This is kind of a placeholder topic for brainstorming the project, but it is something that I don't have a lot of time to work on now. It involves needing to actually design and manufacture something, so that is rather involved, there are significant challenges, and it may or not ever happen. But nothing ever happens without somebody at least willing to start it, so…
I had a disappointment recently, in that before my Mini arrived, I did some searches for the modem card part, and I found it listed erroneously on one site as being the same as used in all G4 Macs. Well, it's not. It's a different, significantly smaller board. Unlike a Pismo, for instance, there is no possible way to fit a Stealth serial card in there.
But that is not really an insurmountable obstacle. The Stealth cards are mostly empty space! The actual circuit on them is tiny and rather simple. There are already proven drivers that exist for this. The main challenges I think are mechanical: Where/how to source that funky vertical PCB connector, and where to put the 8-pin mini DIN jack. There is also a possibly significant matter that although the connectors look similar, I have not confirmed that the pinout/connections are actually the same. I am going to need to trace some of the circuit to (hopefully) confirm that.
Why? It's a fun and interesting challenge. It would definitely be useful to me, and I suspect a few others. Also, the Mini is really deserving of more I/O, having only two USB ports. Feel free to chime in any ideas, observations, or advice.
Topic: Mac Mini G4 - RS422 serial for MIDI - eventual project (Read 2429 times)