blog. This is even more so when the person is a so called "noob" and I am grateful to the dozen or so people out there that have shown me their completed and near completed works.

Using this "minimally invasive" philosophy I now believe that I now can offer a variation of this mod that others may be able to reproduce without any high level construction or electrical skills. The Guidelines I am trying to abide are to:

As little cutting and alteration of the original structure of the cube as possible.
Try to use the general layout and design of the the cube itself as a guide. In other words, the cube structure will dictate my choice of parts, not the other way around.
Keep it simple.

The thing that makes this possible is again small form factor motherboards. I have been extremely impressed with my two KEEX ECX boards (the Core 2 Duo 4300 and the Core i 6100). They offer essentially the same power of a mini itx. The exceptions include the use of mobile chipsets (which are an advantage in these mods). Most apple computers are designed with mobile chipsets in mind. The other exception is a lack of expandability. As there is barely any room in most of these mods, this usually is not a big deal.

As I took the Core 2 Duo ECX out of my original iMac G4 All-In-One (now hooked up to an external mini), its now homeless and I'm hoping to incorporate this into this cube mod. Although hackintoshing had problems, I think the cube's design and using my current hackintosh may allow me to overcome this. Although not as powerful as its Sandy Bridge Brother this board has a PCI Ex4 as opposed to the mini PCIe on the 6100. In addition, the Core 2 Duo Penryn is more than powerful enough to be an all purpose computer or HTPC.

Original Mobo and PCI Graphics Card OnTop

Original Mobo compared to KEEX-4030 with ASUS 5450

Using a similar set up the original. I am using a ASUS Silent 5450 graphics card with a right angle PCIx4 to x16 (though this card is available in a PCI x1 with DP and I do also have the PCI x1 ION graphics card). I will likely instead use a ribbon riser to push the mobo towards the back. The extra room in front I'm hoping can be used to fit a pico PSU and port extenders. With some luck, major cutting and modification of the cube ports may be avoided.

The other two major components include a slot load DVD. There is an adapter available that allows use of standard slim DVD slot drives within the cube slot. A standard 3.5" HDD is contained within one of the large heatsinks. Although a smaller HDD or SDD can be used, as the heatsink is in place I may simply use a spare 3.5" SATA HDD.

Heatsink below the motherboard area

Obviously cooling is a problem with all these small form factor mods. The use of the small board allows me to turn it upside down with the northbridge and the cpu facing down. Behind this is the gigantic heatsink.

To keep the original design and to keep this as quiet as possible, I would love to use this huge passive heatsink. I do believe that it is possible, but I have never done something like this and will have to research it. The original motherboard has the cpu on an elevated chip that interfaced with a metal brick that conducted to the heatsink.

Either using a heatpipe or modifying this, I would like to see if its possible to utilize this structure.

I still have to finish my G4 Guides so will not be starting this up quite yet. But to anyone with experience with passive heatsinks on both the CPU as well as the northbridge, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Afterthoughts and Future Plans

2012-01-19T23:51:00.000-05:00

To those waiting for completion of my guides, I apologize. After completing my 20" mod, I needed an iMac G4 break. I will be completing the 20" Guide as well as the 1/1.25 Ghz neck 17" Guide as soon as possible.

20" iMac G4 and 20" iMac G5 (Apple Cinema Display LCD Controller Hack)
Connected to External Mac Mini

Genuine 20" iMac G4 All-In-One Sandy Bridge Hackintosh

Above you see my two favorite 20" mods. The one on top uses an LCD controller from an Apple Cinema Display for both the iMac G4 (though the iMac G4 uses its native inverter) and the iMac G5. These are connected to an external Mac Mini. Although somewhat more complex, the great thing about this method is its stability. It is really an apple cinema display in the form of an iMac G4 and G5. The extra room in the in the iMacs is not put to waste. The iMac G4 houses a USB optical drive (replacing the missing one on the Mac Mini. The iMac G5's iSight and Mic are converted to USB. This has become one of my most frequently used computers.

The second picture is my latest All-In-One Sandy Bridge Hackinosh using an ECX board to run Mac OS Lion. This is very much native and did not require any alteration to the neck or lcd. The computer, DVD burner, SSD (running lion) and onboard Compact Flash (running Windows 8 Developer Preview) are all internal. This was a tremendous amount of fun and will make a great all-in-one computer.

Obviously both these methods are viable and both have their advantages. From the outside, they are indistinguishable from each other or a native iMac G4. Of course, which ever method you use for the LCD is independent of what you connect it to.

iMac neck connected to Apple Cinema Display

My slightly older 3rd method, used the actual housing from an apple cinema display. The few extra millimeters this gave allowed the use of the cinema displays inverter (I had previously not been able to get the 20" iMac's native inverter to work). This method also allowed for the addition of a 20" touch screen. However, I have retired this mod for a couple reasons. First, while I thought this was an acceptable work around at the time, I much prefer the look of the true LCD housing. Second, while the touch screen was great with the iMac's design, I did not love the only touch screen I was able to find in the now rare 20" 16:10 size. This resistive touch screen was fairly accurate, but its surface was uncomfortable to touch and its glossy plastic surface detracted from the resolution of the LCD. Third, as a resistive screen single touch was all it could do.

While I now have a functional upgraded replica, I still like the idea of adding additional functionality to the iMac G4 with a touch screen. There are a couple options that are now available. Some capacitive screens have become much more reasonably priced. Although they were originally designed as single touch, new software may be able to make them function with gestures and at multitouch. Another possibility is optical or IR touch. Although the available optionals do not come in 20" 16:10, they possibly can be tweaked.

The downside is that the 20" capacitive screen will add too much weight and the optical touch will require extra room between the LCD and the bezel. One thing that may make this possible is to use LED backlighting which would be much thinner. A fellow modder JP7 has done a fe amazing mods of apple cinema displays using LED backlights.

In terms of the base, I have no use for either a desktop monitor or an all-in-one. But, a larger screen for a notebook computer has always been something I have considered for the iMac G4. Using either wired technology (A thunderbolt dock? - If they eventually come in at a reasonable price) or wireless technology (Wireless DVI and USB adapter?) is something I can definitely see being useful.

Wireless DVI - Courtesy of Amazon.com

After I use my current G4 and G5 spare parts, I will probably move on from this. And I still have a Cube which has been sitting waiting to be modded.

20" iMac G4 All-In-One "Genuine" Sandy Bridge Mod - Completed (With Video)

2012-01-02T00:43:00.002-05:00

Finally, The Genuine 20" iMac G4 - All-In-One Sandy Bridge Mod is complete. This is as close as I believe its possible to come to modernizing the original iMac G4. It runs Lion, Mac OS 10.7 with only S3 sleep not working (S1 sleep works fine). Wifi (using the original antenna embedded below the white plastic dome) and Bluetooth (via dongle on the back) work perfectly. The power indicator and microphone on the Monitor Casing are also working.

The internal DVD burner can be ejected from te keyboard. There is a powerbrick which plugs in via 4 pin connector to the center port on the rear of the iMac. A Griffin iFire is used to connect the original Apple Pro Speakers. The CPU fan is very quiet except under heavy loads.

This is the culmination of really all my previous mods and I'd like to thank all those who have helped me all the way and encourage all those who are thinking about resurrecting their iMac G4s to do so.

I have included a video on its features and demonstrating its use:

Rear Ports

Thanks for reading!!

Proprietarily Ridiculous - The Apple Pro Speakers

2012-01-02T00:27:00.006-05:00

Apple Pro Speakers

There are a few "extra" features of the iMac G4 that I have gone to great lengths to incorporate because I felt that these were important to the design of the iMac. One of these is the optical disc drive. Although this is no longer a critical feature and it uses a huge amount of space in the dome, the disc tray emerging from the oval slit in the otherwise featureless dome is something I always associate with the iMac G4. Similarly, the apple pro speakers, sometimes called the orb or eyeball speakers falls into the same category for me. Other speakers just don't look quite right next to the iMac G4. I had always known that the apple pro speakers had a proprietary connector (the apple mini-jack) and lacked an amplifier in the speakers themselves, but I didn't realize exactly how they worked until I was completing my most recent project and decided to incorporate these speakers. I had been lucky to obtain both a Griffin Powerwave and a Griffin iFire which accept the apple mini jack and never gave this connector much thought.

Griffin Powerwave (External USB Amp)

Griffin iFire Adapter (Powered by Firewire)

One thing that made iMacs appear more elegant was the lack of "cable mess". Steve Jobs talked about this frequently and this was one of the reasons that he so greatly favored all-in-ones. Included in this was AC adapters/plugs. It makes sense, why should computer speakers need another cable for AC power to power an onboard amp (complete with its own powerbrick for DC conversion) when you have a power supply in your computer and a cable already connecting to it. You could either have the amp in the computer and then output the amplified sound to the speakers or keep the amp external, but use the computers power supply to power it.

Cube Speakers

These speakers, designed by Harman Kardon, appeared with the G4 generation of PowerPC Macs. The G4 Cube seem to contain an external amp in the small box that closely resembles an ifire (likely secondary to space constraints of the cube's chasis). This then connected to the computer via USB for both power and connection. The USB port, however, was a special port, with a higher voltage (standard USB is 5V) required to power the amplifier. This makes sense to me and although these speakers were not compatible with standard USB, this was necessary to power the speakers and still keep the design simplicity that was characteristic of apple.

Apple Mini-Jack

For the Powermac G4's speakers (The Speakers with the Dark Circle) and the iMac G4 (The Speakers with the White Circle) apple introduced the apple mini jack connector.

At first this appears to be a 2.5mm plug. The 2.5mm is simply a smaller version of the standard (3.5mm) Audio Jack. These use a TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) method for connection. Looking from Top to Bottom, the Tip supplies the L channel. Then there is a separation (see the white band below the tip), followed by a metal band - the Ring, which supplies the R Channel. Then there is another separation, and then more metal which is the Sleeve. The Sleeve is the Ground which is shared by both channels.

Apple Mini Jack on top,
2.5mm connector on bottom

However, with the Mini-Jack, at the base of the plastic part of the connector there is another metal piece not seen on the 2.5mm connector. I had initially thought that this was there to provide a mechanical obstruction for use with other devices. Similar to the original iPhones headphone jack which was recessed making compatibility with other headphones limited. However, this is much more than just a physical barrier. Closer inspection reveals another difference. There are 4 metal areas on the inner pin for the minijack (separated by 3 white bands) as opposed to the 3 metal areas (separated by 2 black bands) on the 2.5mm which correspond to Tip, Ring, Sleeve.

For my project, I wanted to make it as similar to the original iMac G4 as possible. To do this I had intended to internalize the griffin powerwave's board with the DC power hooked up to the an internal 12V line. However, this board was a tight fit and I already had a USB audio adapter for use with the internal microphone and did not want to add a second. So I opened up and tried internalizing the smaller Griffin iFire which connected via a standard 3.5mm audio jack and FireWire. Although my computer did not have a firewire 400, this is used only for power. So I connected this to the internal 12V and hooked the iFire to my turtle bay usb audio adapters headphone port via a 3.5mm cable. Unfortunately the shape of the board did not lend itself to sit flush against the round rear ports of the iMac. Although Griffin made an extension cable for these speakers, it seems to be long extinct. So, using the port on the original iMac's motherboard, I fashioned an extension cable. I cut the connector from a broken set of Pro Speakers and was surprised to find 6 wires, instead of four wires. It seems that the ring on the base (the black wire) and the extra connector area on the pin itself (the red wire) are used to send some "signal" in addition to the 2 channels (white/blue and brown/yellow). I then used a multimeter to find where on iMac's port each wire connected to (I used the connections at the bottom of the picture. The solder points on top in the picture that I labelled indicate where these connections were routed next.

I noticed that above the "Circle" only 4 wires exit, 2 to each speaker. But 2 wires terminate in this circle (blak and red). Inside of this plastic circle is a very small chip from which the wires to the orb speakers themselves emerge.

"The Circle"

This seemed way too small and simplistic to be any type of circuit necessary for alteration of the audio itself. After some research I realized others had come to the same exact conclusion that this is simply a "gatekeeper". If the proper signal from the 2 additional wires does not reach this chip, the audio signal in the other 4 wires will not be allowed to pass through.

Cutting the circle off and connecting the individual speakers to a small amplifier, 10 - 20 watts, then connecting the amplifier to the computers audio out port resulted in crystal clear audio which is indistinguishable from the audio that is produced by sound that went through the "circle" and mini jack.

It turns out that due to power limitations of my power supply, I started to see signs of strain (USB ports not working etc) when I hooked up the ifire to a 12v molex (via the power cables in the firewire) internally, so I decided to scrap internalizing the speaker connection. I thought it was interesting that this $20 mini amp pictured here sounded exactly the same as the sound from these speakers when the iFire or Powerwave provided the amplification via the minijack connector.
When I looked to see what the cost of these long discontinued items are online, I found that the asking prices are even more outrageous than when I grossly overpaid for these several years ago. Used iFire's (initially $40 or so) seem to go for as much as $300 and the Powerwaves $200+. For anyone who wishes to use these speakers with a different computer, simply cut the speakers free before the "circle", strip the 2 wires, and connect it to a mini amp. If you already have an iFire or Powerwave, there is no reason to do this, but buying one for as astronomical amount is not worth it.

In retrospect, this is one of most unnecessary, frustrating, proprietary features that I have seen apple incorporate for very little reason. It seems that apple went to a lot of trouble to make sure that people could not use these speakers with non-apple hardware. I completely understand why they did not add an amplifier to these speakers. By keeping the amp internal they simplified the setup allowing for completely translucent speakers to be connected via one cable to the computer without the need for another AC plug. Putting the amplifier in the machine itself makes a lot of sense, but for the few owners who wanted to connect it to an external amp to use in some other fashion, why create a whole new connection, add an unnecessary chip etc to stop them? Its not like Apple felt that these belonged only with the iMac G4 as they were incorporated into the Powermac G4 and Apple Cube as well, both radically different designs. These were even designed outside of Apple and whats more - Apple itself stopped supporting the MiniJack in its very next generation of computers, the G5's. A simple google search reveals countless forums and discussions where people from 2003 til now search for ways to reuse their apple pro speakers. In addition, most people just want to use them with their new iMac or Macbook.

For those interested, however, a cheap amplifier and stripping 4 wires is all you need to free your apple pro speakers from its ridiculous proprietary mini jack.

The KEEX-6100 ROARS!

2011-12-01T00:27:00.003-05:00

Nearly Complete

Just a quick update on the Sandy Bridge ECX Board: KEEX - 6100:

Using the Unibeast Method developed by the amazing tonymac, installing Mac OS 10.7.2 is quite easy once you make a few modifications to the bios.

If you have any interest in hackintoshes then there is no better place than Tonymacx86

For this board make sure you:

1) Enable AHCI as per tonymac's instructions

2) Disable the Onboard Audio (it causes a kernel panic every time and drove me crazy until I realized what was causing it). Even if this can not be fixed, it is not a big loss as the onboard audio is no better than USB audio would be

3) Set either the display port or HDMI (which ever you use) to Display option 1. If you leave the LVDS as the primary and secondary disabled (default) there is a weird quirk where the image disappears after boot and only returns if you unplug and replug the monitor.

4) I am getting assistance in trying to solve this problem, but for now S3 sleep does not work. Change BIOS power settings to allow for only S1 sleep, which works fine.

View of iMac G4 and Keex-6100

iMac G4 with TMDS to DVI, DC-DC upconversion

Lion (10.7.2) on the iMac G4's native LCD

The KEEX-6100 identified as a Mac Book Pro

As the KEEX-6100 uses a mobile chipset it was identified as the new MacBook Pro. The chipset, processor, onboard intel graphics are all supported natively by Lion.

Gigabit Ethernet/LAN Works with simple kext addition. The PCI-Express Broadcom Wifi Card works great. Whats more is that you can hook this card up to the native Wifi Antenna (located outside the faraday cage, but inside the plastic dome), this gives a very strong signal. Preliminary fit testing shows everything fits. Only wake from S3 remains (wake from S1 sleep works fine as noted above).

I have put a card in the CF slot, which is only recognized when the computer's SATA settings are IDE and not AHCI. Though this is as easy to change in the bios as boot priority, it is a little cumbersome. I have put Windows 8 Developer Preview on the CF Drive and will see if dual booting is a possibility.

Over at tonymac x86 forum, a very knowledgable modder, offered to help with sleep and has himself gotten the onboard audio chipset to work (on a different board). So, onboard audio ay in fact be an option. I am giving some thought to internalizing the internal board of the griffin powerwave adapter. I have only the area between the bottom of the dome and the optical drive, but the board seems thin based on the size of the case. I am going to hold off finalizing the rear ports until I choose which audio option to go with.

All-In-One 20" iMac G4 "Genuine" TMDS to DVI Mod - Completed (With Guide)

2011-11-13T18:28:00.023-05:00

iMac G4 running Lion

As I noted earlier, two newer developments helped with figuring out how to turn on the inverter. For one, the apple cinema display controller worked with the inverter. Although this arrangement clearly differed from how the inverter is natively controlled and required an extra wire for sleep function, it allowed me to at least have an idea of the voltages of each wire. Secondly, using the DVI connector that I discuss in my 17" Guide, I can reliably create a DVI connection for the LCD in 10 minutes. Before this required cutting soldering, and permanent alteration of the wires and pins. As such, it wasn't long before the inverter was turning on the backlights. In fact, the solution was not complicated, I have no idea how I didn't just stumble upon it. The only special requirements are a 24V line in which there are two solutions I have that both work fine. I would imagine it is possible to use the native power supply, but I have been told that it can not be "jumped" in standard fashion.

I do want to mention that there are definitely more sophisticated solutions. In fact, its unlikely that I'll even add dimming and to get the monitor to sleep I'm currently using somewhat of a trick. There are several people that are using this foundation to do very impressive things and I can not wait to see the results. What I am attempting to do is create a DIY solution that is both cheap and reliable, but above all is something that can be replicated by someone who has limited technical skill. Such as the ability to wire up a multi speaker AV receiver and can build a computer from off the shelf components purchased from a store like newegg. That said, this is not the definitive word, for those with more knowledge and skill, improvements and suggestions will be welcomed.

