Antonis' NUC iMac G4 Second build

[aaantonis]

Dear all, two years ago I have found this website which teased me to start my own Imac G4, NUC project. I invested close to a thousand euro on it and it worked a charm. I had it in my office which is located in the gardens of our company where we have built a small office complex made of wooden houses. People were coming and going and everyone was admiring that strange looking computer which most had never seen.
Well one day, about a year ago, burglars broke into the office and according to the camera footage went straight for the mac. On their way out and since they had gone past the door/window alarms, they went on and stole all PC towers they could carry.
I was so pissed that I was sure I wouldn't bother again. Well some time went by and the G4 mod mosquito stung me again.

I ve just bought a 17'' G4 from ebay which the seller says it doesn't work, were in fact, it does work, since he has a screen shot with the two arrows that point to the fact that it has nowhere to boot from. (Probably a corrupt hdd, who knows... and who cares anyway

This time I think I ll go the mac mini way. Can anyone confirm that the base can fit a stripped mac mini unibody in it? The original specs say the unit is 7x7 inches.

Thanks!

 

[aaantonis]

I finally decided to go with a NUC again. I found an i3 in a reasonably good price and took it. Together with the xserve mod I am working on and which you can read on the "Others" case mod section, I m moving on with this one too. I decided to go with the HDMI breakout board.

I installed it using the invaluable help of Dremeljunkie's blog, Esterherdnt post in here and the various pinout guides on the net.

I wanted to make it tidier than my previous standard TMDS to DVI to HDMI build. As I was trying to test my inverter, I accidentally shorted the Pico send it up in fumes. Unfortunately I burned the 12v rail... there goes 60 euro out the window. Be very careful newcomers. During my first build, I was so cautious when powering up at various stages that I managed to pull it off without accidents. This second time with my confidence build up, I m already making expensive mistakes...

 

[Juandelarocha]

I finally decided to go with a NUC again. I found an i3 in a reasonably good price and took it. Together with the xserve mod I am working on and which you can read on the "Others" case mod section, I m moving on with this one too. I decided to go with the HDMI breakout board.
View attachment 284404

I installed it using the invaluable help of Dremeljunkie's blog, Esterherdnt post in here and the various pinout guides on the net.
View attachment 284406

I wanted to make it tidier than my previous standard TMDS to DVI to HDMI build. As I was trying to test my inverter, I accidentally shorted the Pico send it up in fumes. Unfortunately I burned the 12v rail... there goes 60 euro out the window. Be very careful newcomers. During my first build, I was so cautious when powering up at various stages that I managed to pull it off without accidents. This second time with my confidence build up, I m already making expensive mistakes...

Ey!

Sorry about your first imac g4 mod.

Am also European and would embark in doing my mod in the next weeks (btw are you from Spain?). I managed to get a pristine unit of 17" that looks like a charm! However, after many readings I have some questions:

- Is the dremeljunkie 17" guide working for EU versions of imac g4? Could it be that you mentioned a different color scheme reported for EU versions?
- Which NUC have you used in this second mod you're working at? I'm considering the Intel 5i3RYK according to the low profile (height 12,5cm), bang for the buck price (280€) and good specs!

Thanks!

BTW: I was surprised discovering several 17" units in a famous local 2nd hand marketplace (wallapop) with selling price 100€

 

[Juandelarocha]

Some updates:

- I finally managed to get the Intel NUC 5i3RYK for 140€ as it is a refurbished unit by amazon.
- I have also bought a PicoPSU from Aliexpress. It has been difficult to find a "wide Voltage input" model considering that all the units sold in Amazon or eBay seem to work only at 12V (which in theory does not match with the 19V of the NUC power brick.
- But I found a problem with my NUC power brick, is like the image bellow:

As you can see, size is very small so that's a good point. But on the other hand, it has this "wall-mount" structure, meaning that the two poles you see are ready to plug a wall-connectors (depending on the region, the american or european) and then right to the socket. However, the problem is that I should be able to get a cable from it and join together with original socket of the g4, right? I mean, to join it with this socket of the image below:

My question es: how would you do it? Should I open the power brick and try to get connection points from the interior? Or maybe just get a new power brick of 19v?

 

[aaantonis]

Hi there Juan. Unfortunately due to the xdellver case mod taking up a lot of my time and income I haven't made much progress with the imac.
I have the exact same nuc like you do, the 5i3ryk, and I faced the same problem. For now, I have installed this female euro plug to the original imac cables, right after the filter that is, and connected the brick to this.

I dont know if this is going to be my final setup but I kinda like it, because it gives me the option not to hardwire anything power related.

 

[Juandelarocha]

Hi there Juan. Unfortunately due to the xdellver case mod taking up a lot of my time and income I haven't made much progress with the imac.
I have the exact same nuc like you do, the 5i3ryk, and I faced the same problem. For now, I have installed this female euro plug to the original imac cables, right after the filter that is, and connected the brick to this.

I dont know if this is going to be my final setup but I kinda like it, because it gives me the option not to hardwire anything power related.

Thanks for the advice Antoni! And then I guess you cut the original connector at the cable coming from the filter and weld it to this female euro plug, right? Let's hope we find enough space for this new element in the imac interiors...

On the other hand, I saw in this post that you used an HDMI breakout plug. Is it easy to plug the cables? I ask you that because I was planing to use the standard DVI Molex adaptor employed by dremeljunkie and then use a DVI-MiniHDMI converter in order to plug it to the NUC -yes, the 5i3ryk has miniHDMI-

Thanks for your help!

 

[aaantonis]

Thanks for the advice Antoni! And then I guess you cut the original connector at the cable coming from the filter and weld it to this female euro plug, right? Let's hope we find enough space for this new element in the imac interiors...

On the other hand, I saw in this post that you used an HDMI breakout plug. Is it easy to plug the cables? I ask you that because I was planing to use the standard DVI Molex adaptor employed by dremeljunkie and then use a DVI-MiniHDMI converter in order to plug it to the NUC -yes, the 5i3ryk has miniHDMI-

Thanks for your help!

Dear Juan

I will get on with this mod later this week. Unfortunately I m facing problems powering my inverter to begin with. I m yet to get to the point of actually feeding a signal to the screen as I dont even have backlight. I don't see any reason why this hdmi breakout board wouldn't work though.

 

[Juandelarocha]

Thank you so much Antoni.

There is no much support with this mod anymore, so it seems you're the only one I can ask for help!

I'll be waiting you to get on with your mod. Spcially regarding the HDMI breakout plug - as I told you, I thought the only solution was using the DVI Molex adaptor employed by dremeljunkie!

 

[Juandelarocha]

Dear Juan

I will get on with this mod later this week. Unfortunately I m facing problems powering my inverter to begin with. I m yet to get to the point of actually feeding a signal to the screen as I dont even have backlight. I don't see any reason why this hdmi breakout board wouldn't work though.

Dear Juan

I will get on with this mod later this week. Unfortunately I m facing problems powering my inverter to begin with. I m yet to get to the point of actually feeding a signal to the screen as I dont even have backlight. I don't see any reason why this hdmi breakout board wouldn't work though.

Ey aaantonis, were you able to initiate come back to the imac mod? Can you just tell me if you were successful employing the HDMI breakout connector instead of using the MOLEX DVI?