******Note****** The keyboard needed a repair on one of the teensy connector pins, and a spacer was added to the left side. Both problems have been addressed in the short follow-up video :)
First and foremost, this project would have been impossible without Mr. Frank Adams. Frank rewrote the code I found from another individual's website, to make it usable on my projects. I was unable to get caps to work and Frank fixed it. I've not received permission from the individual who wrote the original code to use his name here, or link to his site, but he was able to shove a Mac Mini 2014 into a Powerbook 180 (CORRECTION: 165c). Frank's instructable can be found here www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-a-USB-Laptop-Keyboard-Controller/
One thing I forgot to mention in the video is the LCD power. To power the LCD I ran the wires from a stepdown connected to the LCD driver board set to 10v, to the positive and negative inputs on the battery charger board.
In 2020, when I acquired all the parts for this project (and should have finished the project then), 2015 MacBook Pros with the i5 2.7ghz were still selling for upwards of $900.00. Here is what it cost me-
iPad 3 retina 9.7in LCD- $32.00
Broken 2015 MacBook Pro, and I forgot, also a broken MacBook Air that couldn't be salvaged except for the trackpad and speakers (estate sale)- $37.00
Teensy 4.0- $19.00 (whoops....Teensy 3.2)
Adafruit LCD driver board- $90.00
New battery pack- $38.00
odds and ends (stepdown .65 cents, wires, ribbon cable, etc...)- $10.00
The PowerBook cases came from a friend many years ago who was going to throw away a pile of old disassembled Apple stuff in his barn, because mouse urine had ruined the circuit boards and the original LCDs were toast.
So for $202.00 (226 minus the 22 I made off reselling parts) I would have had a laptop with just a few less features than its $900.00 dollar original form, and none of the missing features were anything I used anyway :)
It appears that Adafruit is no longer selling the Qualia driver board, but it is open source and if you're up to it you can can make your own :) I plan on making a modified unit with three separate boards, one being a simple connector to the iPad cable with ribbon cable breakouts, one with the on/off and brightness controls on a separate board connected by a ribbon cable, and the last one having the power booster circuitry. The modified unit will enable more projects that have thinner space.
11 май 2024
