The 21" Frankenstein iMac

webslacker writes "One of the strangest hardware hack jobs I've ever seen: Some guy named Don Hardy decides that he doesn't like the 15" monitor in his iMac and happens to have a 21" Nokia lying around. Does he A) find some clever way to solder a VGA-out from his iMac to his monitor, B) toss them both out, or C) take them both apart and merge them into one unit? "

Ummmm...

Does this void my warranty?

Re:Now THAT's what I call a hack job!

They'd have to call it iBigMac...

Hacking at it's finest

I doubt that the mass media will pick up on this but this is what hacking is. Breaking or bending the rules - without hurting anyone - to get you want/need. Solving problems in an untypical way. (Look ma, no scripts!)

Now, what the hell was this guy doing with an iMac to start with? Better get one of those new G4s.

man behind the curtains

anyone else suspicious that they're is a Mac under the table?, I'm not saying he didn't do it. it's just it looks so much like a monitor with a keyboard in front. also he doesn't talk very much about it technically, more comically. most of the technical talk is about how hard it was to get the cd-rom in. the cd-rom being the only visible proof that anything was done to the monitor.

-Jon

Down with beige!

His new machine no longer has a transparent blue casing! Avert your eyes my Mac brethren, it is a snare set by Satan to tempt you to the beige side!

You call that an iMac? You are a tool of the PC imperialist dogs! Vive la France! No WTO! Anarchy!


-konstant

What about the linearity of the montior?

Monitors over 17 inchs tend to be very particular about anything being in their cases and the linearity of the display. That's why most of them have magnets glued in random place inside the case. Some guy sits and watches the picture while magnets are moved around the back (there was talk of an automated test jig seven years ago, but the one I was going to be involved with wasn't built and I haven't heard of any others). How much did this change that? Does the color get washed out when the CD spins up?

Then again an Imac owner is probably more concerned with the look of the machine then the quality or performance. "I don't want my desk cluttered." or "This matches the decor of my office." Hell none of them match the soldiering iron in mine.

One Year Warranty

Actually, he probably didn't void his warranty. Apple only has one-year warranties, and he said it was a first generation iMac. I assume he means the Bondi Blue ones. I don't know how Apple gets away with only offering one year when Gateway, Dell, Quantex, etc. all offer three-year warranties on their hardware. I've still got Pentium 166 machines under warranty. Gateway sends me 4 gig drives when their 2 gig drives fail, but I'm not complaining.

The flip side is that there's nothing lost by modifying your Apple hardware after one year. I had a beige G3 233, and I overclocked it to 300 the day before the warranty expired. Apple sticks a big VOID sticker across the jumpers, and also uses a big plastic block of jumpers, so you have to go find some of the right size if you want to modify the settings. When I saw that, it pissed me off so much, I had to overclock it.
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Ole fashioned hacking

Well, that beats the heck out of the time I cut the 3.5" drive bays out of my mid-tower case with a hacksaw so it would accomodate Asus' baseboard/processor daughtercard system. Bystanders outside in the dorm courtyard thought it was funny as hell though... And I still haven't gotten around to actually using the second socket 7!

I feel for the guy. On one job I had I ended up splicing a monitor cable extender from Radio Shack onto an old IBM PS/2 monitor because I didn't have any more parts to cannibalize from monitors that were lying around... The guts of monitors are not fun things to mess around with.

--Fesh

Heh...

Ok wise guy - now try that with a Palm Pilot...

Cheers,
Justin

A lot of work for no reason!

It is *simple* to attach a larger moniter to a first generation iMac!

* Pull off the case back.

* Unscrew the built in monitor's cable. (Its a standard connector.)

* Connect your big monitor. You may need one of those Belkin MacVGA adaptors.

I have run an NEC Multisync XL on my iMac in exactly this fashion.

Also Griffin makes an adaptor that moves the connector off to the side panel so you can video mirror onto both displays.

Re:Ole fashioned hacking

They're really not fun when they're hot. I've been knocked out a few times by flyback voltage when working on monitors, and you always wake up with a pounding headache and aching muscles. Usually it was because someone handed me the UNINSULATED screwdriver by mistake, or because someone distracted me, or because I was too drunk to be making that kind of adjustment) Monochrome monitors (Herc, or those bastard Cornerstone 21's) are the worst. Most modern 15/17 inch VGA monitors hardly hurt at all. They're actually nicer than 120 vac, but I wouldn't want to hold on to the lead.

image mirror

http://www.gis.net/~defsoft/bigmac/in dex.html [gis.net]

blah

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$mrp=~s/mrp/elite god/g;

Re:What about the linearity of the montior?

It's been a while, but as I remember the iMac has essentially 2 fairly distinct parts. The Monitor/shell part and the computer part. The computer (well motherboard at least) part can be unscrewed from the bottem and taken out (lots of scews, in bad places). The bottem of the monitor half is shielded. And damn, those things are a bitch to put back together. 20 different sized screws. I'd love to see the manufacturing process for one of those thigns.

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Re:Hacking at it's finest

Because a hack at its finest is something worthy of admiration. Something that is ingenious but injurious to others is no longer worthy of admiration, ergo the need to qualify.

From the Jargon file [tuxedo.org]:

Hacking might be characterized as `an appropriate application of ingenuity'. Whether the result is a quick-and-dirty patchwork job or a carefully crafted work of art, you have to admire the cleverness that went into it.