Articles by Big Mess o' Wires

Vintage computer power supplies will eventually grow old and die. Instead of rebuilding them, many people are opting to replace them with a PC-standard ATX power supply and a physical adapter to fit the vintage machine, similar to the ATX to Macintosh 10-pin adapters I recently discussed here. But …

The first ever Mactoberfest Meetup was a success! Everybody seemed to have a great time, and there were no serious hiccups. In a hobby that tends to be pretty insular, it was nice to spend a day with other people who share the same enthusiasm for old Apple computer stuff. …

Here’s your reminder for the first ever Tetris Max Worldwide High Score Contest, happening this Saturday October 14 from 11:00 am to 3:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time (UTC−07:00). Warm up your wrists, live stream your efforts, and enjoy that great music from Peter Wagner. The top scorer wins a …

Elapsed time: 122 hours from design concept to finished product in my hands. Hey, it works! Last week I wrote about my attempts to design a Macintosh-to-VGA video adapter with an integrated sync splitter, separating composite sync into the separate hsync and vsync signals expected by most VGA monitors. …

I’m happy to report that BMOW’s Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller for Apple II computers is beginning its second production run. I’d long thought that Yellowstone would be a once-and-done project, because a key chip used in its design became unobtainable anywhere late during the development phase. I was only …

Ah, the Electric Bow Tie 3000: BMOW’s least-loved product. The bow tie was retired several years ago, but it’s still possible to make your own annoying neckwear device! I’ve belatedly uploaded the schematic, PCB files, parts list, and instructions here. For those who’ll be attending Mactoberfest Meetup this …

The Mactoberfest Meetup classic Macintosh celebration is only one week away! What is this? Mactoberfest Meetup is a free social event for classic Macintosh computer collectors in the San Francisco area, and their Apple II friends. Attendees are bringing their computer collections to display, and we’ll also have a …

In the late 1980s When Apple released its first Macintosh models supporting external color monitors, the company made some design choices that continue to cause trouble even today. Computers like the Macintosh IIci supported 640 x 480 video resolution, the same resolution as the VGA standard that was common in …

Oh yes, this is happening. This is the moment. Put your peril-sensitive sunglasses on, warm up your wrists, and prepare your ergonomic keyboards. Saturday October 14 at Mactoberfest Meetup will feature the first-ever public Tetris Max high score contest, with the winner taking home a complete and newly-restored Performa computer …

If you dabble with old computers, then you know the power supplies can fail just as often as the computers themselves. In the case of classic Macintosh computers, Apple didn’t use any kind of standard PSU, so buying new replacements isn’t possible. When a classic Mac PSU fails, the …