Color LCD Retrofit Kit for SE/30 by ZigZagJoe
- Thread starter JDW
- Start date
The video I'm making won't eliminate the bother of buying the parts, but the installation has now become much more straightforward. Reading the documentation had me worried, but in the end, I figured out the most streamlined way of doing it. With that said, it would be great if the parts could be included with the LCD Kit in the future. That way, everyone could have the same parts and follow the video instructions more easily.
The LCD is the perfect brightness for a normal lit room during the day. But when you stay up in the wee hours of the night, especially if you have bedroom light dimming like I do, being able to dim your LCD is important.
Perhaps one of the biggest uses I get out of the brightness knob is when I need to start a multi-hour MacBench session just before I go to sleep, and I want to keep the brightness down low (but not off), so I can check the display now and then but not be prevented from sleeping due to an overly bright screen.
Okay, friends. You can now install a BRIGHTNESS KNOB onto your LCD Color Kit....
You would need to add your own circuit with a 10k digital potentiometer and a way to interface it to the Mac. Most digital pots use an I2C interface which does not exist on any 68k machine, however, there are a couple of unused VIA bits on the PDS which could perhaps be used for a bit-banged implementation.
What about ADB instead? Solder to the internal pads. Include a temperature monitor, fan controller, and brightness control.
Edit: Additionally, this would work on any ADB Mac. And, other kits can be added to the ADB chain.
I got one these kits and installed it last weekend - it's awesome. Everything fit perfect and the color board stacks right on the Asante MacCon pass-through connector and works like a charm. It's definitely a transformative experience to use my SE/30 this way - I never had a compact color Mac. Can't recommend this kit more highly!