I will not focus on pinouts in as detailed a manner as I did in my 17" Step by Step Guide. The guide is essentially the same. The only differences are in a few pin numbers. Just use the pinout above as your guide if you need help. What I will spend more time on is the finalization. How to stabilize the mod as best as possible and how to put it together, not just as a DVI receptacle in the base but as a sandy bridge updated all in one. To do this I'll be using the previously mentioned KEEX-6100.

KEEX - 6100 ECX (3.5" board)

This board or several other ECX boards can be obtained from Sliger.com.

Here is there selection of ECX boards

They can help you out with all needed accessory cables as well. The customer service has been fantastic and I highly recommend Sliger to anyone looking for an ECX board.

This is a fantastic board and whats more is that I can now confirm that this board is indeed "hackintoshable" using a retail/vanilla installation with appropriate boot loader.

I. Power Source
As readers have pointed out the existing power source can be jumped. This requires use of a 5VDC Source. You could split the AC and connect one split to an AC to 5V DC power supply. You could also use a pico power source to supply this. Unfortunately when I attempted this with my old PSU it did not work (I was fairly certain it was defective). But, several readers have informed me of this, so I can say with confidence that it can work. I would have tried with another, however my KEEX board will not fit at the top of the dome with the native PSU in place. Also, I do not want a hot power source in the base as keeping this cool is the most difficult part of the mod. However, different people have different designs and priorities, so the more choices the better. Thank you again to my readers for pointing this out!!

The first decision to make is how can we power this in a simple way. By simple I mean - 1 plug, 1 power brick, 1 on/off switch. This is actually a bit of a challenge because we not only need to power the LCD, but a Core i series mobo and processor, a 5.25" optical drive, and a HDD or SSD. This will require something with a decent amount of wattage. Whats more, the inverter requires 24V DC, the maximum voltage in a standard atx psu is 12V DC. An ATX psu and all variations (flex, mini etc) simply take up too much room. A picoATX psu is tiny as it uses an external power brick for AC-DC conversion, but the highest wattage I've seen is 150 - 160 watts. So really there are 2 choices. Convert from 120VAC to 24VDC and get a PSU that can handle that or go from 120VAC to 12VDC, get a standard PSU, but then up convert from 12V to 24V. Again, a third possibility is the native power source, but this doesn't quite fit my design plans, so I will not be pursuing this method.

A) Convert AC Power to 24VDC

24V Power Scheme

AC to 24V DC Brick

I apologize about the crudeness of the above sketch as it is my original notes/design.
To Sum Up:

An AC to 24V Power Brick is used (in this case the 65W Apple Cinema Dispay's Powerbrick). I split the 24V DC OUT and Ground. One part of the split goes to power the inverter, with the 24V connecting to the Red and Blue Inverter wires, and the Ground connecting to the Green and Black Inverter wires. The other half of the split goes to power a Pico Power Supply Unit.

Variable input Pico PSU

This particular Pico PSU is 65watts and is a "variable" power supply. This means that it can accept 12 - 24V DC INCOMING and it outputs standard tax voltages. It has molex and sata power connectors. The green alligator clips you see in this picture are connected to a rocker switch which I am using to "jump" the pico power supply.

The molex is used to power the LCD which has 3 wires (Purple, Yellow, and Orange) inside the Gray LCD cable which connect to the Yellow Molex wire - the 12V. Unlike the 17" LCD which requires only 3.3V or 5V, the 20" needs 12V. The iMac's Gray LCD cable also contains 3 wires which are o be connected to the black molex, the ground. These are the Grey, Blue, Green wires.

The Purple wire I originally hooked up to 5V Molex, however, it does not seem to play any significant role in this setup and can be left floating. The Orange wire, likewise, I left floating (it functions as a dimmer, I may try to get brightness working later). The Yellow is the on/off, which requires a very small voltage. A 1Kohm resistor works, but I went for an even higher resistor a 6.8Kohm which for testing purposes I hooked up to the red molex (5V), but will eventually hook up to the VEDID. The reason for hooking up to the VEDID is so the backlights turn off when the led itself is told to sleep.

This method has a few disadvantages however, the 24V backlights are being fed voltage essentially outside of the "control" of the Pico PSU. As such the rocker switch does not turn off all power going into the computer. In addition, the 24V power bricks are less common. The biggest disadvantage however is the available PSU wattage. The most powerful Pico PSUs I was able to find require 12V DC incoming. As I plan on making this a Core i/Sandy Bridge all-in-one and 40 or so watts are required for the 20" LCD alone, every watt counts. So while this method works, I decided to pursue a different approach noted below.

B) Convert AC to 12V then Upconvert to 24V

The largest pico PSU I was able to find was the 160watt PicoXT. It comes with an admittedly large power brick, but 160 watts should suffice for both the motherboard and the display. This should eliminate the need for multiple power bricks. Also, all power flows through this PSU. In the PSU picture, you can see how the "jump pins" are connected to a rocker switch. This gives me a hardware, full power off, on the machine. In addition, the PSU has some useful connectors. There is a molex (needed for the LCD), a SATA Power (needed for the SSD and DVD drive), and a 4pin CPU connector. Conveniently, the ECX board this 4pin connector for power. This particular model also has a convenient external plug, which I will show later in the mod.

As we are starting with 12V DC and the inverter needs 24V, the only way to get the needed voltage is to use an upconverter. Pictured here is a very reasonably priced 72watt DC-DC converter. This outputs 24V at 3A which is enough to power the inverter.

DC-DC 12V to 24V Converter

Although it has a somewhat unusual shape, it appears that I will be able to incorporate it into the side of the optical drive cage. This is simple to use. Connect the Yellow and Black (12V and Ground) of the molex to the Input and then hook up the 24V and Ground Output to the inverter wires. The Red and Blue inverter wires connect to the 24V Out and the Green a Black inverter wires connect to the Ground Out.

Otherwise the schematic is the same as above. The yellow wire remains connected to any resistor of at least 1Kohm (I used 6.8 Kohm) and then to 5V for testing and eventually the VEDID.

Make sure you test this out before proceeding. The backlight should visibly turn on, it won't be a blinding light, but you should clearly be able tell when it is on or off despite ambient light.

So here is the inverter pinout including the 12V to 24V DC-DC Upconverter, which is the method I currently recommend:

20" iMac G4 Inverter Pinout

And here is the new scheme using this method:

12V to 24V Power Scheme

II. LCD (TMDS to DVI)

iMac G4 20" TMDS to DVI Pinout

DVI Connector

I will show every important step but will not be going into quite as much detail as in my 17" guide. The principal is exactly the same, but the pinout (which pin plugs where) is different. Again this method utilizes a special DVI connector that fits into the iMac G4's LCD pins perfectly.

Pictured here is the DVI connector that makes this mod possible. For details on this connector please see this post: DVI Connector Method.

Female DVI Pin Number from Tom's Hardware

The TMDS to DVI Pinout shown above has four columns. The 1st column (left to right) refers to the the cable that plugs into the iMac's LCD at the top of the neck. As we are not opening the LCD this is not really relevant here. The second column is the color of the wire that comes out of the iMacs neck. The ones that say "xxxx to yyyy" are the cables that come from the Black Cable in the neck. The "single" colors come from the Gray Cable in the neck. The 3rd column is the function and the 4th/rightmost column is the DVI pin number. It is this column that refers to the location/pin on the FEMALE DVI Connector.

Remember, this pinout refers to the FEMALE connector only. In reference to our connector the pin numbers are shown to the left. The iMac's LCD is Digital Only. DVI can have both digital and analog areas. This connector is digital only. There is a horizontal slit where the analog pins would have been. I refer to this as the "Analog Area" and it is for orientation purposes only.

Although we know the pin number from the front, this is a right angle connector. So we have to "trace" the pins and identify them on the bottom of the connector.

The pins make a 90 degree turn

The Most Important View - The Bottom Pins

Looking from the Bottom, The Top Row ends up at the back, the Middle Row in the middle, and the Bottom Row closest to the front. This is where the female pins of the iMac's neck cables plug in and thus the most important view. Using this view and columns 2 and 4 in the TMDS to DVI pinout you have all you need to complete this. Take the color from column 2 and plug it into the numbered pin pictured above identified by column 4.

A) The LCD cables

Left of the connector you can see the iMacs LCD cable. Originally this comes in a connector that plugs into the motherboard. Using a flat head screwdriver and safety pin, you must free the individuals pins from the connector until they are all free as pictured. DO NOT REMOVE OR DAMAGE THE PINS AT THE END OF THE WIRES. Take your time and be gentile.

For the iMacs LCD cable you must first remove the metal casing using a flat head screwdriver or x-acto knife.

- First pry open the top

- Then the side

- And then the metal cover should bend back and snap off

When the black is fully exposed you will again see little plastic tabs on the side. Using a safety pin lift these tabs and push them down (its ok if they come off entirely). You want to see the exposed metal from the pins where the tabs used to be. Do this for all the tabs on both sides of the cable.

When all tabs are done, VERY GENTLY pull the individual wires and pins free. This should not require any force, the pin should easily slide out.

If there is any resistance, then you may need to again use your safety pin to press down on the pin in the area where the tab used to be in order to help free it from the black connector. Usually once you push it down a little the pin will become "unstuck" and then will be able to be removed without difficulty.

Although not required, I have found it helpful to cut the tape that holds the Gray and Black cables together allowing the two cable to be manipulated individually. Once both cables with its pins intact are free you can begin hooking them up to the DVI connector.

B) The DVI Connector - Black Cable

LOCATE PINS 1, 2, and 3 on the DVI.
- Closest Row to the back of the connector
- Furthest from the Analog Area
- Find the iMacs Black Cable and isolate the Brown Wire
- Take the Green Wire in the Brown Wire and Press it into PIN#1
- Take the Red Wire in the Brown Wire and Press it into PIN#2
- Take the Black Wire/Shield in the Brown Wire and Press it into PIN#3

LOCATE PINS 9, 10, and 11 on the DVI.
- Middle Row: Directly in front of the Brown Wires Just Placed

- Furthest from the Analog Area

- Find the iMacs Black Cable and isolate the Blue Wire

- Take the Green Wire in the Blue Wire and Press it into PIN#9

- Take the Red Wire in the Blue Wire and Press it into PIN#10

- Take the Black Wire/Shield in the Blue Wire and Press it into PIN#11

LOCATE PINS 17, 18, and 19 on the DVI.

- Closest Row to front: Directly in front of the Blue Wires Just Placed

- Furthest from the Analog Area

- Find the iMacs Black Cable and isolate the Green Wire

- Take the Green Wire in the Green Wire and Press it into PIN#17

- Take the Red Wire in the Green Wire and Press it into PIN#18

- Take the Black Wire/Shield in the Green Wire and Press into PIN#19

LOCATE PINS 22, 23, and 24 on the DVI.

- Closest Row to front: Same row as the Green Wires Just Placed, however at the other end.

- Closest to the Analog Area

- Find the iMacs Black Cable and isolate the Red Wire

- Take the Green Wire in the Red Wire and Press it into PIN#24

- Take the Red Wire in the Red Wire and Press it into PIN#23

- Take the Black Wire/Shield in the Red Wire and Press into PIN#22

- ***Notice that the wires are placed differently here, from left to right it goes Black, Red, Green, which is the reverse of the previous placement. One way to confirm is to make sure the small Green wire is always on the outside, the red wire in the middle, and the shield/black wire should be the "innermost" wire.

Here is a summary picture showing where each wire should go:

For now focus only on the black LCD cable.

As Shown, The Black cable gives off 4 wires:

BROWN

BLUE

GREEN

RED

Each of these is composed of 3 subwires, a Negative, Positive and shield. These are the small Green, Red, and Black wires respectively.

Please confirm that what you have matches this illustration.

C) The DVI Connector - The Gray Cable

There are a total of 9 wires in the Gray Cable, only 3 of these hook directly up to the DVI Connector. The other 6 are used for powering the LCD (3 cables for Grounds and 3 cables go to 12V)

So 3 wires go to 12V - This is the Yellow Molex Wire

- For those familiar with the 17" mod please note that this represents a substantial voltage change. (3.3V or 5V to 12V)

- I am using alligator clips for now but will replace this with actual wire later.

- The 12V wires are the PURPLE, ORANGE and YELLOW

3 wires will go to the ground wire - This is the Black Molex Wire

- The Ground Wires are the GRAY, BLUE, and GREEN

12V and GroundWires

3 wires remain, these will hook up to the DVI Connector

- 2 wires (WHITE and BLACK) are straight forward. Go ahead and hook these up. The Black wire's pin pushes into DVI#6 and The White wire's pin pushes into DVI#7. The final pin in this row #8 is left unconnected.

- 1 wire (RED - has somewhat of a "hot pink" hue) is more complex as its needed for 2 purposes. One is to plug into pin #14 - but a modification must be made first.

D) The DVI Connector - Create our own cable.

The reasoning for this is explained in my 17" Guide, so I will not get into it here. Suffice to say that a small amount of voltage is required to feed back from the LCD to the DVI source. The iMac does not provide this (it was an all-in-one, so was not designed to detect when its own monitor was plugged in). We will work around this by feeding the DVI connector its own voltage right back to itself. This is called the Hot Plug Detect. In addition an extra DVI to ground is needed.

What is needed? 4 wires of a similar gauge to what is found in the iMac's Gray LCD cable. A 24 - 28 Gauge will probably suffice. However, 3 of these wires should include female pins. The easiest source of such cables is an extra iMac Neck (of any size). As they include the correct size of pin, this would be the easiest. However, alternatives include LVDS wires, as well as unused wires in the iMac itself such as the fan wires, the internal speaker wires etc. You do not need long wires at all. You could probably get by with each being about 6 - 10cm or so.

The most important thing is to make sure things are well secured and to do this, you really need the proper pins. While I used wires from an extra iMac neck, I just realized for those without an extra neck, there is a great source of extra pins and even wires staring right at you:

The iMac's Gray LCD cable's 12V (ORANGE, YELLOW, and PURPLE) and GROUND (BLUE, GRAY, and GREEN) wires. Unlike the very difficult to work with wires in the black cable, these are much easier to strip and manipulate. What's more is that these are not signaling wires, so a less than perfect hook-up will not cause any distortion of your image. These wires are not plugging into the DVI connector so the pins are superfluous.

I still recommend using the wires from an extra neck if you have it as once a wire is cut there is no going back, but this is certainly a viable alternative.

So either:
A) Cut 3 or 4 wires from an extra iMac G4 neck (about same gauge as wire in Gray iMac LCD cable). 3 of these wires should have the female pins that connect to the DVI Connector (about 10cm). And one other similar gauge wire (can be shorter), with a male pin if possible, but definitely not a necessity. I will refer to this last wire as the "Extra" wire.

3 Cables from extra iMac neck Gray cable (Green, Orange, Yellow)
and 1 White LVDS wire with a male pin on its end

OR

B) Peel back the Gray LCD cable's Plastic and Shielding about 16cm. Isolate the Ground Wires: BLUE, GREEN, and GRAY. (You can use the 12V wires as well, but I would feel safer cutting the grounds). Cut these three wires at about 10 - 12cm). Make sure you leave enough wire remaining so that the remaining ends can be easily stripped.

*Note these pics reflect an extra damaged iMac cable I had. I had this idea too late for this mod, but I will use this method for my 17" 1/1.25 Ghz Guide.

Plastic and Shielding Peeled Back

Take the now cut ends of the BLUE, GREEN, and GRAY wires in the Gray LCD cable and strip the last few centimeters of each of these wires so that each now has exposed wire at the end. Twist these 3 wires together. You can now hook this up to an alligator wire or a different wire and hook it back up to the black Molex/ground.

The 4th or "Extra" wire can really come from anywhere, if you do not have any other small gauge wires, you could cut 1/3 of the non-pin ends of one of the wires you just cut. Or just take one of the fan wires or internal speaker wires etc. that are not being used in the iMac's casing.

1. The First wire - I used a GREEN Wire, with female pin, the Ground
- Strip the non pin end of this wire
- Push the female pin of this wire into DVI Pin #15
- Take the stripped end of the wire and wrap it with the other ground wires from the iMac's gray LCD cable. Either wrap it around the pins or twist it into the the stripped wires the you just cut. So this wire should join with the BLUE, GRAY, and GREEN wires from the Gray LCD Cable and connect to the Molex's ground/Black wire.

2. The Second wire - I used an ORANGE Wire, with female pin, the VEDID
- Strip a large portion off the non pin end of the wire (a good 4cm)
- Take your "Extra" wire - Mine is white - and strip one end. If it has a pin strip the non-pin end. If it has no pins, strip both ends.

Second wire [Orange - Bottom Right] with "Extra" Wire
[White - Bottom Left] coming off and remaining stripped wire seen on top

- Wrap the stripped end of the "Extra" Wire around the Second wire's strip. But do this at the very beginning of the strip. close to were the plastic covering resumes. So your wire should look like above with a large part of the second wire's exposed wire still coming out.

3. Take a 1 Kohm resistor and connect it to the remaining exposed wire from the second wire

With Resistor Added

4. Take your third wire - I used a YELLOW wire and strip the non-pin end. Wrap this wire around the other end of the 1 Kohm Resistor

5. Secure the resistor with electrical tape +/- solder

6. Connect the 3 ends of your newly constructed cable
- The second wire (ORANGE) has a female pin that should be pushed into DVI PIN#14
- The third wire (YELLOW) has a female pin that should be pushed into DVI PIN #16

- The "Extra" wire (WHITE) has either a male pin or stripped end. This should connect to or wrap around the Red (Hot Pink) Wire's Pin from the iMac's Gray LCD Cable. Leave this connection exposed or at least accessible, as we will eventually add something to it.

