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MacTester57's iMac G5 17" (A1058 Model)

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I thought about something nearly the same, using old netbooks with HDMI or DVI (for the iMac displays), but working netbooks are over 80€ on ebay and are old ( ~ 2008- 2010 ) and slow. You can find ITX motherboards or NUC PC in the range of 130€ with actual hardware.

You can do that, with you old notebooks, but why? Whats your win?

Extreme lack of funds at the moment so even £10 would be a struggle to raise. I've got a few different laptops lying around and thought I could probably utilize one of them.

Get the iMac running Mavericks or Yosemite
 
Hi,
Excellent guide and discussion here, kudos to MacTester57. I spent quite some time here.
Bought cheap an iMac with broken display. Right now I've got an old laptop 17" 1680x1050 LCD with a cheap separate controller board with HDMI and it's working :) . It also fits fine! I assembled the SMC controller board (got 5 PCBs cheap at seeedstudio), decided that I don't need the sound module and didn't solder it on the board. I do not have the temp sensors installed, and the fans are disconnected. Also the inverter is not connected to the display yet.
When I properly connect the power to SMC and the front panel connectors are connected, the ProMicro lights up, also the power led on the SMC is on for a short time. When I short the mac power button, the SMC power LED goes on for a few seconds and then turns off. During that time I don't measure any output voltage to the mac's power LED. I want to check before I proceed to the next step.
What are the minimum requirements to check that the smc board is functioning properly?
Does the board work without the sound module?
Must the NUC be connected?
Will post my setup when it's properly assembled.
Thanks for your help!
 
Excellent guide and discussion here, kudos to MacTester57

Thanks! I'm pleased to hear, that you adopted my SMC board. :thumbup:

When I short the mac power button, the SMC power LED goes on for a few seconds and then turns off

That's normal, if no NUC is connected. The power state FSM (Finite State Machine) goes to "Power off" mode after some time, if there is no proper power state signal from the NUC (CS Header)

Does the board work without the sound module?

Yes

Must the NUC be connected?

Yes, see above.

You can test the SMC functionality with the terminal function in the Brightness Menuet. To open the advanced menu, you have to press "alt" during clicking on the "sun" symbol. Then press preferences and the menu will open.

Good luck, and please do not forget: we can't wait to see pics! :ugeek:

MacTester
 
Thanks,
right now I'm scratching my head. Connected the wires. I connected my separate lcd controller from psu 12V, this controller feeds into a separate inverter all the required voltages. Thereby I totally bypassed the original inverter. Brightness control goes into lcd's inverter from smc directly. NUC is connected. When I power on the mac, nuc starts for a short period and the power goes down. No matter if the pins 2/4/6 are connected or not. When I press the reset on the smc, it takes a bit longer before it shuts down, the screen goes on for a second, no matter if the nuc is connected or not. I measured the output to nuc, when i reset the smc or power on the imac button, it's 11.94V.
I connected the arduino and it seems ok, temperature readings ok, statistics in the menulet (really amazing stuff!).
How should I start to debug my problem. Thanks in advance.
 
Looks like the NUC power state is not reported properly back to the SMC. Please post an overview pic of your test setup. This allows me to see how your wiring looks like.

Have a look at the code segment in the following pic. The PSU is disabled in code line 813. Try to comment out this line and reload the sketch to your SMC. Afterwards it should stay enabled, even if your power state is not reported properly.

PSU Controller.png

You also need a good GND connection between your SMC and the NUC. This ensures, that all the interface signals are clean.

Also it is very important, that there is NO 5V CONNECTION from your USB port to your Pro Micro. Cut the red wire in your USB cable.

If all that doesn't work, remove the Pro Micro from its socket. The SMC (and the PSU) should then always be on. If not, your PSU driver circuit on the SMC is faulty.

Hope this helps!

MacTester
 
Hi there. I wonder, does anyone know the female connector part number/type on the iMac logic board to the LVDS cable? I have tired searching the part number printed on the FoxConn PCB but to no avail. I would like to fab some converter boards for future projects so it's just a case of plugging in the cable.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
Hey guys, I finally got around to starting this mod, first stage will be iMac G5 as an external display... There must be something wrong with my inverter potentiometer wiring, I used these voltages:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/imac-mods/130197-mactester57s-imac-g5-17-a1058-model-2.html#post950142

For the pot, I'm using GND straight out of the power supply and 3.3v from the same line that the inverter takes in. Pot input reads 3.3v as expected but Pot output goes from 3.3v to 4.7v instead of 0-3.3v as one would expect, when read with a voltmeter from the pot itself, GND to Output. The display lights up at full brightness on one extreme (3.3v) and starts flickering while staying at full brightness when turned (4.7v). Does anyone have any idea of what's wrong here? I'm an absolute noob at electronics.

Thanks in advance
 
Hi, MacTest57, this may seem like a dumb question, but I've been reading this thread on the 17 inch and Kiwi's thread on the 20 inch G5. Is your SMC board compatible with the 20 inch G5? I have the A1076. Also, would it be possible to control the SMC if I wanted to dual boot the NUC with Windows? The brightness menulet was obviously written for OS X, but I'm wondering if incorporating a physical brightness buttons (capacitive buttons is supported I read) somewhere on the iMac would let it be more cross-platform? This is going to be one of my summer projects. I really like all the effort that has gone into all these iMacs and hope I can get one running myself! thanks
 
Hi faxmanloveswaffles

Welcome to the community.

Yes, my board is also compatible with the A1076 20" model. There's currently no brightness menulet for Windows. The only drawback is, that the backlight stays on during display sleep, if there's no communication with the menulet. Of course it will shut off during system sleep.

As documented in this thread, I've implemented two capacitive touch sensors for brightness (backlight) adjustment. I use them more often than the slider in the menulet.

Of course it would be possible to write a similar app for windows, but I have no idea how to do that in windows.

Good luck with your project and do not forget: we want to see pics

MacTester
 
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