Robotics software program engineer Aaron Eiche is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Apple Macintosh in type — by recreating it in badge add-on kind, full with monochrome show and powered by the ultra-low-cost WCH Electronics CH32V0003 RISC-V microcontroller.
“To have fun the the fortieth anniversary of the introduction of the unique [Apple] Macintosh, this SAO [Simple Add-On] will… appear to be a Mac,” Eiche writes of his creation, which is designed to imitate a Macintosh in miniature. “And perhaps act just a little bit like one too. This concept has been bolstered by two {hardware} finds: a 0.66″ OLED 64×48px show [and] the unfathomably low-cost WCH CH32V003 microcontroller.”
This tiny homage to Apple’s 40-year-old Macintosh can function a SAO badge accent, or a standalone gadget. (📷: Aaron Eiche)
The Apple Macintosh, later referred to as the Macintosh 128K to distinguish it from later fashions, launched in 1984 to crucial acclaim. Usually acknowledged as the primary mass-market all-in-one private pc to return with a graphical person interface as customary, the machine was constructed round a 9″ monochrome cathode-ray tube (CRT) show that displayed a 512×342-pixel bitmapped desktop managed through a bundled mouse.
That decision is, coincidentally, the identical side ratio as Eiche’s 0.66″ OLED — albeit eight occasions the decision and displayed on a monitor almost fourteen occasions the scale. The show, below the management of the WCH CH32V0003 RISC-V microcontroller, runs a firmware designed to imitate the desktop atmosphere of the unique Macintosh at a significantly lowered decision — and permits the machine to function standalone with solely energy, or as a badge add-on utilizing the Easy (or Sh*tty) Add-On pinout.
Eiche examined for match with a 3D-printed stand-in earlier than ordering the mission’s PCBs. (📷: Aaron Eiche)
The {hardware} is put in on a compact PCB, which mimics the look of the Apple Macintosh, albeit solely from the entrance; a cut-out within the board permits the show to shine by means of. “I used to be feeling a bit involved in regards to the element of the Apple emblem,” Eiche admits, “and and the define across the form that was supplied by masking, however I do not suppose I could possibly be happier with the way it appears to be like. It is actually nice.”
The mission, which is now within the last phases of firmware improvement and awaiting PCBs which deal with a minor mistake within the header pinout, is detailed in full on Hackaday.io.