Hot Pink/Red Wire Interface

- What we've done is create a cable that takes the voltage from Pin #14 and splits. One split continues unaltered (Orange Cable to White Cable) and connects to the Red/Hot Pink wire as it was intended. However, the other split runs the voltage from Pin #14 through a resistor and then gives the reduced voltage back to Pin #16 (Yellow Cable) - The Hot Plug Detect.

7. Controlling the Inverter. The final thing I recommend doing is to connect the Yellow Wire of the Inverter (the on/off) NOTE: I DO NOT MEAN THE YELLOW CABLE I USED ABOVE. to the Hot Pink Wire, the VEDID. Leave the Yellow wire hooked up to the 1 Kohm inverter, but use an extra wire - I used a green wire, to connect to the Hot Pink/Red Wire Interface above. I simply stripped the wire and wrapped it around. This is optional, but whats nice about this is that the backlights will turn on and off with the signal it gets from a computer, instead of having to turn the backlights on and off seperately.

8. Test your signal. Hook the DVI up to a working computer capable of displaying graphical images (no just a boot screen). Look at the picture closely, look for color distortion or red/green flickering dots. Color distortion may indicate something hooked up wrong, dots flickering indicate crosstalk. Remember TMDS uses very slight variations in voltage between the wires to determine what gets output. If there is a nearby wire with relatively high voltage it may "communicate" with a nearby pin. Make sure the pins haven't bent and are spaced apart and consider even adding tiny pieces of electrical tape around pins. (Especially the small Red/Green/Shield Pins that are near pins the carry voltage. Make sure your image is pristine before continuing.

9. Replace the Alligator Wires. Assuming everything works, its time to use extra wire (18 to 24 gauge) to replace the alligator wires (technically you could cut the alligator wires themselves, but this would waste them). I recommend soldering stripping the wires, wrapping the wires around the pins, soldering them and using either heatshrink and a heat gun or electrical tape to secure them.

10. Secure your wire. Solder only if you are an expert, its very easy to solder nearby pins together. Instead I used a great insulator - hot glue. After using some electrical tape I coated the wires and pins in the back of the connector in hot glue using a hot glue gun. This is secure and truly works as a great insulator. However its hard to get glue in between everything (thats why I advise ensuring no crosstalk before this). After that I wrapped the wire in aluminum tape. I used a male DVI to female HDMI adapter and a short HDMI wire to connect to my computer.

The completed wire

Finalized with Important Wires Labeled

Above you can see that 3 wires have to be allowed to emerge from the DVI cable itself. These are the wires connecting the 3 12V to the Yellow Molex (White Wire), wires connecting the 3 +1 Grounds to the Black Molex (Black Wire #1), Yellow Inverter cable on/off to resistor to the Hot Pink/Red wire interface (Green Wire).

Also the inverter cable can be seen next to it with a Yellow cable emerging from the Blue and Red Inverter Wires and going to the 24V up converter and a Black cable emerging from the Green and Black Inverter Wires and going to the 24V Ground up converter.

E) Optional iMac G4 wires (WiFi Antenna, LED Power Indicator, Microphone)

Soldered Cable

1. WiFi antenna: There are a few extras wires in the base and from the neck that can be used in this mod. In side the base you will see two antenna wires emerge from a hole in the base. These wires go to an antenna that wraps around between the faraday cage and the white plastic of the dome. The faraday cage is built to suppress electromagnetic signals, so it impedes Wifi. I used a Broadcom PCI express wifi used in MacBooks for Lion compatibility. This has antenna holes that connect to an antenna (You may need to sacrifice a third party antenna to get the connector). I then soldered the inner wire and shield to the iMacs wire.

Secured with Electrical Tape

2. The LED. These are two small wires (red and green) that emerge from the neck with the microphone wires. If you have some motherboard connectors you can solder these wires to them and then connect to the power LED on your motherboard.

Hooked up to Motherboard Power LED.
Also seen are the antenna hooked up to the Broadcom Wifi

Tip, Ring, Sleeve

3. Microphone. The microphone has 3 wires a thick black, a thin black, and a red wire. This has a TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) arrangement. For more details see my iSight Post. Take a 3.5mm Audio Cable and cut it - three wires will be seen. The colors may vary, but you need the Ring (Red in my wire) and Sleeve (non-covered in my wire). Connect the Ring to Red wire of the iMac mic and the Shield to the Thin Black wire of the iMac mic. The Thick Black wire of the iMac is not connected. Nor is the tip (the white wire in mine) of the 3.5mm cable. Also make sure the white wire does not touch anything. You can hook the 3.5mm jack up to any mic source. Since my onboard audio is not lion compatible, I plugged this into Turtle Beach's USB audio adapter's mic then into a USB port.
In the audio out port I plugged the 3.5mm audio extender as this will be wired to the back of the iMac (to the rear ports). Speakers will plug in here.

Testing the LED and Microphone with
Alligator Wires

Turtle Bay USB Audio

F) The Computer/The Base

Now you can connect your power to any molex source and your DVI to any compatible video source, Your internal designs may vary but this is what I used.

1.The Components:

Motherboard: Quanmax KEEX - 6100 Sandy Bridge ECX Motherboard
CPU: Core i5 Mobile 2520M
RAM: 1 x 4GB 1333 DDR SO-DIMM (Can support up to 8GB)
Power: 160-XT Pico Power Supply with 4 pin power plug and external Power Brick (+ up converter)
DVD: Lite-On 24X DVD Burner with Lightscribe support
Fan/Heatsink: Dynatron Socket G l2 Mobile Cooler
Compact Flash: (Optional - Mac OS will not natively recognize this in AHCI mode) - I installed
Windows 8 DP on this. Transcend 32GB CF Card
SSD: OCZ 64GB SATA II 2.5"SSD
Audio: Turtle Beach Amigo II USB Sound Card
PCI Express Wifi: Broadcom BCM94322MC PCI express Wifi
Extras: 16GB USB stick for Lion installation
Griffin iFire Adapter for speakers with PCI express to AC adapter
Sheets of Styrene
iMac G4's DVD and HDD cradle
Hard Plastic Spacers
Computer Screws
Rocker Switch
Computer Power Momentary Switch
Computer Pins and extra Wires
2.5" SSD Rubber Case
Velcro
Hot Glue Gun
Modeling Clay
Gorilla Glue
Double Sided Mounting Tape
Aluminum and Electrical Tape
Dremel
Motherboard Pins to 2 USB ports x 2
Cable Ties
Bluetooth USB Dongle (Was an extra, not exactly sure of make)
Wired Keyboard and Mouse
Male DVI to Female HDMI adapter
Short 1 foot HDMI cable
(If your PSU does not have a 4pin power then you need a Molex to 4pin adapter, this one did)
4pin PSU power female to male extender
SATA cables x 2
SATA power splitter (PSU had only one SATA)
3.5mm Audio Jack Extender
Ethernet Extender (I used an ethernet splitter and dremeled off one side).

Software: Purchased copy of Mac OS Lion, Tonymac's Unibeast, Realtek or Intel's Gigabit Ethernet Kext
Note: I installed Lion externally and I recommend doing this to ensure compatibility and to ensure everything works before placing everything inside.

2. Setup

Wire Management

You will notice that I opted against a case fan. The fan actually presses into the board when using the native adapter (This should give you a sense of just home little room there is above the drive). Initially I had a setup with a smaller 80mm (native is 92mm) fan sitting directly above the board. I tried multiple setups with both an active and passive cpu fan (Cooljag makes a passive Socket G Heatsink) and the case fan blowing both in and out. Although blowing in kept the overall board cooler, it only helped with the passive heatsink (active heatsink alone was better than this arrangement with passive heatsink). Blowing out made only a marginal difference unless the fan was ramped way up (then it was very loud). The best compromise I found was using smart fan settings in bios to ramp CPU fan up when temps exceed 65C on the CPU. This allows the computer to be whisper quiet doing almost any every day task, while not allowing CPU temps to go too far over 70C under high load. Note that this requires compromise, the motherboard is essentially in its own compartment with its fan placed directly under, only a few cms from the exhaust, the heat generating component of the PSU is external, and I did not go for a quad core mobile chip.

Alternative Design: I debated for a while if I should do this or to loose the internal optical drive and use a 92mm case fan as well (as a second internal fan vs heat pipes or small liquid cooler), with a more powerful cpu heatsink and cooler and the native psu. This would allow me to place the board somewhat lower to fit the native psu and properly cool it. Thus, I could use a more powerful mobile processor core i7 quad core. In the end I decided I did not need bleeding edge power and I opted for a closer to original iMac G4 experience with quiet operation and onboard optical drive. Though I am tempted to try this in a future build.

You may ask why I didn't use a male version of this DVI interface, the answer is that I couldn't find one. This interface is so by far the best way to go, not only in terms of ease, but in terms of stability. Almost all my mods where I solder the Black LCD cable to a DVI or HDMI result in some pixelation or distortion and I have heard the same from readers as well. If a solder point changes resistance even a little, you will have image problems. So I added an HDMI adapter and short HDMI cable. I secured these to the top of the dome. I used aluminum tape to position and hot glue to secure. Using cable ties I made the wires as short as possible using the sides of the top of the dome (one of the only areas of free space).

Lay it out as its supposed to work

Turn it on with everything hooked up as it should be one last time. (Nothing is more frustrating than having to disassemble everything to fix one small thing. Note: There are two different ethernet ports with two different chipsets. Use only one, (both have available kexts - choose which one you want and install that next). I used the Intel Gigabit and then disabled the other LAN in the bios. I hooked up the ethernet extender to this one.

I also modified the drive cradle, cutting off the pieces on top of the optical drive that were meant to cradle the HDD.

3. Installation

I used a hard rubber spacer and dremeled screw holes into 4 pieces. I used a thick piece of styrene to use as a motherboard tray. I personally like styrene as its firm, non-conductive, but is easy to cut.

Spacers

Screw in first to determine placement

The spacers were glued into the proper positions (screw holes) on a sheet of styrene that was slightly longer than the ECX motherboard itself. This is important as you do not want the motherboard to lay flat, some ventilation must exist for the underside of the board (contains RAM and Compact Flash). Then I screwed the motherboard onto its styrene tray via the spacers.

Fit testing

The image on the right is a fit test. I used aluminum tape to secure the board and adhesive to make sure the optical drives cradle came into contact with the styrene. Notice that the board is right of center. This is done to allow the bulky cable plugs, USB and HDMI to fit. Wires also come down from both sides depending on where I need it to go.

When I was secure in my position, I glued the styrene onto of the optical cradle on all put the leading edge. As you can see there is a metal tray that I left in place. This leading edge allows me to slide this edge of the styrene with motherboard on top of this tray. The other sides are glued to the drive cradle. Which can then be screwed into its native holes. Thus, the motherboard is double supported.

Make sure all cables are to the sides and that no wiring goes over or impedes the fan on the motherboard in any way.

With the DVD installed you can see how little room is left. As a matter of face to two areas on each side of the DVD are all we have left for our power source and up converter.

The placed the PICO PSU to one side and the up converter on the other side. To give myself more room I did cut down the "wings" of the up converter with a dremel, though this is likely not necessary.

Below the drive there is just enough room for the 2.5" drive to squeeze. I put this in a rubber internal 2.5" HDD case and with velcro secured it to the bottom of the drive right above the access panel in the bottom of the iMac. This may not be the most elegant solution, but it works great. As most of the boards over specs I'm unlikely to change, the SDD is something I could see myself swapping out. So unscrew the bottom panel as if changing the RAM or adding an airport card in the original iMac G4. Pull off the SSD in its case enjoy the satisfying tear of velcro, swap it out and put the new one back and you are done.

4. Power Button and Ports

One way to do the power button is to secure your momentary switch right behind the original power button. This seemed to work great , but I unfortunately pushed in too far one time and dislodged the power button. So I swapped it out with a small threaded black power button for now. I am awaiting delivery of a smaller silver power button of the same size. Although the native switch is more elegant, I do not want to worry about how hard I press the button. The threaded power switches are bolted in and therefore more stable.

How far you want to go with ports is up to you. The easiest solution is to let the wires poke out the back as I did initially. Another way that I did it initially was to use the ports I created as part of my Core 2 Duo ECX mod

Using modeling clay to secure the USB and Ethernet ports. Some dremel modification was needed.

I removed the unnecessary wires and replaced them with the current ones, this time using hot glue. However, I was having some instability with the ports. Occasionally pushing the panel in.

Ultimately, I decided to secure the extenders from the inside. So that what ever I put over them would just be a "covering".

I designed white styrene "caps" for these ports. But, I am holding off for now as I have actually invested in Makerbot's replicator (3D printer). As a modder, I can't tell you how many times I wish I had "a little piece shaped like X" - hopefully "with a learning curve" I'll be able to figure this out. Once it comes my first project with it will be port covers.

Also, I had initially intended to internalize (even took it apart) my ifire, however I felt is was too much of a power drain. So, the ifire is external. As I don't have a firewire port, I used a firewire to AC adapter. I made my own, but apple did sell one, and they are easily obtainable. You do not have to use the apple pro speakers, I just have always liked the way they looked. If you don't have an ifire and are interested in this speakers please see my extensive post on my experience and advice with these speakers called Proprietarily Ridiculous - The Apple Pro Speakers.

Completed Mod

So thats the 20". As you can see this is not the only way to do this. But as with any mod dealing with a tight space you have to make compromises. I honestly believe this is the best balance I can achieve at this time. As technology keeps improving and things continue to shrink, this will likely change.

I have been using this extensively over the past several weeks and I am thrilled. Its fast and powerful and I have yet to hear the fan have to crank into high gear. As I mentioned I did add a Windows 8 DP dual boot, which has also been fun to play around with.

This mod is a culmination of years of hard work for me. This is what I had hopped to build when I started but quickly found that it was impossible. With every successive attempt I felt I came closer and closer and have now completed what (as little as 6 months) did not think was possible. I am also happy that I am able to share it with others who also love the design of the iMac G4. One thing I did not like about my other 20" mods is that I didn't feel they could be easily reproduced, I can confidently say that using the DVI connector I discussed this mod can be done by someone with minimal modding experience. I appreciate all the feedback and as always am happy to answer any questions.

I would also like to give my appreciation to other modders pgee, JeanLun, and bluegray without whom I would have been stuck at various points along the way.

Thanks for reading!!

20" iMac G4 "Genuine" Mod - INVERTER SOLVED

2011-11-03T00:05:00.000-04:00

So That Only Took Me A Year! It was January 8th, 2011 when I documented in this post on my blog my frustration with the 20" inverter and my inability to get it to enable the backlights on the native LCD in any kind of reproducible way.

I believed that the LCD itself would not pose a problem and I posted the TMDS to DVI pinout in this post, though had not been able to confirm it until now. And yes it does work.

The Apple Logo on the ID Tech 20" Panel

I had devised a work around using the LCD controller from the 20" Aluminum Apple Cinema Display, the mod was shown in this post. The controller worked perfectly with the iMac's native inverter and LCD (with one addition). This mod hooked up to an external mini has become one of my most frequently used computers. It has several advantages in that it is VERY STABLE. The reason its so stable is that it really is an apple cinema display masquerading as an iMac G4. While aesthetically perfect, I am reminded of this every time I open the display preferences and Cinema Display is shown in front of me. As a Computer User - It's the perfect solution. As a Computer Modder - I felt somewhat defeated, in that I wasn't able to solve the problem. But there was another problem, this mod was complicated. The neck had to be rewired and components from an expensive cinema display had to be used. I knew that this mod could not be easily replicated.

When I finished my 17" STEP by STEP GUIDE. I knew I was going to get questions regarding to 20" and if such an easy approach could be used. However, because of my cinema display mod, I now had information about the inverter that I had previously lacked. I have never owned a working 20" iMac G4 and was therefore making (supposedly) educated guesses, while trying to figure out the inverter. A damaged inverter later, I realized this approach was not great. With a working inverter via the cinema display's controller, I finally had voltages to check and use as a guide.

So, using my new technique, once the pins were free (The LCD was wired up in just a few minutes). I then tried a few different things using my new information. And for the first time I had a 20" iMac G4's native LCD and inverter display a backlit video signal through the neck (hooked up to a mac mini via DVI) using only wires, connectors and power supplies. The power scheme is much more complex than the 17", this is due to the higher power requirements of the 20" LCD. However, this uses the same method for the LCD as the 17" mod and is quite reproducible.

For those who have followed this blog, you know that this has always been a frustrating shortcoming for me. It has been a long time, but I am so excited to be able to share this with everyone.

Lion's Desktop

Identified Monitor as "iMac"

Needless to say, I will be posting a step by step guide for this. And this mod will be done to completion. In addition, I believe that I have now found a home for my KEEX-6100. This will now form the backbone for a new iMac G4 20" All-In-One. I intend to document the process, including adding the computer to the base for those that wish to do something similar.

Again, thanks for reading!

The 15" iMac G4 Pinout (Courtesy of pgee70)

2011-10-26T20:58:00.000-04:00

Here is the pinout from the 15" iMac G4 Mod that inspired all of my subsequent TMDS to DVI mods

This is the original pinout created by pgee70

- I highly recommend checking out some of his comments and posts on the macrumors forum:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=224698&page=9

- As well as some of his incredible mods on his youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pgee70utube

Thanks, Pete

The 17" iMac G4 to DVI - The Easiest Method Ever (So Far)

2011-10-21T22:52:00.000-04:00

For full details please see this post:

GUIDE: Step by Step 17" iMac G4 TMDS TO DVI Conversion
which I will be updating to completion over the next several days.

The reason I call this the easiest so far is that it involves No Soldering, Minimal Technical Skill, and Can Reasonably be done in 1 Hour.

When I look back at my older mods which involved total neck disassembly, 50+ solder points, and hours upon hours of time, I can not believe how much easier this is. Not only is it easier, it is cheaper, ore stable, and overall just better. If you are interested in doing the 17" version of this iMac mod then take it from someone who has already made every mistake you could possibly make - USE THIS METHOD!

