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G4 Taco Page |  |
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G4 Taco Project Description After using my iMac to Color Classic mod for a while, I started to crave a little more speed and higher video resolution. My only option for getting higher resolution and more room for a motherboard was to go with a Taco (Color Classic with an LCD screen). I wanted to improve upon traditional projects like this in two ways. First, I wanted to find an 8.4" LCD that could support 800 x 600 resolution. Second, I wanted to try a faster motherboard than the Beige G3. I found a Camos LCD screen that supported the higher resolution in New York's China Town for . And I realized that my G4 Sawtooth just barely fits in the Color Classic case. There have been many sites that have helped me with my projects so wanted to make this site to hopefully help and inspire others. Pleas feel free to email me with any questions. |
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| G4 Sawtooth Motherboard The whole project started with my realization that this fairly big mother board could in fact fit in the Color Classic case. I had to modify the ports so I put them on a separate board (seen at the bottom of the pic). I also added a fan for the heatsink and extended the antennae on the Airport Extreme card |
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Gutted Color Classic In order to make room for everything, I had to clear out most of the extra plastic inside the Color Classic. I also realized that I could fit a slot-loading DVD player on the bottom towards the front of the computer. I glued brackets in place to easily remove the drive. The board glued to the back of the case is for the programmer and reset buttons. |
| Power Supply With the position of the motherboard, the power supply needed to be in the back. I used an Achme 200w PSU for a flex ATX case. It is held in place by a hook glued to the case, velcro, and a rubber band. Not that elegant looking but it is secure as heck and easily removeable. I wanted to make this computer easy to take apart if I ever wanted future upgrades or replacement parts |
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Motherboard Placement This is the absolutely only way that the G4 motherboard could fit in the case. I guess you could angle it the other way but this way, I keep the option open of using the floppy slot for a memory card reader or something. There is also still plenty of room behind the motherboard for maybe one more PCI card. Notice the airport extreme antennae velcroed on the side of the case. |
| DVD Ribbon Cable The DVD drive I used came from a Slot Loading iMac. The connector on the back of it is a 50 pin connector. But the first 40 pins take a standard IDE cable and 4 of the last 10 pins are relevant for power. So I hacked it up a bit to use the ribbon cable that came with the G4 and made another connector for the power. I don't remember the pinouts exactly but I deduced it with a continuity tester and some trial and error. |
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Everything in place The hard drive is mounted on a special sled I designed to sit right on the three brackets for the DVD drive. The fan I used on top of the HD is simply the fan that came with the Color Classic. The speaker mounted on top by velcro is from the G4 tower (not the best speaker in the world). The connectors you see near one of the DVD brackets are for powering the screen and the DVD drive. |
| Taco ports I wanted the ports to be located in a natural position. This little strip of ports velcros to the case for easy removal. And it's surprisingly sturdy enough to plug things in fairly easily. The only tricky port was the headphone jack because it needs to cancel out the speaker, too. I just plugged up the original port and soldered the appropriate wires to the new one. It works fine - just use a continuity tester to figure out which pins need to be soldered to the new connector. |
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Reset and Programmer Buttons These buttons are pretty important I think so I wanted them to be useable but not prominent. Using these screen adjustment holes for the buttons is a great solution. You'll be happy they are there when you do your first firmware update |
| LCD Screen I mounted the Camos LCD screen using a custom rig that allowed me to keep the actual LCD un-modified. This was important because the screen came in a nice housing to be used in a car and if I ever wanted to resell it, I thought I should be able to put it back together again. The one problem with the screen is that it gets turned on through a momentary switch. I rigged one using the volume button on the front of the Color Classic. I also added a blue LED |
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Filling in the gaps One hurdle that all Taco makers have to overcome is the gap created by a flat LCD being mounted in a case made for a curved CRT. But by fashioning a foundation with balsa wood and cutting some craft foam to a smooth curve, I was able to fill this gap naturally and effectively. I did the same for the gap at the top of the screen even though you don't see it much. |
| G4 Taco Running Panther Here it is all fired up and running Panther. The blue LED might be a little distracting (I'm thinking of going retro with green). But other than that the Taco runs great. And having a built in DVD to boot from is tremendously convienient. This has become a totally usable computer for my everyday needs. I haven't run into anything that this computer can't handle (except stuff that requires a bigger screen!). |
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System Profiler - Hardware So here's the proof! As you can see, I only have 256mb in there right now and only an adequate 400mhz processor. One of thes days I will definetly max out the ram and maybe even go for a dual 1.4 ghz processor upgrade. Now that would make a powerful Taco! |
| System Profile - Display I can't tell you how hard it was to find an LCD screen that could do 800 x 600 resolution and still fit in the color classic. The fact that I was able to find one was the sole reason that I decided to even bother with this project. Without it, Panther is frustrating as hell. This screen has served me very well and would totally reccomend it. And for , that's not a bad deal at all. No need to worry about LCD controller compatability or any of that stuff. This LCD was ready to go out of the box. |
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