Typically it’s the ending touches that actually make a private undertaking shine. They’ll flip a large number of wires into one thing that appears like a industrial product. For many people which might be helpful with a soldering iron, these particulars are additionally essentially the most tough (and most incessantly uncared for) a part of a undertaking. However that isn’t the case for Nick Gillard.
Only recently, Gillard created a teeny-tiny Macintosh 128K duplicate known as the pico-mac-nano. A great deal of the work had already been finished — he made use of the Pico Micro Mac undertaking by Matt Evans. The Pico Micro Mac is a whole Macintosh 128K emulator that runs on Raspberry Pi Pico growth boards, with assist for VGA video and a USB keyboard and mouse.
Is that each one you’ve got received in there? (📷: Nick Gillard)
However a naked growth board and bundle of wires doesn’t a retro Macintosh make. So Gillard designed a case that appears identical to the unique to accommodate it, however with a twist. For the reason that {hardware} platform is so small, he miniaturized the case to match it.
The {hardware} for the construct consists of a Waveshare RP2040-Zero growth board, a 2.0-inch 480 x 640-pixel SPI TFT LCD show, and a customized PCB to attach all the things collectively. There may be additionally a battery module if you do not need to make use of a USB cable for energy. These parts had been fitted into the cutest little 3D-printed Macintosh 128K case you may have ever seen.
Cuteness overload! (📷: Nick Gillard)
Just some tweaks to the Pico Micro Mac emulator had been wanted to get it working completely for this undertaking. First, an SPI interface and body buffer needed to be added to assist the chosen show. Subsequent, Gillard programmed the GPIO pins to supply an acceptable 600 Hz sq. wave to simulate the unique pc’s startup sound. Lastly, the event board’s RGB LED was programmed to function the power-on indicator gentle.
Supply code, 3D printable recordsdata, and PCB gerbers are freely obtainable on GitHub for private use. You could have to pressure your eyes to make use of the pico-mac-nano, but it surely certain would look good sitting in your desk, would not it?