For Now I am only taking this to the level of getting a DVI compatible connection in the base with power. The only thing you need to do is plug something into the DVI receptacle. If that is an internal mini itx, ecx, or external mac mini, or windows atx tower - that is your choice. I will likely demonstrate use of the ECX board later on.

To be honest the only difference is in one <$5 part and that is the DVI-I connector header
Specifically I used a MOLEX PN 74320-4004

FRONT

TOP

BOTTOM

NOT THESE BIG PINS

Now this exact one is likely not needed. The important this is that you need a DVI-D or DVI-I with these small pins as opposed to the usual connectors that use large pins:

I would recommend a right angle connector (you can work outside the dome then fit a right angle connector through the hole on top without having to remove all the pins).

Also, female is easier and I believe gives more connection options, but male can be used if you remember to alter the pinout and can find a connector with these small pins.

The remarkable thing about this connector is that it could not be designed better for the iMac G4s female pins. Not only are the male pins on this connector identical to the ones on the iMac G4 motherboard shape, width, and length, but they are spaced well enough apart to prevent and disturbance between pins. All you have to do is take the iMacs video connector and break apart its housing, freeing the individual pins/wires. Easily push the iMacs wires onto the correct pins (12 TMDS pins, 2 control pins). Then add an extra ground and make 1 split cable with a resistor (5V/hot plug). Hook up 6 aligator wires to voltages (2 Ground, 3 5V, 1 12V) and turn it on.

Of note, I have tweaked the inverter pinout somewhat in the tutorial as well. This change may be specific to this build.

I love that it lists the display as "iMac"

Enjoy and I look forward to hearing stories of rejuvinated iMac G4's! Thanks for reading.

The Future Is Here - KEEX 6100

2011-10-12T21:22:00.000-04:00

This just arrived. For those that don't follow my blog, this the Quanmax KEEX-6100. It is an ECX board, an Intel created standard. It is the exact size of a 3.5" drive. While it may not look like much, after much research and personal experience with Quanmax boards, I believe this is the BEST size-to-power ratio motherboard that is commercially available. This is not an atom board, does not use a ULV chip, or a 600mhz VIA processor. This is a Socket G2 - Sandy Bridge Core i3/i5/i7 motherboard. It does use a the mobile version (traditionally used in notebooks), but that is the only compromise you will have to make. This is the same processor found in the new mac mini the (i5 or i7).

Board features:
Compact Flash Slot (Bootable)
SATA x 2
Mini PCIe
LVDS x2 (with backlight power)
VGA, HDMI, Display Port

But the real advantage is size. In comparison to a 5.25" optical drive - this is miniscule. This board will fit easily at the top of the dome in essentially otherwise unusable space. This helps with heat issues. In addition, this allows you to have the entire rest of the dome to use in any way you see fit.

I am not sure which design I am personally going to integrate this into, but I will discuss hooking up to an ECX board in my tutorial - which I assure you I have been working on.

ECX vs Mini-itx

For those interested in starting soon and utilizing this board. By far the easiest way to obtain this board is from a company called Sliger. They are a Quanmax distributor and were extremely helpful. They can provide not only the board but DC power recommendations, accessory cables (some of which are required). Not only do they have this board but all the other Quanmax ECX boards. Everything from atoms to core 2 duos to amds to the sandy bridge 6100. One of the owner's emailed me back within an hour after I sent an inquiry and answered all my questions. I highly recommend Sliger if you are going to go the ECX route.

Website: http://www.sliger.com
Email: sales@sliger.com

Stay tuned - I promise you the 17" tutorial is on the way with the 20" to follow.

Thank You, Steve

2011-10-05T20:53:00.000-04:00

RIP

Mini-itx Problems, SBCs and Embedded Boards

2011-09-30T00:30:00.000-04:00

Base with Drive

When making an all-in-one you have to realize the base of the G4 is very small - Much smaller than you think. The faraday cage inside provides all the real "support" of the base. Unfortunately 4 steel "legs" make it even tighter. Below the drive pictured here there is only about 1/2" inch. The iMac was convection cooled so everything just stacked on top of each other leaving no room for airflow. Below is how an atom mini itx board with standard fan and heatsink looks interns of thickness next to the original iMac G4's motherboard. Remember the drive sits right on top of the motherboard - there is no wiggle room.

This standard size fan takes up much of the room that the drive occupied as well. Even above the drive there is minimal room (enough for a 3.5" hard drive and then a fan. The power supply was actually split in two and placed on opposite sides of the hard drive.

Without having to grind down the faraday cage even fitting in a mini itx is difficult. You have to put it in at an angle, accessing the ports can be difficult.

Even when using just a mini itx board, no optical drive, no graphics card, just a small hard drive, there are two problems with creating a "powerful" system: Power and Heat.

By power I am referring to where the power source goes. No atx power supply can fit in any way. The existing power supply is not compatible with atx and regardless the 17" is only 160watts. Pico power supplies are really the only option and these are limited to about 150 - 175 watts. Remember, some of this has to go to power the display, support USBs etc.

By heat I am referring to the very poor air flow of the steel faraday cage. The only air entry points are some slits at the bottom and holes at the top. You would never, ever choose this as a computer case. The mini itx has to sit at the very bottom (its the only place it fits). So anything else you want to put in the case - wires, wifi, optical drives, ssds, whatever, has to go on top of the board. This further blocks air flow. Trust me, even with pristine wire management anything other than a very low power system is going to have problems. So you are VERY limit din what can go on top of the motherboard. If you are building a system just to show that it can power on, a "proof of concept" then you don't have to worry. But, if you want a stable, reliable system that you can use daily, there is a better way. There are actually two options:

1) Go Big: You want the system you want. Dedicated graphics, optical drive, big power supply. Then go external. This is the way I went with my mac mini setup and I couldn't be happier with it. I went dual monitors and was then able to use the base to house the optical drive and 20" monitor power supply. Keep in mind the iMac is a desktop, you aren't carrying it room to room. This makes upgrades a breeze and you are no longer limited by size, heat, or power.

2) Go Small: What if you could fit a motherboard at the top of the dome. The CPU sitting right under the ventilation holes would allow for some airflow. What's more, this would allow you to use the space below however you see fit. In my all in one I went with a bluray optical drive. There are compact options beyond mini-itx. These are usually referred to as either Single Board Computers or embedded systems. Although most of these systems are not available from usual vendors such as amazon, newegg etc, they are still easily to obtain commercially. I have dealt with many sales reps from the companies I am going to discuss and they have almost universally been very helpful. These boards are sometimes more expensive then their commercial atx counterparts, sometimes less. They tend to use laptop parts (which tend to be lower power and generate less heat). They usually have on board power options. Their expansion options are usually very limited (but there is really isn't any room in the dome for expansion). They are usually associated with low power platforms but are NOT limited to these. Many form factors are available, but I am going to focus on those that have I/O that is familiar and compatible with commercial products. So lets see what's available.

Zbox Nano

1) The ITX's

- A) Mini-itx (170mm x 170mm) (6.7" x 6.7") - discussed above

- B) Nano-itx (120mm x 120mm) (4.7" x 4.7") - These are sometimes available from standard vendors.

- I for one am very excited about AMD's fusion platform.

The Zbox Nano relies on a Zacate E-350 APU which yields on board AMD HD 6310 graphics. This is available as a barebones system and although it comes with the zotac case, it can be removed. If a hackintosh is your goal, this won't suit your needs. But if you want low power, but some graphics power consider this option.

- C) Pico-itx (100mm x 72mm) (3.9" x 2.8"). You may not believe it, but this is a legitimate option.

Pico-itx

- While not my favorite platform, Intel's Atom, is certainly capable of being a machine capable of everyday, routine tasks. And is available on most PicoITX bards.

Epic SBC

2) Industrial Computers

- A) EPIC - Embedded Platform Industrial Computers (165mm x 115mm) (6.5" x 4.5"). These can blur the line between mainstream and industrial systems, but many have nothing but standard I/O and are have identical chipsets and features to the larger mini-itx boards.

3) Drive Sized Platforms

- A) 5.25" Embedded - (203mm x 146mm) (8" x 5.75") - designed to be the same size as a 5.25" drive. Although longer then mini itx, its narrower shape is better for the iMac. If you don't use an optical drive these may be considered (although they are on the larger size). Available in everything from Atom, to Intel Core 2 Duo, to 1st and 2nd generation Core i processors.

KEEX-4030

- B) 3.5" Embedded/ECX - (146mm x 105mm) (5.75" x 4") - similarly designed to be the same size as a 3.5" drive. ECX is an intel developed standard, meant to give the performance of mini-itx in a smaller form factor. Similarly available in many varieties. Global American again has a wide selection from Atom up to 1st generation Core i processors. Two popular makers of these systems are Quanmax and Portwell. Online distributors such as logicsupply.com offer these boards. For my All-in-one I used the Keex-4030, a Quanmax Core 2 Duo Mobile Processor Board. I found it easy to use and it delivered solid performance. A second generation core i/sandy bridge mobo has been announced by Quanmax, but I have not found it available yet.

I would probably recommend either Nano-ITX or 3.5" ECX as they offer the best availability, standardization, and size to performance ratio. Just remember that a non-standard board may have some quirks (proprietary connectors, limited expansion). Do your homework first, before buying. But there are plenty of options for small motherboards beyond mini-itx.

The 17" Mod Success Stories, Mistakes, and All-In-Ones

2011-09-29T17:13:00.000-04:00

As I just wrote on my 17" iMac G4 guide, I have been exploring simpler ways of converting the iMacs LCD to a plug and play DVI/HDMI compatible monitor. Do to an upcoming test I have to put this project largely on hold for the next few weeks. Regardless, people have been doing great and over the past few months I have gotten emails of no fewer than 10 successes. Many from people with limited electronics experience. Thank you to everyone who has shared this me, its extremely rewarding to see that my projects have helped others doing the same. I hope to see plenty of broken iMac G4's returned to their proper place on the desktop for years to come.

Courtesy of mouser.com

I have unfortunately wasted time going down a dead end route. After much searching I was finally able to locate the motherboard receptacle for the iMac G4's video cable. For those interested it is the 21pin - C seen in the diagram to the right. Specifically its the: 656-FI-WE21P-HFE JAE FFC / FPC Connector.

My hope was to create an adapter wire that you could simply plug into the iMac's video cable. It would have a DVI/HDMI out and cables that could hook to a power supply. Add the inverter and presto, instant iMac conversion. Unfortunately the ones that are soldered on boards need to be ordered in the thousands. The actual connectors themselves are too difficult to work with unless pre soldered to a board. I've tried but the pins coming off very small and the crimping tool that you can buy is around a thousand dollars. The current method that I'm trying the use seems much simpler (and cheaper). I will detail it in the guide as soon as I complete it.

Top = MALE
Bottom = FEMALE

The biggest "correctable" error that people seem to be making involves using the DVI pinout as is with a male cable. I talk about this in the post, but I think people are looking only at the pinout. So I'm going to make it clearer and post a male pinout. The DVI pin numbers are based on a standard numbering system which is numbered left to right based on the female DVI connector. The female connector is what you plug a standard cable into, found n the back of a computer or graphics card. The standard DVI cable has 2 male connectors at its ends. So please keep this in mind when you do this mod. You can certainly use a male interface, but you have to realize which pin is which number. You can simply view it from the back to see how it relates to the female plug.

In regard to all-in-ones, they are certainly possible. But just keep expectations in check. You really can not fit much it the base. And remember you have to power it. Pico power supplies really are limited to about 150 watts so if you want and you can not fit an tax power supply in the base. But, remember this is a 17" screen - you don't really need a powerful video card. That said, I still firmly believe that a mini itx is too high a risk for overheating at the bottom of the dome and should not be used. I recommend using a pico, nano, or embedded motherboard. I'll be reviewing some of these choices in my next post.

iSight G5 as external monitor with Camera/Mic

2011-08-28T03:57:00.000-04:00

Using iMac G5 iSight as external monitor

First I would again like to thank Jean Luc for his assistance with the camera and the microphone. I had not expected the iMac G5 iSight (which is the 3rd generation of iMac G5s) to be so radically different from the original G5. For one it is substantially thinner and the entire layout is different. Unlike the original where the lcd is contained within the front part of the case, the lcd of the iSight is attached to the back of the housing. This arrangement leaves substantially less room in the case than the original. This however wasn't a problem as I was using the same approach I had used earlier with the internals of a 20" aluminum apple cinema display. Thus, all I needed was the LCD controller and inverter to fit behind the monitor. The added bonus of the cinema display is that it has one cable that breaks off into power, USB and Firewire and gives you 2 powered USB ports.

Using the Apple Cinema Display's components is something I highly recommend. I realize that it is not the most cost effective solution, but it is not as bad as you may think. As the cinema display's control board works with both the native 20" iMac G4 and G5 LCDs and the iMac G4's inverter (probably the G5's as well), you really only need the LCD control board, the wires, and the power brick. With patience I have been able to get Cinema Display's with cracked screens and dented cases (but working internals) for under $50. Also, the LCD controller itself is only $30. Its the power brick that is the most annoying. But, it is an elegant and stable solution for getting the 24V lines needed to power the 20" LCD and simplifies the wiring tremendously.

iSight Camera hooked up to internal USB

Getting the camera to work was quite easy after I found out it was a simple USB camera. The standard Red, Green, White, and Black cables simply need to be spliced to a USB cable and then the camera is essentially plug and play.

I connected the USB splice to the USB hub of the cinema display which was internalized behind the monitor.

Pictured you can see photo booth running from the camera which is in the top of the bezel.

A USB sound adapter

A "TRS" ausio jack

The existing microphone required a usb adapter. There are 3 wires which appear to be a TRS (Tip, Ring, Shield) arrangement, like a standard 3.5mm audio jack. I chose this particular adapter as it stated that it was mac compatible, though I'm sure plenty will work. Though I believe this adapter oversimplifies the signal. The brown wire of the microphone gets connected to the red wire (or ring), while the grey wire gets connected to the shield of the audio cable. The tip of this (The white wire) was left unconnected. Plug the audio cable into the USB adapters microphone port and then the adapter into the USB hub and now both the iSight's camera and microphone are operational.

One thing to note is that the existing speakers also can be connected to a TRS cable. The Right speaker to the Red and Ground and the Left speaker to White and Ground. This particular USB adapter is not an amplifier so the volume of the speakers was very low when I connected them to the headphone jack/USB adapter. I am also using the Apple Pro speakers which I am quite happy with. However, if you do get an amplifier, the existing iMac G5 speakers can certainly be utilized.

As a side note, as you can see in the picture I have mounted the mac mini underneath the right side of the desk. The mount is great and comes with four USB ports on the front.

Using this version of the iMac G5 is certainly an improvement. It is smaller, lighter, and easier to maneuver. The addition of the iSight camera and mic allows me to ditch the logitech camera that did not really match the overall design. The addition of the drive to the G4 and now the camera to the G5 allow them to be more than just monitors. Each of them supplies something that is found on all desktop macs except for the mac mini.

There are certainly things I may tweak in the future. But, to be honest, this is really about it for this project. I would still like a touch screen option, but until a reliable, affordable, multi touch capable option that DOES NOT sacrifice the design aesthetic becomes available I am not going to pursue this. It has been so much fun working with these computers, but using them with the new mac mini reminds me why I did this in the first place. Both of these are beautiful to look at, have great ergonomics, and maybe this is just because of nostalgia - fun to use.

I am not sure what new projects to tackle next, but I'm sure something will come up. In the mean time, I'm going to turn my attention to writing step by step guides for some of these mods. But please feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments. Again, thanks for reading!!

GUIDE: Step by Step 17" iMac G4 TMDS to DVI Conversion - 800mhz Neck Completed, 1/1.25 Ghz - In Progress

2011-08-23T00:04:00.001-04:00

Mac Mini identifying monitor as "iMac"

This is a step-by-step detailing the process of converting a 17" iMac G4 to a useable LCD with a video cable that terminates with a DVI connector in the base. I may go further and complete this as an updated all-in-one using an ECX board - but for now I will focus on the video connector. Please note that I am not starting from a complete machine. I have several necks, empty domes/bases, and LCDs that I have obtained through various sources as individual parts. So my tutorial will not focus on the general disassembly and reassembly, but on the wiring and powering of the LCD.

For those who have not followed my blog, please be aware that there are two versions of the wires in the 17" Mac G4 (Two different necks). One version is for the 800mhz iMac, the other is for either the 1 or 1.25ghz iMac. If you use the wrong one - it will not work.

Sorry for the delay in the 1/1.25Ghz step-by-step, there is only a slight variation, just use the correct pinout. I have been working on the 20" version. Once this is completed, I will turn my attention to this.

Note: This is a financial investment, the parts that go into this are used and in some cases 10 years old. Mistakes or even bad luck may result in no image or even permanent damage to components. So know what you are getting into. I can not vouch for the long term stability of this mod. Although this mod is solder-less and simplified, obviously soldered, insulated connections are likely to be more stable. Even though I have simplified the process, this is still an advanced mod. Be cautious when handling live connections which (in the case of the inverter to backlight) can be several thousand volts. So if you're still ready, lets get started:

I. PARTS LIST
These are the parts that I used or very common alternatives - MANY other variations are unquestionably possible, but I can not guarantee something I did not see work personally. In some cases I will list where I purchased it from - this is in no way an endorsement of any particular merchant or sales site - just a statement of how I acquired it.

A) iMac G4 17" and components

Monitor Housing - 2 pieces (front and back) contains LCD and inverter

17" Inverter

Neck - while structurally the same the neck's of the 800mhz model has different colored wires than he 1ghz and 1.25ghz models. As both pinouts are available it does not matter which you choose.

Faraday Cage

Dome - contains computer components (none of which are used), A white plastic overlay, a metal faraday cage (the metallic inner part of the dome), the bottom of the dome, and a circular tray for the bottom.

The hardest to buy, you need a working LCD and Inverter for this mod. As broken computers may or may not have functioning LCDs - its a tough choice.

Please try not to tear apart working machines - there are fewer and fewer of these available. Ebay is littered with hundreds of broken machines and parts that can be recycled. If the machine you buy is "dirty" - you can buy a new plastic outer housing for the dome. If the screen or inverter doesn't work, they can also be found easily on ebay.

B) A Power Source - to power both inverter and LCD screen

Pico Power Supply

Any power source that has at least a DC: 12V and a 5V line will work, however addition of a 3.3V line actually matches up closer with the panels specs. Despite this, I have not seen any problem with using only 12V and 5V. As this makes everything more uniform and simpler, I am focusing on using these voltages via a standard molex connector. Alternatives include any atx power supply with a molex. As there is limited space, you should choose a small power source like a pico power supply which is a DC-DC power source that uses an external power brick, but any atx power supply will work. If you use an atx power supply you will have to "jump" it to get it to turn on without a motherboard. This can be done by inserting a paper clip or wire between pins 14 and 15. Simply put - grounding pin 14 turns on the power supply.

Rocker Switch

While this alone works you should think about putting some wire with an on/off switch between these. Do not use a momentary switch, you need a real on/off (such as a rocker or toggle switch).

logicsupply.com has a nice selection of Pico Power Supplies, I'd probably recommend at least 120Watts. Make sure you buy a DC-AC power brick as well.

Another option is a DC to molex power supply this gives the necessary 12V and 5V line and also connects to a regular AC plug. This is what I am using for now.

Whatever you choose, it must simply have a working 4 pin molex plug. My tutorial is based around using a working molex in combination with a molex splitter. Cutting off the 2 female connectors and stripping the ends will give you 2 of each of these: 12V(Yellow), 5V(Red), Ground(Black). Available from newegg.com.

Molex Splitter

Another possibility is using the native iMac G4 power supply. As it has 3.3V, 5V, 12V, and Ground. I do not have a working power supply and I therefore can not test it. I also do not know if the native power supply can be easily "jumped" or not (though I would be surprised if it couldn't)

C) Accessories and Cables

LVDS Cable

1. Extra Small Wires and Pins. Optional but recommended. You can use the extra wires in the iMac itself such as the fan or speaker cable, but using the proper pins is much easier. One way is to buy LVDS cables (on ebay) and one source I've found is a company called njytouch on ebay. They sell a standard 30 pin LVDS cable with JAE connector. However, the best source of iMac G4 wires is obviously an iMac G4 .. so buying an extra neck as a source wires and pins may come in useful especially if you make a mistake. These are always available on ebay and it does have to come from the same size iMac. Of note, I used 3 small wires with pins from a 15" iMac G4 neck. (The neck does not have to be opened, I just cut off the last few inches). I also used a wire from the LVDS cable pictured above. Again you do not need either of these in particular, but you do need 4 small gauge wires (about the same gauge as the cables in the iMacs gray lcd wire). The wires do not have to be any longer than 10cm. Ideally 3 of the wires should have pins similar to the termination pins on the other cables, through this is not a requirement. If you have a broken monitor, the cables from this may be enough. Or you cab search for used LVDS cables on ebay, and this should give you enough options.

2. Torx Screw driver kit or set, Philips screwdriver, Small Flat head screwdriver or mini screwdriver set.

3. Soldering iron and solder (not required but can be useful for making some connections more secure or for repairs).

4. A safety pin - for removing pins from connectors

5. Electrical Tape and/or heat shrink

Multimeter

6. A multimeter with continuity setting. This is useful in checking the integrity of the connection especially if you are not getting an image

7. Alligator wires (at least 7).

A Stripped, Cut Cable

8. A Cable or connector for splicing. This must be a TMDS cable such as DVI-D and HDMI. Alternatives include:

a) Cut DVI/HDMI cable: This is easy to obtain and using a mutimeter, it is easy to find out which wires corresponds to which pin. After striping you will find the TMDS control wires (Clock, Data, Hot Plug, 5V) as well as 4 groups of wires that are further shielded. These are the TMDS signal cables. Each one of these has a positive wire, negative wire, and ground. Just remember when using a DVI cable the connector is MALE and this does not correlate directly to the standard diagrams and pin numbers which are based on a female connector.

DVI connectors (Female)

b) A DVI connector (with small pins) - allows the pins to interact directly onto the connector. The shorter the cable and less connections and changes in resistance, the better the quality of the connection. Also allows use of female connector (pin out is easier to follow). Likely any small pin DVI-D or DVI-I connector will work, but I used this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-HDMI-DISPAYPORT-DVI-Connector-/300567646450?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45fb3a50f2#ht_1180wt_1413

from a company called leetechtool which sells 2 connectors for $5 ($2 shipping). Opentip.com also has a similar appearing DVI connector though I can not confirm it is exactly the same.

I highly recommend this DVI connector it greatly simplifies the process and is much more stable. My guide is based on this connector.

9. Three 1-Kohm resistors. Interestingly, you may only need 2 (One pin on my inverter pinout may be superfluous), but until I have fully verified this, I would have 3 ready. Since they are $0.98 for 10, the extra one won't be a big waste. I used these from parts express via amazon.

10. Wire cutters, strippers, and a scissor.

II. Disassembly

Courtesy of mrtotes

- I have decided to skip a lengthy tutorial on disassembly. Numerous tutorials exist on line for this. Changing the hard drive requires near total disassembly.
Here is one tutorial for the hard drive:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html
And one teardown:
http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13550

Briefly:
- Using the torx screwdrivers open up the iMac's dome and remove the drive caddy which includes the hard drive and optical drive and set it to the side. Physical removal of the fan, internal speaker, motherboard and power supply are not required and can either be done or left alone depending on what you plan to do with the iMac's base.

Inverter plug unhooked

Video cable unplugged

- Removal and isolation of 2 cables: the inverter and LCD is required.
Disconnect all cables. I would recommend at least removing the drive caddy. The rest is up to you.

Remove the black cover from the video cable with a flat head screwdriver and gently remove it from the motherboard.

Also remove the large plug which contains the cable labelled inverter

Using a safety pin lift up the black tabs

on the large inverter connector. As the tabs are lifted gently pull each individual inverter pin free.

For the iMacs LCD cable you must first remove the metal casing using a flat head screwdriver or x-acto knife.

- First pry open the top

- Then the side

- And then the metal cover should bend back and snap off

Pry open the top

Then the side

Peel Back and Snap Off

Exposed LCD Connecter

When the black is fully exposed you will again see little plastic tabs on the side. Using a safety pin lift these tabs and push them down (its ok if they come off entirely). You want to see the exposed metal from the pins where the tabs used to be.

When all tabs are done, VERY GENTLY pull the individual wires and pins free.

You may need to again use your safety pin to press down on the pin in the area where the tab used to be in order to help free it from the black connector.

NOTE: THE ENTIRE EASE OF THIS MOD IS DEPENDENT ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE WIRES WITH THEIR INDIVIDUAL PINS. RIPING OFF EVEN ONE PIN FROM THE WIRE MAKES THIS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT. USE MINIMAL FORCE AND TAKE YOUR TIME.

III. The Inverter
- I recommend hooking up and verifying the inverter first. This way you know right away if you need to replace your inverter.

A)The pinouts

To the left are the pinouts for the inverters. I had thought that the 1/1.25ghz iMac used a neck that had an Orange Dimming wire in the inverter while the 800mhz had the off white. However, on the neck I used here which was clearly an 800mhz neck, there was an orange dimmer wire. While this does not matter (as both are left floating), it does mean that this is not a valid means of telling the different models apart.

In addition, while I had thought the purple was the on/off, it may actually be green or red. The purple may not need to be connected at all. I am still investigating this. For now I would recommend proceeding with the pinout as shown and as described below.

B) The molex splitter

1. Take your molex splitter and cut off the two female connectors.

2 Strip the ends off:
- 1 Yellow (12V)
- 2 Red (5V)
- 2 Black (Ground)
2 Blacks and 1 Yellow can remain with no wire exposed

Molex Splitter To AC Power Source
(Note: I removed the extra black pin
but this is not necessary)

3. Connect the molex male end to the female molex of your power source which should be OFF

4. Place Alligator Wires on
- Attach Yellow Alligator wire to one yellow molex wire (Note: I have two attached in the pic but you only need one)

- Attach Black Alligator wire to one black molex wire

- Attach Two Red Alligator wires to red molex wires (but on 1 wire attach sideways leaving end exposed for a second wire) as seen in picture.

- Attach one Green Alligator wire to end of the red molex wire. (Using Green simply helps telling the wires apart).

Alligator Wires to Molex (yellow is out of frame)

5. Take 2 1 Kohm resistors and twist one end onto the PURPLE and GREEN wires of the inverter cable

Resistors wrapped around Green and Purple pins

6. Connect your alligator wires to the inverter pins

- Connect Yellow to Blue pin

- Connect either Red to Red

- Connect the other Red to the resistor wrapper around the Purple pin

- Connect Green to the resistor wrapped around the Green pin

- Connect Black to the Black pin

- Orange or White (depending on neck) inverter wire is not connected and left floating.

7. Turn on your power source. The backlights should come on as seen below. If so, turn off the power and continue on. If not check your connections.

The backlights on

IV: The LCD Cable
- Be aware this will split into two different parts, one for the 800mhz iMac and one for the 1/1.25ghz. If you do not know which one you have, see my two necks post. The easiest (without disassembly of LCD) is to see if your black LCD cable contains a BROWN or ORANGE cable. These will split into a red, green, black. BROWN = 1/1.25ghz and ORANGE = 800mhz.

1. Grab your DVI connector and find a good DVI/TMDS pinout for reference in you get confused. The one I have pictured below is courtesy of Tom's Hardware. Just remember the numbers reflect a FEMALE DVI connector. This is a digital only signal, so we will be using the areas highlighted a TMDS and also the control areas (labeled plug and play). A TMDS data source actually contains 3 parts - POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, and GROUND. DVI allows up to 7 of these (0,1,2,3,4, and Clock). The iMac's LCD requires 4 (0,1,2, and Clock). These correspond to the 4 colored wires that are in the iMac's black LCD cable. And each one of these has 3 wires inside a red, green, and black. This corresponds to the positive, negative, and ground signals respectively.

Courtesy of Tom's Hardware

2. Orient Yourself

FEMALE DVI CONNECTOR PIN NUMBERS

There are 3 Rows of 8 holes

The picture on the right is the front view
- The Top is recognizable as the "Analog Area" should be on the right when looking straight on.
- In addition, the connector is a parallelogram and the longer side is on top
- They are numbered left to right and the middle 2 rows are not used at all
- The Red boxes correspond to the pins for the TMDS signals (the pins in the iMac's black wire)
- The Green boxes correspond to the pins for the control (the pins in the iMac's gray wire)

Connector from top

As this is a right angle connector there are right angle pins visible on the top of the connector. This then terminates in the male pins we will be using on the bottom. See TOP VIEW

In the BOTTOM view below you can see that the top row pins (1-8) actually become the bottom row when looking at the pins from this angle.

The "Analog Area" will always be at the end. So the closest pins to this area will be 8, 16, and 24 in the top, middle, and bottom rows respectively.

Bottom View of connector with"Free" iMac LCD cable.

LCD Cable with black heat shrink removed

3. Separate the Black and Gray iMac LCD wires

- This gives you much more room to work with

- Using a small scissor or wire clippers cut a small nick into the black heat shrink which envelopes both wires.

- With your hands pull apart the sides of the heatshrik next to your cut. It should pull apart easily.

- Underneath is a piece of gray cloth tape, unravel this until the wires come apart

THIS GUIDE NOW DIVIDES

THE RED BELOW WILL BE FOR THE 17" iMAC G4 - 800Mhz VERSION / NECK

THE BLUE (WHICH IS PENDING) WILL BE FOR THE iMAC G4 1 or 1.25 Ghz VERSION / NECK

The 800mhz Neck:

4. Review this pinout for reference. This tells you which color wire and female pin (left column) will be pushed into which male pin on the DVI connector (right column). In the middle is a description of the wires function.

800 mhz 17" iMac G4 pinout

5. The TMDS Signal - The Black LCD Cable

A) THE RED WIRE

- Locate the RED wire from the black cable and identify the 3 wires that come from this cable. The Green, Red, and Black.

Red Wire - Connecting Data Cable #2 (Pins 1, 2, and 3)

- This is the Data #2 Cable
- Of note is that the small green cables will always be negative and the small red cables positive. The Black is the shield or ground.
- Locate Pins: 1, 2, and 3 on the connector
- With the actual DVI part face down, find the pin furthest away from the "Analog Area" and on the row closest/top row. This is PIN #1

i) Take your Red to Green wire
- Using your fingers position the female pin with the "seam" facing either up or down (towards the Front to back of the connector).
- DO NOT PUSH IT IN SIDEWAYS.
- Using very gentle force slide the Green wire on to PIN #1. You can press until to reach the plastic of the connector.
- Do not push against significant resistance. The pin should fit easily and securely.
- Once in place it should hold fairly firmly.

ii) Take your Red to Red wire and push it into position #2 next to the green wire.

iii) Take your Red to Black/Shield and push it into position #3 next to the red wire.

B) The Orange Wire
- The is Data Cable #1
- Locate Pins 9, 10, and 11
- These are the middle row pins in the same column as the Red wire you just placed.

i) In the middle row, right in front of the Red to Green pin, furthest from the analog area, place your Orange to Green Pin - Position #9

ii) Next to this in Position #10 (in front of the Red to Red), place your Orange to Red pin.

iii) Finally in Position #11 (in front of the Red Shield/Ground), push the Orange Shield/Ground into place.

Orange Cables Pins Directly in Front of Red Cables Pins

RED, ORANGE, and BLUE Connected

C) The Blue Wire

- This is Data Cable #0
- Locate Pins 17, 18, and 19
- These are the top row pins (bottom view) just above the orange pins you just placed.

i) In the top row (the blue square), right in front of the Orange to Green pin, furthest from the analog area, place your Blue to Green Pin - Position #17

ii) Next to this in Position #18 (in front of the Orange to Red), place your Blue to Red pin.

iii) Finally in Position #19 (in front of the Orange Shield/Ground), push the Blue Shield/Ground into place.

D) The Green Wire

- This is the Data Cable - Clock

The Green Wire (Notice how its the mirror image)
Small Green Always on the outside
Shield/Black in the Center

- Locate the Pins #22, 23, and 24

- These pins are the last 3 in the row, closest to the Analog Area. They are in the same row as the pins from the BLUE WIRE you just placed. The row closest to the DVI interface.

- NOTE THAT THE ORDER OF PINS IS DIFFERENT FOR THIS WIRE

PREVIOUSLY ALL PINS WENT GREEN, RED, SHIELD FOR THE GREEN IT IS REVERSED. IT GOES SHIELD, RED, GREEN

THINK OF IT AS THIS, GREEN IS ALWAYS ON THE OUTSIDE, SHIELD ON THE INSIDE.

SO FOR THIS WIRE WE WILL PLACE THEM GOING RIGHT TO LEFT

i) In the top row, same row as the Blue Wire, closest to the analog area (the last pin in the row), place your Green to Green Pin - Position #24

ii) Next to this in Position (going right to left) #23 (same row as Blue), place your Green to Red pin.

iii) Finally in Position #22 (same row as Blue), push the Green Shield/Ground into place.

Completed Top View

Completed Front View
Green Wire's Pins in Foreground on Left
Blue Wire's Pins in Foreground on Right

6. THE POWER SOURCE - THE GRAY LCD CABLE
- Of the Nine Colored Wires inside the Gray LCD Cable, only 3 of them actually connect to the DVI connector (Red, White and Black). The other 6 connect to either 5V or Ground

A) The 5V Cables
- Grab your Gray LCD Cable
- Separate Out the Blue, Orange, and Yellow
- Take a RED alligator Wire and place these 3 pins securely within its teeth

BLUE, ORANGE, and YELLOW to 5V

B) The Grounds

- Do the exact same thing for the 3 Grounds:

- Separate out the Gray, Purple, and Green Wires from the Gray LCD Cable

- Take a Black alligator Wire and place these 3 pins securely within its teeth

On Left: BLACK ALLIGATOR (Purple, Grey, Green)
On Right: RED ALLIGATOR (Yellow, Blue, Orange)

C) Connect to Power Source

- Looking Back at your power source, one 5V RED MOLEX wire is connected to 2 Alligators, the other to 1 Alligator. At the 1 Alligator Wire add the RED Alligator from the Gray LCD cable. Now both should have 2.

- For the Ground connect it to the unused Black Molex Wire. The other black cable should be attached to an alligator wire going to the Black Pin/Wire on the Inverter Cable.

7. THE TMDS CONTROL WIRES (VEDID, GROUND, and HOT PLUG)
- These 3 Wires will Plug into Pins 14, 15, and 16, respectively. This is the Middle Row of Pins directly behind the 3 pins from the Green Wire on the Black LCD Cable.
- Only 3 wires from the iMacs LCD cable remain unused.
- However there are a Total of 5 TMDS Control Pins, only 3 come from the iMac's wires, for the 3 listed above we will need extra small gauge wire, similar to the wires on the iMac's Gray LCD cable.
- For this part really 4 small gauge (about 24 - 28) wires are needed. 3 of these should preferably include pins that can plug into the DVI connector and be somewhat long (about 10cm). 1 other can be shorter and does not need the pins.
- Note: This is probably the trickiest part.

Cables from the LCD connector of a 15" iMac G4

A) Prepare your extra wires

Your options for this are extensive. These 4 wires carry either voltages or ground (not sensitive display signals, as such they don't need to be "perfect" they just need to make a connection.

Options again include:

1) Extra LVDS or small gauge wires from anything (i.e. old monitors, computer fans, stripped HDMI/DVI cable etc.)
2) LVDS cables from nyjtouch (see parts list)
3) Cables from an extra iMac G4 neck of any size (the ones in the video cable).
*4) Extra wires/pins from this iMac G4's Gray LCD cable

*Note that #4 is new and requires no extra equipment.

For #4: Peel back the Gray LCD cable's Plastic and Shielding about 16cm. Isolate the Ground Wires: PURPLE, GREEN, and GRAY. (You can use the 5V wires as well, but I would feel safer cutting the grounds). Cut these three wires at about 10 - 12cm. Make sure you leave enough wire remaining so that it can be easily stripped.

*Note these pics reflect an extra damaged iMac cable I had. I had this idea too late for this mod, but I will use this method for the 17" 1/1.25 Ghz Guide.

Plastic and Shielding Peeled Back

Take the now cut ends of the PURPLE, GREEN, and GRAY wires in the Gray LCD cable and strip the last few centimeters of each of these wires so that each now has exposed wire at the end. Twist these 3 wires together. You can now hook this up to an alligator wire or a different wire and hook it back up to the Molex's Black/ground wire.

Because you have 3 wires and need 4, you can cut off 1/3 of one of these wires (not the pin end) or use an extra cable such as the iMac's speaker or fan wires or an LVDS cable with a male pin on the end. So you should have 3 long wires with the pins on the end and 1 short wire, with either a male or no pin on the end.

Note: I used 1 cable from an LVDS cable and 3 from the neck of an iMac G4 15".
If you need just one, you will be fine with only the extra cables from an iMac neck, which makes this part easier and more stable.

The 4 wires with pins on

Take your cables and expose about 10 - 12 cm and cut off 3 wires (preferably with female pins still attached), and 1 more wire with either a male pin or no pin at all (can cut off female pin).

B) The 1st Extra Wire - TMDS CONTROL GROUND

i) Take one wire with a pin on it (preferably) - I USED A GREEN COLORED WIRE - but it does not matter what color you use, just remember what it is. Strip the non-pin end of the wire (2 - 3cm)

*I would strongly recommend using a wire that has the proper pin on it even if it means using the iMac's own ground wires. So if using your own LVDS cable, make sure the pin fits appropriately. This will be far more stable.

- I am going to recommend a small wire stripper, but to be honest, I usually use (against all dental recommendations) the bite and pull method.

One wire with pin on one end, stripped on other

ii) Wrap the stripped end around one of the Black Alligator Clips that (the other end) connects to the Black Molex Wire (The Ground). I chose the wire that holds the Green, Grey, and Purple Grounds from the Gray LCD cable. You can also use the other ground / alligator wire that connects the inverter's ground cable to the other Black Molex / Ground. It does not matter.

Alligator wire with "Extra" Green Wire wrapped around

iii) Place the Pin from this Wire into Position #15 on your DVI Connector
- This is in the Middle Row, the last pin from the end (by the Analog Area)
- This pin gets placed directly behind the RED pin from the GREEN wire of the BLACK LCD cable (the last colored wire we placed).

Ground Wire to DVI Connector #15

C) The Second and Third Extra Wires - TMDS Control Voltage (VEDID) and Hot Plug

Some quick background:
- The DVI source (the computer) actually has a pin that sends a 3.3V signal to the LCD that tells it to turn on. This is how the image turns off when the computer tells the monitor to sleep. In addition, the LCD itself sends a low voltage in THE OTHER DIRECTION, back to the DVI source (the computer). This lets the computer know that there is something connected to this port.

- The voltage sent from computer to LCD (the LCD's on/off) is called the VEDID and this is Pin #14 on the DVI and connects to the Red (looks somewhat "Hot Pink") wire in the Gray LCD cable where its transmitted to the LCD itself.

- The voltage sent from the LCD to the computer is called the "HOT PLUG DETECT". This signal is supposed to come from the LCD and plug into Pin #16 on the DVI Connector. However, this monitor was designed to always be connected. So, the iMac's LCD does not have a wire that corresponds to the Hot Plug Detect. To "fool" the computer we can give its own signal right back to itself. However, we need to lower the voltage, which we do by adding a 1-Kohm resistor.

3 Extra Wires and Resistor

i) Get Prepared

a) Take Your "2nd Extra Wire" with Female Pin, cut and strip the end, (again about 10 - 15cm, but strip off a large segment of the end without the pin 3 - 4cm)
- Again I used a wire from my extra 15" iMac neck, with a female pin, but you can use whatever you chose. My wire is recognizable as the Red with Black Stripe. This wire will be the VEDID and will connect to Pin #14 on the DVI Connector

b) Take Your "3rd Extra Wire" with Female Pin, repeat as above. Although you don't need to strip off quite as much (2cm will do). My wire is recognizable as an Orange with Blue Stripe. This wire will be the HOT PLUG DETECT and will connect to Pin #16 on the DVI Connector.

c) You need one more wire with either a male pin or no pin at all. I took this wire from my LVDS cable. You can take a male pin from the iMac as well. But having no pin and simply being stripped on both ends will work fine. This wire can be shorter, 5 - 7cm will do.

d) Your final 1 Kohm resistor

ii) Create Your HOT PLUG and VEDID

Extra wire wrapped around 1st part of strip

- So you should have 3 wires

1) VEDID - Wire with (preferably) female pin at one end and a long section of stripped/exposed wire at the other end - MINE IS RED WITH BLACK STRIPE

2) HOT PLUG - Wire with (preferably) female pin at one end and a short section of stripped/exposed wire at the other end - MINE IS ORANGE WITH BLUE STRIPE

3) EXTRA WIRE - Short Wire with either male pin or short strip/exposed wire at one end and short strip/exposed wire at the other end. MINE IS A PLAIN RED WIRE

-Wrap the stripped extra wire around the first part of the VEDID's stripped wire, but leave at least a few cm of stripped wire from the VEDID sticking out as seen in the picture.

- Wrap the 2nd part of the VEDID's strip around the 1 Kohm Resistor

- Wrap the Stripped end of the Hot Plug Cable (ORANGE WITH BLUE STRIPE) around the other end of the resistor.

Completed VEDID and HOT PLUG Cable

Again, what you see above is simply a split. The voltage goes from the computer through the DVI connector to the VEDID (Red with Black Stripe Wire via Pin#14). It then splits into two. One signal sends the original 3.3V via the "Plain Red Wire" to the Red/Hot Pink wire of the Gray LCD cable, which carries this to the LCD to turn it on. The second split sends the 3.3V from the VEDID to the 1Kohm Resistor (which reduces the voltage) and connects back to the DVI connector via the HOT PLUG (Orange with Blue Stripe via Pin #16). Thus, going through the DVI connector to "fool" the source.

Resistor wrapped in Electrical Tape

Completed Cable

- Wrap the Resistor and exposed splice with electrical tape.

VEDID (#14) and HOT PLUG (#16) surround
GROUND (#15)

iii) Plug the VEDID to Pin #14
- This pin is in the middle row, next to the the Ground wire that was just placed.
- It is 3 pins from the "Analog Area" at the end
- When looking at the connector from the front (DVI interface facing you), this pin is directly behind the the Black/Shield from the Green Wire of the the Black LCD Cable.

iv) Plug the HOT PLUG DETECT to Pin #16

- This pin is in the middle row, on the other side of the Ground wire that was just placed.

- It is the last pin of the row and is next to the "Analog Area" at the end

- When looking at the connector from the front (DVI interface facing you), this pin is directly behind the the Green from the Green Wire of the the Black LCD Cable.

Note:

*If you use a wire without female pins (ex. DVI/HDMI wires) or wires with female pins that are much too large you need to strip the DVI connecting end of the wire. Take your stripped end and wrap it around the pins (#14 and 16) several times and secure it with a small piece of electrical tape.

*If your female pin is just slightly too large (ex. Some LVDS wires) you can take a pair of pliers and make the opening somewhat smaller so that it holds securely to the DVI's male pin without touching adjacent pins.

v) Connect to iMac's LCD Cable
- You should have 2 of the 3 ends plugged into the DVI. This leaves the one remaining short "extra cable". I've been using the plain Red wire with a male pin.

VEDID (Pin#14) to iMac's Gray LCD Cable - Red Wire

- Take this end (if you used a cable with a male pin) and plug this male pin into the female pin on the Red (somewhat Hot Pink appearing) wire from the iMac G4's Gray LCD cable.

- There should only be 3 wires left unhooked on the Gray cable: White, Black, and Red(Hot Pink). So, it should be easy to identify.

- If you don't have a male pin, it is no big deal. Simply strip a few cm off the end of your "extra wire", where the male pin should be, and wrap this around the female pin from the iMac's Red/Hot pink wire. Do not cut off or damage the female pin from the iMac's LCD cable.

Another View

- On thing to consider is to put a small piece of heat shrink around around the connection to shield it and make sure it doesn't come into contact with anything

- However do not "heat" the heat shrink - leave it free floating at least for now.

Heat shrink around Connection

D) TMDS Control - Clock and Data (White and Black)

Clock and Data (White and Black) to DVI #6 and 7

- 2 wires from the iMac's Gray LCD cable should still be unhooked at this point

i) Connect "White - CLOCK" to DVI Connector Pin #6
- This is in the same Row as the Black LCD Cable's RED wires but the third pin from the end / "Analog Area"
- This pin is right behind (when facing the DVI interface) the VEDID placed in the previous step.

ii) Connect "Black - DATA" to DVI Connector Pin #7

- This is in the same Row as the Black LCD Cable's RED wires but the second pin from the end / "Analog Area"

- This pin is right behind (when facing the DVI interface) the GROUND placed in the previous step.

E) Connect DVI Cable to your DVI interface - Connect it to a source/Computer and Turn on your Power Source.

- You should see your image

V. Problems with Sleep

- As configured the backlights will stay on during sleep as there is no signal to turn them off.

- One way to get the backlights to turn on and off with the display is to connect them to the Voltage from the Computer/DVI: The VEDID

- Note: I had expected the Purple Inverter cable to do this, but it actually didn't make a difference if this was connected or not. (May not even be necessary)

- Take the Alligator Wire that connects to the RED INVERTER WIRE. And Unhook the other end that connects to the Red Molex 5V line.

- Take this end and clamp its teeth around the Connection between the iMac Gray Cable's Red/Hot Pink Wire and the spliced VEDID "Extra Wire". This is the area I had recommended covering with a piece of heat shrink. If you did this slide the heat shrink slightly out of the way and clamp your alligator wire on the pin/pins.

- Your display should now turn on and off with sleep.

Some finalization recommendations, extra pics, and of course the BLUE section for the 1/1.25Ghz pinout are coming.

In the mean time hope this guide has helped. I've already put a lot of work into it and I hope its clear. As always helpful comments, suggestions, and questions are appreciated and welcomed.

Good Luck!

Completed Mod - Mac Mini with iMac G4 and G5 dual monitors

2011-08-11T00:26:00.001-04:00

Original Dual Monitors with Mac Mini

New Setup with iSight G5, Mac Mini, and iPad

While the core components are completely unchanged from my previous 20" iMac G4 mod, this represents the completion of the overall setup. I would highly recommend this to anyone in search of a "weekend hobby" who shares my enthusiasm for this generation of apple products. Most people seem to be interested in the 17" mod, but as someone who has used both, I would recommend putting the resources into the 20" mod, if you truly intend to use this as a main desktop computer. (Obviously if you already have a 17" dead iMac G4, its a different story).

Personally, it has become difficult for me to use LCDs under 19" as I've become so accustomed to larger displays. The 20" iMac is a sizable display as is, but several factors actually make the screen bigger than most 20" displays. For one, the aspect ratio is 16:10 not 16:9, for 20" this makes a substantial difference (1680x1050 vs 1600x900) in the overall size and pixel density. Plus, the nature of the iMac G4 itself allows you to pull the display much closer to you than an ordinary LCD would sit. Even still, to be a workstation, I feel multiple monitors are invaluable. I got fortunate in "spare parts" that I was able to put the iMac G5 (native LCD, Apple Cinema Display's controller, inverter, and power source) together very quickly. However, there are multiple ways to "resurrect" an iMac G5 as an external monitor depending on available parts. The effect of having both together is great. The iMac G5 is also quite ergonomic, in both its sliding and tilting.

While an All-In-One was the ultimate goal, by the time I figured out how to "modernize" the iMac with a Core 2 Duo Processor, Core 2 Duos were obsolete. With the mac mini also growing in length and depth, an all-in-one would need to be a hackintosh. While the discussion regarding the price point of the mac mini is justified (depending on how you value aesthetics, form factor, and low power consumption), you can not call this generation underpowered. I have been quite impressed, unless you are a gamer, there is not much you can't do with this machine. (Im using the 2.7Ghz Dual Core i7 with discrete graphics.) For those waiting for the "X-Mac" this really might be it.

I originally concealed this in the inner part of the desk, but the I bought a great under desk mount with 4 front facing powered USB ports.

As I've mentioned the loss of the optical drive even as an option was unfortunate. While both the G4 and G5 enclosures lend themselves to addition of an optical drive, its on the G4 where the drive actually contributes to the design. While initially I was hoping to use bluray - Lion would not recognize the drive. I ended up using an external DVD drive which I opened up and modified.

This is actually DC powered, so I used a power source from a broken internal drive enclosure. I use the original iMac G4's AC plug, but split it, with one going to the cinema displays power brick and one going to the drive. Thus, only one AC plug and no external power brick is required.

Rear Ports (USB Out, Drive Switch, AC Power)

The rear panel contains the original 3 pronged receptacle for AC power, an on/off switch for the drive, a USB out, the outgoing USB cable and HDMI cable. The USB cable belongs to the cinema displays controller which then supplies 2 ports. One is taken up by the drive internally, the other is on the back (hooked up to the camera here). So, by having the drive plugged in, you essentially replace the used USB port.

Drive open

There is a quirk with the DVD drive. When there is no media in the drive, the keyboard eject shortcuts do not work and you can not access the front button on the drive. To eject the drive you have to open disk utility, click on the drive and press open. Now by putting Disk Utility in the dock, opening the drive takes only 3 clicks, however, this is somewhat of a nuisance. When media is in the drive this does not seem to be a problem.

SOLVED - thanks to fellow modder and iMac enthusiast Jean Luc, I now have an eject icon in the upper right corner, that allows me to easily eject and close the drive in the G4's dome.

This works flawlessly. It eliminates a flaw of the mini and gives purpose to the base of the iMac G4.

Besides cleaning up a few of the rear ports, this iMac G4 mod is complete and perfect in this setup. This is largely the same mod as before without the all in one.

Side/Rear iMac G5 (1st Generation) Mod

The iMac G5 chassis leaves plenty of room for further modification. It is designed for speakers and its own drive. Because I have an optical drive in the G4 and use the apple pro speakers, these are likely to be superfluous. As of right now the Cinema Displays cable goes out where the power cable exited. So the power brick is outside. I may internalize this. While I do like the ability to physically move the camera, I may consider obtaining an isight G5 and seeing if I can get an isight camera and convert it to USB.

UPDATED - with advise from Jean Luc and research I have realized that there is a considerable difference between the original iMac G5 (1st Generation)and the iSight iMac G5 (3rd Generation - much thinner, and with iSight camera/mic). I am going to attempt to transfer the contents from this G5 to an empty chassis from an iSight G5. I believe this will likely fit this mod better. As I have stated much of the iMac G5's shell is currently wasted space, having a smaller, sleeker chassis would likely look better and save some desk space. Although much tighter, the only contents that will need to fit are the Cinema Display's LCD controller and inverter . In addition, as Jean Luc explains in the comments below, the iSight is simply a USB device. With addition of either a USB adapter for the microphone, I can connect these to the Apple Cinema Display's USB ports. As this leaves only 2 Firewire 400 ports, I would likely either hold off on adding the rear ports to see if my "thunderbolt dock" idea becomes feasible, or use a firewire to usb dock to add USB ports to the rear of the iMac G5. The RAM access panel at the bottom may also let me bring back the Cinema Displays hardware touch power and brightness controls to the bottom of the display.

FURTHER UPDATED - I have indeed used JLs advise and the chassis of the iSight G5 complete with original microphone and iSight Camera. Please see this post on the iMac G5 iSight for details.

At the very least I'm likely to add the Cinema Display's Firewire 400 and USB ports. As I mentioned earlier, this monitor is hooked up using a mini display port via the thunderbolt port, I'd love to utilize this fact to make this a "dock". Exactly as apple has done with its new Thunderbolt displays. Thus, with one plug I could not only get the image to the G5s LCD but "transfer" the mac minis ports to the easily accessible rear panel of the G5. This would allow for significant convenience. I'm hoping such a dock may eventually become available or perhaps it could be taken from a broken thunderbolt display in the next year or so.

In general this is even beyond the setup that I envisioned as a best case scenario when I began this project.

Suggestions are appreciated. And if there is interest I'd be happy to provide technical details. Thank you for reading!

Optical Drives, Mac Minis, and Thunderbolt

2011-07-28T15:43:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of apple.com

So the final part of my setup is "the actual computer". I decided to go with the higher end non-server model. I would have gone with the server for its quad core i7, but discrete graphics is quite important to me. I have had some so-so experiences with onboard intel graphics in the past. In terms of upgrades - I very much wanted a SSD, but for $600, it was not going to happen. I have spoken to people who have changed or added drives to last years mini (same design) and while not simple it is doable. So I went with the base 5400rpm 500GB drive knowing that eventually I'll likely add another drive or swap this out entirely. I did decide to invest in the 2.7Ghz dual core i7 processor as this is something I won't be able to replace later and at $100 the cost wasn't ridiculous.

There was one "surprise" for me, I was not expecting the demise of the optical drive. While this does cause me to alter my design, it really is not a big deal for me. That said, I am somewhat disappointed in the decision. The reason I say that is because it decreases the versatility of the machine. Plenty of people viewed this as an ideal and elegant HTPC, many of those people have DVD collections, instead of an iTunes movie library. For the Macbook Air - the initial decision to loose the optical drive allowed the chassis to become even thinner. In the case of the mac mini there is an empty bay. The design hasn't gotten smaller and unless you have two storage drives there is simply empty space. Even if a drive wasn't included in the base model, an option for a Build to Order one would have been nice. Optical media may not be the future but for many people it is the present and as small as it is, the mini is still a desktop computer. Obviously, Apple can do what they want and as a huge media digital distributor they have a vested interest in seeing optical media disappear as soon as possible. But, I thought they could have waited another generation as the people I know who waited for this machine as a living room computer have not decided to go digital, but have instead gone in a different direction.

This does open up some design potential for my setup which uses a converted iMac G4 and iMac G5:

While my initial design included a bluray drive in the base, I took it out as I thought it was redundant with the mini on the desk. An internal drive was less complicated when there was a computer in base. As this attached simply through an SATA + PWR connector to the motherboard. While SATA to USB + Power brick adapters are available, I would like to keep the design as simple as possible. Meaning I would prefer only one AC plug, no external power bricks and as few cables going between the mini and and the iMac G4 chassis as possible.

For there to be only "1 plug" I obviously have to split power off somewhere. I can do this on the "AC side" before the power brick or on the "DC side" after the power brick. I have an old 5.25" external drive enclosure that I have no further use for. This includes a small power supply and onboard SATA to USB.

With some internal rearrangement I should be able to fit both the power supply as well as the drive. Currently all that is in the base is the Cinema Displays LCD controller and Power Brick. I am hoping to keep the power supplies at the top of the dome. The drive in the middle and the controller on the underside of the drive. Leaving the very bottom for some wire management.

Using the Cinema Display's on-board USB ports will allow me to connect the drive and replace the "used" USB port with one that will be on the back of the iMac G4s base. In addition I will add either the rocker switch or a push button on/off to the back of the iMac G4 for the drive. I do have the option of Firewire 400 ports but will probably not hook these up. Although there is not currently any reliable support for it, I do have a full side 5.25" tray loading bluray drive which has already been modified to fit in the iMac, so I will probably be using this.

Courtesy of CNET

Another option is to use the iMac G5 or both.

PicoPSU by Mini-box.com

Of course, as I have previously noted, I have plenty of room in the iMac G5's chassis. The way I felt this looked the best was to mimic the original look, whereby one cable comes out the back. So the Cinema Display's Cable comes out the hole n the back, which I will eventually surround with white rubber to make it look as clean as possible. As a result, the power brick is external. To use an internal slim slot loading I need an SATA power source (12V), but the power coming in via the Cinema Display is DC at 24V. In order to siphon off power I need a DC to DC voltage regulator or power supply. I chose a picoPSU which can use 24V input. I chose this because it was cheap, small, gives me lots of options, and I am familiar with it.

Using this and a SATA to USB I can again use the onboard USB slots of the cinema display. And as I am already connecting the Cinema Displays cable to the computer, I may hook up the firewire 400 ports and connect them to the back of the monitor where they were designed to hook up to the iMac G5.

Back Panel Thunderbolt - Courtesy Apple.com

In my opinion one of the most interesting products Apple just launched was its new Thunderbolt display. The idea that one cable (externally no different than the display cable) can turn the monitor into a "dock" is brilliant. What would be ideal for my setup would be if they ever sold a separate "Thunderbolt dock". A Thunderbolt cabe at one end with a mini display port, USB, firewire, ethernet, thunderbolt out (for daisy chaining) etc at the other end. This would allow all sorts of devices/accessories to be stored in the iMac G4/G5 housing. An example may be using Macbook Air with onboard Intel HD3000 graphics hooked up to a modified iMac G4 or G5. But inside of the iMac enclosure is not just an LCD but a powerful PCI-Express graphics card hooked up via thunderbolt (I know it wouldn't be fully x16 - but it would still be very capable) as well as a 3TB HD array and Bluray drive that all becomes accessible as you hook one cable up to your laptop. It really may make these mods more than just monitors.

20" iMac G4 Inverter Pinout (Not tested)

2011-07-24T23:32:00.000-04:00

Based on the voltages from my current setup with the Apple Cinema Display as the power source. You should be able to hook this up to a native working iMac G4 20" power source, but as I do not have a working one I can not confirm this.

iMac G4 20" Inverter Pinout

To be honest I am not sure exactly what the yellow wire does and I can not guarantee that there is not something else missing. I believe its also involved in on/off control. I am not sure about what resistor as I do not know the current, but it would be high - at least 1Kohm.

The TMDS to DVI for the ID Tech panel can be found here. Again this is based on ID Techs own specifications, so I am very confident about in this pinout, but have not tested it myself.

If anyone does have a power source and gives this a shot please let me know the results. Good luck.

20" LCDs, Signaling, Inverters, and Pinouts

2011-07-24T23:16:00.000-04:00

After getting some questions, I realized that it isn't very clear on my blog what makes the 20" iMac G4 different from the 15 and 17" models. Simply put the difference is the inverter and powering the backlights on a 20"LCD.

Monitor Components

I) Intro - LCDs

To explain just some basics about LCDs: (I am no expert so please forgive me if things are slightly wrong or grossly oversimplified).

Most monitors (that connect to an AC power source) contain the LCD itself and then two boards. (See image on the right)

1) Top of the image is the LCD controller board. This is where DVI/VGA plugs in and gets converted to a signal type, usually LVDS. The controller also connects to a power button and some other control buttons. Thus, the board can adjust aspects of the image such as brightness, contrast, position etc.

2) Bottom of the image is the Power Source/Inverter. AC Plugs in here and powers the backlights (connectors at the bottom). The backlights traditionally CCFL lights (now more LED) allow you to see the displayed image. The AC is also converted to DC and supplies power to the LCD controller and via the LCD controller the LCD panel itself.

JAE connectors

II) Signaling Types

LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling) along with power (usually 5 - 12V) and ground wires go from the controller to the LCD via a multi cable connector - usually a JAE connector.

Every Apple Product involving an LCD that I have worked on so far works somewhat differently. This includes all the iMac G4's, the 20" iMac G5, and the 20" aluminum Apple Cinema Display.

The major difference is that the Type of signaling used is TMDS (Transition Minimized Differential Signaling). While I do use the term "TMDS to DVI conversion" in my blog, this is actually a misnomer as there is no real conversion. TMDS is the type of signal that DVI and HDMI cables use. Nothing gets converted, its just that the wires get arranged in the right sequence and POWER is added. Inside the LCD casing itself there is a Texas Instruments chip that allows the monitor to utilize the TMDS signal. Therefore, ALL of the LCDs in the above computers can be connected directly to any TMDS signal - meaning any source that sends a signal over a DVI or HDMI cable.

Panel Names: (May not be complete) - All TMDS compliant

iMac G4 17" - LG LM171W02(A4)

iMac G4 20" - IDTech M201Z2-M01

iMac G5 20" - LG LM201W01(A5)(K1, K2, or K3)

Aluminum Apple Cinema Display 20" - LG LM201W01(A6)(K1)

III) LCD Controllers

Inside the Cinema Display

DVI going directly to LCD

Even though all the data goes directly to the panel, there are still LCD controllers. In the case of the iMac G4 and G5, the controller is in the motherboard. There is no conversion of signal, but power to the panel and brightness is controllable. There is an LCD controller in the cinema display. The actual TMDS data cables go directly to the LCD from the DVI cable. The ACD's LCD controller does add the power to the display and changes brightness, connects to a power button, and is also a USB/Firewire hub.

Again, for all these panels, you can connect DVI or HDMI wires directly to the LCD's JAE wires. As long as you also supply power for the panel (12V for the 20" panels and Grounds) as well as forgo hardware control of brightness - you will produce an image. But, you will not be able to see the image without backlights.

IV) Inverters

Like any monitor with CCFL backlights you need to AC power. The iMacs do not need a power source because the computer itself already has one. DC voltage goes to an inverter that turns the DC voltage into high AC voltage (>1.5 Kilovolts) allowing the bulbs to turn on. The Cinema Display actually works the same way. The external powerbrick is the power source, taking AC and putting out 24V DC. So even with a working image you need an inverter to turn on the backlights to see it.

For the 15" iMac G4 other modders were able to figure out what to feed the inverter to get it to turn on. They used an ATX power source. I determined the 17" iMac inverter pinouts because I had a working inverter, power source, and although it froze with booting - motherboard. So because there was an image I was able to determine what voltages went to what inverter cables to turn the backlights on. I then used an AC to molex adapter (Gives 12V, 5V, and Ground), approximated the voltages (I didn't have a 3.3V line), and turned on the backlights.

So here is the problem with the iMac G4 20". First, no other inverter which can power the backlights that I have found is thin enough to fit in the case. Trust me I've tried a lot - See this post for details. So while there was only 12V, 5V (3.3V recommended but not needed) for the 15" and 17", the 20" was not so simple. Remember all these voltages are easily available from any ATX power supply. The 20" inverter needs a 24V power line. In addition, while I can identify the power lines, grounds, on/off, and dimmer of the other inverters, there was an extra wire with the 20" that I'm not really sure what it does. So, you need a power source capable of 24V, 12V (to power the LCD panel), and 3.3V - any old ATX power supply will not do. The native iMac G4 20", G5 20" or 20" ACD all have power supplies that do have a 24V output. That was original reason i was using the Apple Cinema Display in the first place - I did not have a working iMac G4 20" power supply. What complicated things further was although I had a general idea, I could not determine voltages from a multimeter, thus it was guess and check. Unfortunately, when I burned out an inverter I realized that this method wasn't going to work.

V) Solutions

Using the controller of the Apple Cinema Display solves the problem. The controller is really a series of resistors that takes the 24V DC and splits it up into the voltages needed to power the panel and the inverter. Plus it adds on/off, brightness control, and a USB/Firewire hub. But, this is essentially the same as the "TMDS to DVI conversion for the 20" that I posted here, as far as the TMDS data is concerned. Using this controller simplifies and stabilizes the system very well. This is obviously not the most cost efficient method. However, buying a working 24V power source can be expensive as well, so if you need to buy one anyway, I would recommend going for a cinema display with a broken screen.

But for those of you that either have a working iMac G4 20" power supply or some other 24V source there is obviously a way to get it working. Now that I actually have a set up that works, some may wonder if I can now determine what DC voltages are needed to "activate" the native inverter. The answer is yes and I have already done so - I will post the inverter voltages in my next post. Two things about this are unusual. For one, there is a yellow wire with an extremely low voltage, I believe its part of the on/off mechanism or backlight control. I am not sure if there is something else that I am missing with this wire. Second, I have given just the voltages, you will need a fairly high resistor for the yellow wire even if you connect it to the 3.3V, but I don't know the current of the power supply to calculate it.

End of a Generation?

2011-07-17T19:41:00.000-04:00

An Homage to the "White Plastic" Generation

In the past few weeks there has been conflicting information about the future of the white macbook. Initially a new part number was thought to belong to an upcoming refreshed macbook as 9to5mac reported here. I was somewhat surprised by this as I expected the refreshed MacBook Airs to spell the end for the white macbook. Now with a leak on apple's own site, it would appear that the part number did not refer to a refreshed white macbook, but rather to a new Thunderbolt equipped cinema display (Reported on TUAW here). The reason I'm mentioning this is because this site has been dedicated to modifying the iMac G4 so that it can be used with modern hardware. The iMac G4 represents the beginning of the "white plastic" era for Apple's consumer line. It continued in the desktops consumer as the iMac G4 transitioned to the iMac G5 and even through the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors. Similarly it started with second generation iBook before the consumer notebook line converted to Intel. But, even as iBooks became Macbooks, they retained their white polycarbonite design. Before this Apple products were quite different.

iMac G3

Clamshell iBook

In the early 90s, Apple computers, for the most part, looked just like the "beige boxes" of their competitors. Following Steve Jobs return to Apple the design aesthetic became very colorful, almost whimsical.

Designs included bright pastel colors and translucent plastic. Multiple colors were available. Although more interesting than other computers at the time, I was never a huge fan of this design. Though interesting, it wasn't as elegant as Apple's later designs.

The iMac G4 ushered in the new polycarbonite white design for computers (likely taking cues from the newly released iPod). Although I love the design of the iMac G4, I also loved the G5. That's why I am using that design as my second display. They were simple and clean. Their industrial design still looks "futuristic" despite the fact that they are several years old. They were both radical designs for computers back in the day. LCD all-in-ones really didn't exist. The iBook to Macbook followed this design aesthetic despite the addition of unibody construction and the glass trackpad.

As the line between consumer and professional products becomes more and more blurry - traditionally "higher end" materials such as aluminum and glass have now become standard across Apple's entire product line - even the "low end" mac mini is aluminum. I love the newer designs and think the Macbook Air in particular is extraordinary. However, if this is the end of the white macbook it is a little bittersweet for me as it marks the end of an era.

Courtesy of iTechSoup

Video of 20" iMac G4 All-In-One ECX Mod

2011-07-13T09:07:00.000-04:00

Before I removed the contents of the base to convert this mod to an external monitor for the mac mini I shot a quick (and shaky - sorry) video demonstrating its use. I have stored all the contents including the bluray drive and ports. The new Quanmax ECX board is due out at the end of the month and if it is not cost prohibitive - it could quickly be reassembled. I'm hoping that, for one - there are new mac minis and secondly that they do not disappoint.

For those of you interested in doing this mod, but wanting an all-in-one - use an ECX board - trust me. I spent hours trying to shoehorn a mini itx into this thing and have spoken to plenty of modders who have done the same. I bought all right angle port connectors - tried all angles. Eventually I'd get it to close, but then within a couple hours I had to reopen it for something. (Short out, wire hitting the fan etc.). The one person I know able to get it closed and working has to power down periodically as a result of heat issues. The base is a very poorly vented thick metal cage. There are a few slits at the bottom and holes at the top. Apple designed this to be convection cooled. When I had updated the inside RAM in an original iMac G4 I forgot to put thermal paste on the two heatpipes when I closed it back up and the iMac would not stay on for more than 2 minutes - that's how delicate the convection cooling system was.

Mini itx in bottom of dome

The unavoidable flaw with a mini itx board in this setup is that it has to sit at the bottom of the dome (its the only place it fits). So everything is above it. There is no way to fit a DVD/Bluray with a mini-itx as the RAM and heatsink come up way to high. Despite removing this, at minimum you will have the hard drive (even a small one), a power supply (The ECX board connects from a 4pin to external power bricks), and lots of wires that will all occupy the area above mobo - obstructing what little airflow there is. And its a long way up to those small ventilation holes at the top of the dome.

Native HDD and DVD vs. BLURAY and ECX Mobo

The ECX is 3.5" (the exact same size as the native hard drive). You can easily put a SSD below it or at the bottom of the dome (mine has a CF slot), and it does not require a separate power supply. Most importantly the ECX by virtue of its size can sit at the top of the dome with its fan right under the ventilation holes. And to be honest it was still pretty hot!! But at least not dangerously so. For those interested ECX boards come in many varieties. Quanmax and Portwell are two of the bigger manufacturers. I am waiting for the new Sandy Bridge line, but there is nothing wrong with some of the newer Atom boards. Lets face it - if you are doing a 15 or 17" mod its probably not going to be a gaming computer. As a secondary computer, it would probably be more than adequate.

Photo courtesy of Electronista

In terms of opening a mac mini - I'm not sure - while its designed to be very low voltage it would have to sit at the bottom and therefore heat is likely to be an issue. To be honest, I kind of consider this now a moot point. The newer mini design is likely here for the foreseeable future and although thinner, its mainboard is now likely too big to fit into the dome. The previous generation core 2 duo will fit, but without a clear upgrade route I wouldn't risk taking it apart.

Question, Comments, and Advise always appreciated!

My Dream Setup - iMac G4 and G5 - Dual Monitors

2011-07-06T23:28:00.000-04:00

The iMac G4 "mac mini monitor"

Although this has been a great hobby for me, my goal has always been to produce a computer and setup which allows me to use the form factor of the iMac G4 with modern hardware and the Mac OS. As you can see from my summary, most of my mods - besides the black iMac/VESA - have been disassembled for parts as I feel that the mods have gotten better and I simply don't have use for that many iMac G4 hacks. The fact that I have completed a 20" all-in-one iMac G4 complete with ports and a blu-ray drive using the ECX core 2 duo board shows me that this mod is doable. The only negative is problems with snow leopard (and presumably Lion) with this board. However, there should be no compatibility problems with the new Sandy Bridge KEEX-6100. Still, I have expressed my reservations with hackintoshes in the past and I would prefer a true mac. So while I have been using my touchscreen iMac/Cinema Display mod with my old mac mini, I have really come to prefer the appearance of my newer mod, the native iMac G4 all-in-one mod. So after filming a video of the all-in-one mod and much deliberation, I decided to disassemble this mod and "switch" this mod with the apple cinema display one. Thus, I will get the benefit of a brand new/white exterior and the native housing which makes this completely indistinguishable from the original iMac G4. I will however loose the touchscreen. I simply felt that this came closer to what I originally set out to do. For myself I do not mind the small footprint of the mac mini being on the desk as well. Plus, this leaves open other possibilities such as using it as a desktop monitor for my Macbook.

Two Ports: DVI and Power

I did decide to make one additional switch. Although the mod works fine with the original iMac G4's LCD - the apple cinema display's LCD has a better contrast ratio, viewing angle, brightness, and response time. I had an extra apple cinema LCD (which was intended for the mod detailed later in this post that I ended up not needing). So I replaced the iMac G4's LCD with the Cinema Display's. Here you can see photos of the new iMac G4 hooked up to the mac mini and apple pro speakers via the iFire adapter.

From the back

I left out the bluray drive (as Mac does not yet support it), but now have plenty of room for the power brick which is now included internally. So only a DVI out and C14 Plug is required on the back.

iMac G5 with Cinema Display Cable

My ideal setup has multiple monitors. Unless I have a 27" screen - I find having the extra screen real estate important for multitasking. At first I considered two iMac G4s but thought that may look odd. So I decided to add my second favorite iMac design of all time - the iMac G5. I obtained a broken 20" iMac G5 in good cosmetic condition and removed all but the lcd itself. I had an extra apple cinema display with a broken screen - I put the cinema displays components around the native iMac G5's lcd (which luckily still worked) and I now have an external monitor in a G5 shell. For now I just wired the cinema displays cable out the back where the C14 plug used to be. There are still some issues to work out such as the monitor now being very light. Also, the screws in the bottom no longer fasten into anything. And, I do plan on wiring the 2 USB and Firewire 400 inputs of the Apple Cinema Display to make them accessable on the rear panel of the G5. I know I did not go into detail on this mod - as there really isn't much to it. Just know that the native iMac G5 panel works with a cinema displays controller board. If anyone is interested in this, please let me know and I will add a step by step and parts list. And if you are wondering why I didn't use the TMDS to DVI hack, its because I would still have to power the iMac G5's inverter which also requires a 24V line. Sure, the iMac G5's power supply could be altered, however, the power supply on this was broken and I had the cinema display components.

On the 20" iMac G4

Unfortunately, my mac mini does not support dual monitors (the current one does). I am hopeful of a new Sandy Bridge mac mini which will be the centerpiece of this setup.
So first the iMac G4 connected to the mini.

On the 20" iMac G5

Then the iMac G5 connected. And hopefully in July...Both!

As always comments, questions, and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for reading!

The Future Is Bright

2011-06-21T23:26:00.000-04:00

I have considered many options as to where to go with this new design. This 20" design is identical to the original iMac. Using the same LCD, monitor casing, and containing all components except for the power bricks within the base. Some things I have considered doing with this:

1) Adding a touchscreen - this may or may not be possible. I believe if I use the apple cinema displays native LCD and remove the grey housing - this may give me the few extra mm I need to fit the touchscreen within the monitor housing. I would also need to fit 5 extra wires with in the neck, this may be tough, but I believe some of the LCD wires I'm currently using may not be needed. If I could re-purpose
even 2 or 3 of these, this may be enough.

2) Passive cooling - Although there is only 1 small fan, it is audible. I may see what temperatures are like with only the heatsink or a larger passive heatsink on top of this one to make this pc silent.

3) Snow Leopard to Lion (10.7) - At this point it seems that not only would I want to make this hackintoshable with snow leopard but I'd want to do so - so that I'd be able to upgrade to Lion. I have thought about just putting snow leopard on but without graphics hardware acceleration it feels like it somewhat defeats the purpose of upgrading the machine. As I have previously described there are two problems with this board in terms of hackintoshability

A) The Compact Flash Card - a nice feature of this board is its ability to use compact flash as its primary hard drive. However, Snow Leopard does not seem able to recognize it. Thus, I would need a very small solid state option. While I was at first reluctant - I found a very good deal on a 1.8" SSD and I am amazed at just how small they are. I'm not sure if the picture does it justice. Even with the mini SATA plug, the thing is tiny and near flat. I am not worried about this fitting anymore. In addition, I can always keep the Compact Flash card to allow a nice easy dual booting option to Windows or Linux if I choose.

B) The On-Board Intel GMA4500HD - There appears to have been little progress on this front and although resolution can be forced - I don't find having marginally functional graphics a viable alternative. This board does have a PCI-Ex4 slot so looking through my own stock I have a few options. To the right you can see a few video card options. On top is a PCIEx1 Ion graphics card. I could hook this up using the PCIEx1 riser cable seen attached. Or below this is a silent ASUS 5340 this is a x16 card but I could use a x4 to x16 adapter and some combination of a x16riser or x4 riser (pictured) to connect to the ECX board. So which is better a 5340 @ x4 or an Ion @ x1. I'd probably have to try both to see. This may also require a power supply with more wattage, but more importantly the extra room for the card would likely mean I would need to sacrifice the blu ray drive. I do not believe this can fit any other way.

4) Modern hardware and upgradability - When I began this blog several years ago, my goal was to update the iMac G4 not just as a proof of concept but so I myself could use the iMac G4 again. I am currently getting a lot of use out of the Apple Cinema Display/iMac Hybrid mod. The reason is for one it has a touchscreen, which is fun to use, but mostly because it is hooked up to a mac mini. The mac mini has snow leopard which is I prefer to use. Also I know that new mac minis are on the horizon and I'll be able soon to hook this machine up a new (hopefully) Sandy Bridge mac mini running OS10.7. So I began wondering if there was really much use in pursuing this as an all in one. Perhaps I should just put a DVI or display port on the back and use it with an external mini. (The new Mini's designs make it impossible to fit the motherboards into the G4's enclosure). An Intel Core 2 Duo (mobile processor) is certainly not as "modern" as it was when I began this project. But then I saw this:

Courtesy of Quanmax Inc.

I have spoken to a Quanmax representative who indicated these will be available at the end of July. There is no reason this board should not be hackintoshable and this is likely to be the same specs of the next generation mini (though nothing is guaranteed). I was worried about the future of the ECX board and was not sure if I would see anything other than Atom/Fusion or other low power chipsets. I am delighted that quanmax seems to be pushing forward with the latest technology. However, this board is likely to be quite expensive even without the processor and if it comes down to this or a next generation mac mini - I would favor the mini.

Personally, the all-in-one was a proof-of-concept for me. I have never minded having the small footprint mini external. This makes upgrading a snap and increases the usability of the iMac for me (I can also connect it to my macbook for more screen real estate). What I am probably going to do is switch the bases of my last two 20" mods. Thus, making the touchscreen/apple cinema display mod the all-in-one and the native appearing mod hook up to the external mini. I will also likely put the bluray into the native mod that connects to the external mini. This will allow me to add the hard drive and graphics card to make the apple cinema display/touchscreen a hackintosh/windows dual boot (the touchscreen will likely be more useful with windows). The reason really comes down to the fact that while I think hackintoshes are good for enthusiasts - I personally don't feel secure in using them as a primary computer. I also hope that the addition of multitouch gestures in Lion makes up for the loss of the touchscreen. While a nice addition, the touchscreen does detract from the overall quality of the image and leaves the monitor covered in fingerprints. I have also been working on a conversion of a broken iMac G5 to a display only. My goal would be to have a native appearing iMac G4 and G5 as dual monitors hooked up a new mini running Lion as an homage to my favorite computer designs of all time. So lets go apple - lets see some hardware refreshes soon.

iMac G4 20" All-In-One ECX Mod - Completed

2011-05-24T21:54:00.000-04:00

Left Side with computer on

There are still some small tweaks I may make, but for all intensive purposes this mod is now complete. I completed the ports with one exception, I still haven't figured out how to handle the apple cinema display's power cable. As it plugs directly into its power supply, there is no "female version" of this plug. I think I'm going to experiment with different connectors, but for now the middle section with the power cables is unfinished. I am also likely going to add an HDMI extender for "HDMI" out capabilities. The onboard intel graphics are 1080p capable and I have included a bluray player, thus this computer may make a reasonable HTPC.

The power cables come out the back.There are 4 USB cables to the left. The firewire ports are empty (may put HDMI out here). To the right is an ethernet and Power LED, HDD LED. The original power button is also operational.

The computer currently boots to windows. As I explained in a previous post, the onboard graphics work, but with limitations on hackintoshes. To get snow leopard on here, I would have to purchase a 1.8" SSD (it will not reognize the compact flash) - which I would be fine with as long as it was fully functional. This appears to be a problem that many people in the hackintosh community are working on, so if a solution presents itself, its certainly first on my list to add. As I am showing this right now to demonstrate a hardware hack, I again respectfully askto refrain from comments about how sacreligious it is to see windows on an iMac etc.

The drive is a "killer" in this mod. Any slim or non-powered drive tray is not able to push open the door. The drive probably occupies 60% of the "usable volume" of the entire dome and it has been the first thing to go in most iMac G4 mods. Because of the ECX board I was able to spare the drive and use a bluray to boot. Although optical media is getting somewhat useless, its still one of the signiture features of this computer. And if I do go the HTPC route it will be a valuable addition.

I also need a proprietary adapter for onboard audio. If I use HDMI out for an HTPC I won't need onboard audio and I have a griffin audio adapter which allows me to use the native speakers, so its not a necessity.

As you can see this is certainly NOT a hard core gaming computer. But it is a good machine on par with the current generation of mac minis. It is noticably faster than the (2 generations ago) mac mini that I currently have hooked up to my touchscreen mod.

I highly recomend this mod. Even if you could get the native inverter working with an external power source you would still need to manage a 24V, 12V 5V, and 3.3V lines. The LCD controller for the apple cinema display does it for you. Except for that this is really no different than the DVI hacks for the 15 and 17". This is much easier than the previous mod as you do not have to do any cutting or modifying of the case itself.

The 3 things that do concern me about this mod are

1) Not a touch screen - to keep the weight neutral and the mod as close to original as possible I did not go the touchscreen route. I am currently experimenting with optical sensors. If I could incorporate these into the bezel it would be essentially weightless and would save me from having to put a poor resolution piece of plastic in front of the monitor display.

2) No Snow Leopard - I didn't want to put a troublesome video work around on just to say its Mac OS X. I'm going to keep my eyes open and maybe Lion will be different or maybe the next generation of ECX board will have a different graphics option. And that brings me to #3...

3) The future of ECX boards. I love this form factor. Its not only perfect for this mod but I could see doing a lot with it. The board was developed with the intention of having the power of a mini itx board in a smaller form factor. But, this is the only small form factor board that I've found that uses something superior to an Atom processor. As these boards are not mainstream, there is no guarantee that they will be upgraded to anything like sandy bridge architecture. While I was hoping to see the next generation mini become "smaller", for my purposes they actually became "bigger". Yes they are thinner, but they are now actually harder to fit within the iMac G4 shell. But, for now I'm going to enjoy this mod.

I hope people find this helpful and I would love to see people replicate or improve upon this mod. Starting out I did not think a core 2 duo all in one was possible with the native iMac shell - especially not the 20", but here it is. As always, I welcome all questions and comments.

Thanks for reading.

Finishing Touches and Ports

2011-05-22T21:53:00.000-04:00

Although, I was disappointed by the limitation in operating system - I'm still excited that this is a true 20" all-in-one complete with blu-ray drive. So, I want to make it as professional as possible. I took the base apart to better secure everything. Here you can see the ECX board elevated and secured to the Blu-ray drive. I am using the native drive caddy - but did have to dremel off the top part of it to make room for the board.

As the CPU fan fits right under the dome I elected not to add an additional case fan. There is no hard drive or power source and this is a low power consumption board, but I may revisit this depending on my cpu temps. I had also initially placed a wifi card at the top of the dome, but the reception was too poor, so I have removed this and will use an external usb card.

For ports, I have chosen to use mostly extenders. I find wires easier to deal with than circuits.

To cement things into place modeling clay/epoxy works well. There are multiple kinds, but the basic idea is to mix equal parts to two compounds which begin to harden when combined.

The first thing I secured was the power button, placing a small momentary switch right behind the native iMac G4's power button.

The Right sided ports were where the ethernet, modem, and audio jacks were for the native iMac G4. I have replaced these with a ethernet splitter and the power led, hdd led. In the picture below you do see an audio header, which I was originally going to use, however, the ECX board uses a pin layout that I was unfamiliar with. So I held off audio out for now and incorporated the two led lights.

The left sided ports consisted of 2 fire wires, 3 USB and a display out. I opened up the display port somewhat to allow another USB port. Because I am worried about power constraints (I'm using a 60 watt power supply). I wanted to make sure I used some powered USB slots. Fortunately I have another power supply coming into the base in the form of the Apple Cinema Display. The controller gives 2 USB outs. So two from the mobo and 2 from the cinema display = 4 total. The firewire ports i am leaving empty for now. The cinema display does allow for 2 firewire connections and I could add a firewire PCI express at some point. I was also thinking about cutting a hope between these and putting an HDMI extender for use as a second monitor when needed.

Now that I have the basic layout I apply the molding. It usually takes a good 24 hourse to harden. I will use the center for the two power supplies. The DC for the motherboard will be a simple plug, but unfortunately because there is no female version of the cinema display power, I am likely going to have to simply "run the cable out the back".

So I place the drive caddy with bluray and ECX and secure it as it was designed to be. After the ports dry I will secure them to the bottom of the dome, secure the Apple cinema display's LCD controller to the bottom and close the base.

As always, questions and comments are welcomed. But, this should be complete within the next few days.

Advice to Modders

2011-05-22T20:47:00.001-04:00

I hope this doesn't come across as preachy, but I just want to give some advice to those of you new to modding the iMac G4. I have disassembled and reassembled this computer so many times I could probably do it blindfolded. There are a few aspects of modding this computer that have led to a lot of frustration for me, a few pointers, hopefully, will help some of you.

iMac G4 Neck with Cinema Display Wires

1) Do not be scared to open the neck. Its not hard, does not require special tools, and is not really dangerous. I have written on this blog about the exploding neck because I had read about it myself. I have knocked the spring off its moorings numerous times and that just means a lot of work to pry it back up into position. I've had an open neck fall off the table, I've left necks open for weeks at a time, and have never had the spiring fly off. I wouldn't throw an open neck as hard of you can against the wall, but you also do not have to handle it like its plutonium.

2) Do not put more/thicker wires into the neck than it can hold. Just because you can get it through the holes does not make it a good idea. When you overcrowd the neck, you'll start to hear grinding and some wires will wear down as they are pushed into the hinges of the neck. The iMac G4 has 4 wires that go through the native neck. When you replace wires, take out what you're not using and aim to have about the same "volume of wires" as the native neck comes with. To get wires through the neck all you have to do is push a wire that is already through backwards and tape about 1/2 an inch of the wire you want to get through to that wire and pull it through.

3) When you can't get a signal replace the black wire. I have heard from many people who can not get the 17" DVI hack to work. I know what the problem is - its the black wire. If one wire isn't touching then there is no signal. Too much solder on these wires causes problems. Even if you get a strong signal on the mutimeter, crosstalk can result in color changes, flickering image, etc. The wires are simply too small to reliably work with. Give it a shot and try to spare the pins that are attached. But, if you need to - replace them. Replace them with what you may ask. I used an apple cinema display's wiring here, but these are no different than any TMDS cables and the easiest place to get TMDS cables - take a DVI cable and strip it. You will find 4 wires that have three wires bundled within them, these are the same as the 4 wires within the iMac's black wire. Solder the pins to the top and you're set. Even though it will be four wires to one, they are thinner and if you need remove the led/microphone wire go ahead and do it. For my current mod, I have repaired problems with the black cable numerous times, I finally decided to replace it, with the apple cinema display's wires and haven't had a problem since.

4) Get rid of the Torx-6 screws. These are the most troublesome screws I have ever worked with. On the bottom of the 17" and 20" iMac G4's monitor housing you will find 3 screws that require a Torx-6 screwdriver to open. These are the screws that keep the monitor housing closed. I have never seen screws that strip easier despite using the appropriate tool. 6 points on a tiny screw is very close to a circle and once you start stripping it - its already too late. Chances are good that you may have to open up the monitor housing again at some point for upgrades, repairs etc. Act preemptively and replace these with small phillips screws - it will save problems later.

5) Want an All-In-One? Consider an 3.5" ECX or other small form factor board. Although mini-itx or a mac mini motherboard are the most popular choices neither of these is ideal from a size/heat perspective. ECX's can fit at the top of the dome in place of the native HDD where heat won't be as big a problem as it would with a mini itx at the bottom of the dome. They don't require an atx power supply and come with a variety of additional options including PCI-E mini or x4, Compact Flash etc. Processors range from Atom to ULV Celeron to Sandy Bridge Core i processors. This allows you to keep the full drive if you want and allows room at the bottom of the dome for ports at the back. Although not nearly as expandable as a mini-itx mobo, with such limited space in the dome, this isn't likely to matter.

6) Do not sacrifice stability for power. The mods I post don't include many mods which failed. Most of these initially worked but failed because I tried to force things. If you have to use all your strength to push your mod closed to screw it in, it will not last. If you cram things in between the motherboard and the air holes, your board will overheat. One mod I did post that was going to fail was the 20" TMDS to LVDS Conversion. Keep expectations in check. If you have a 17" monitor running at 1440x900 you don't need SLI or Crossfire. Having it turn on and having a critical problem like this is worse than it not working at all. If it doesn't work you can at least start troubleshooting what went wrong, these problems like the 20" TMDS to LVDS usually mean complete redesign and many of the parts have to be repurposed or replaced altogether.

Hope this helps.

Hackintosh Blues

2011-05-22T19:50:00.000-04:00

Now that the large hardware assembly was completed I was able to move onto the small hardware components and software. As I have said before I myself don't love hackintoshes, but I did want to give it a shot with this computer to make it as close to the original as possible.

Courtesy of Logic Supply

I was worried about using a compact flash as my primary hdd and it turned out to be justified as no matter what bootloader I used or how I formated the partition, I could not get the snow leopard DVD to recognize the drive. The KEEX motherboard does have 2 sata ports, but only one sata power connector which is an a single connector tied to the first sata port. However, with a SSD power use would be minimal so splitting the sata power should not be a problem. Although it is a tight fit in the dome, I am able to fit probably a 2.5" ssd, but to play it safe I was looking into 1.8" drives. However, before I payed for the drive I wanted to make sure there would not be any problems with the hackintosh build but very quickly I learned that the onboard graphics is likely to be a major problem.

As you can see the board uses GMA 4500MHD graphics (Intel GM45 chipset). I believe this is intels equivalent to the ion 2 platform. Now with significant hacks it appears people have been able to force resolution in snow leopard to get above the default resolution, but there are still major problems and to my knowledge no one has been able to enable Quartz Extreme/Core Image with this chipset. So, I could either 1) Buy the SSD and install snow leopard the best that I can. 2) Use the PCI-express x 4 with an ion graphics card (this will likely requiring removing the hard drive as it is unlikely to fit as is. 3) Hold off for now - formally install windows or linux and wait to see if a solution presents itself. As I've already spent FAR too much money on this mod, I've decided to hold off and work with Windows or Linux for now.

But, please if anyone has any knowledge about either the issue of booting snow leopard from a compact flash drive or the Intel GMA4500HD graphics problem help would be appreciated. Thanks.