Project: Infiniti G35 MacMini

[zittware]

The victim:





...place holder for car pics, project goals, ect...
(when I get unlazy to actually document the plans I have in my head)

Stock pictures... before the install:

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Worklog: ATTN2Detail
Worklog: RPM Flow Sensors for Liquid

[zittware]

The stock Intel Mac Mini has a white Power LED. Because I want the mac mini to look "stock" and right at home in my G35's dash; I'm going to spell out the details on how to mod your mac mini's stock LED color.

After many google search attempts; I have not seen anyone publish a tutorial on how to change the color of the LED in your mini. I hope the Mini Modder's enjoy this how-to.

Please keep in mind that you take all responsibility for implementing the LED mod on your Mac Mini. It will void your warranty so keep this in mind BEFORE attempting this mod. Neither Zittware nor AustinModders is liable for voiding your warranty.

First you need to dissemble your mac mini to get access to the white LED.
I did this by following two tutorials:

First being the disassembly video @ Smash's world. I elected to use the putty knife method instead of the wire method. The putty knife seemed like less effort despite the risk of scratching the mini's body. I used a Warner 1/2" Flex putty knife purchased from lowes. It had the thinest profile of all putty knifes at Lowes.

Once I had the top cover off my mini; I began carefully disassembling the mini using applefritter.com's step-by-step guide.
I stopped before removing the ram or the hard drive.

You need to remove the black tray assembly containing the cdrom and HD; but do not need to remove the CPU or Ram from the motherboard.
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Worklog: ATTN2Detail
Worklog: RPM Flow Sensors for Liquid

[zittware]

Now the real fun begins.
Let's mod the MacMini power LED:

Materials needed:
* High End SMT (surfact mount technology) capable soldering with fine SMT tip
* desoldering wick
* SMT 1206 LED color of your choice
* Datasheet for the LED you selected. Need forward voltage drop spec @ 20mA.
* SMT 604 resistor @ 56ohms.
* hobby knife with newish triangle blade.
* solder
* uber soldering skillz for SMT devices


1) Remove the LED board


Remove the white LED's mini circuit board by gently pulling the black hard tape apart at the rear of the assembly. I used a hobby knife to start removing the tape. Be gentle; the black tape easily rips despite being thick.

Once the tape is free; you'll have a small circuit board double sticky taped to the back of the black housing. Use that same knife to gently pry the circuit board from the tape.

Take care with the wires attaching to this board. They are fragile and will break easily.

2) Mac Mini's LED circuit board w/ "foam" light blocker


Here's a picture of the circuit board removed. The black foam is adhesive backed; which is how it attaches to the circuit board.

I beleive the purpose of this foam is to provide a spacer to secure the circuit board in the assembly... maybe to prevent "rattle". Apple certainly knows how to spec quality assemblies.

Gently remove the adhesive foam using a hobby knife. Take care to remove with the adhesive intact on the foam (not circuit board) so you can reuse it during reassembly.

3) Desoldering time


Notice the white diode labeled D1. and the plus (+) symbol.

Using an SMT tip; desolder the diode at D1 using a solder braid.
Clean up the diode pads using solder braid.

Rotate the wires by to the backside of the circuit board; one at a time; to ensure you don't accidently wire the board / LED backwards. I used a solder braid to remove the solder; then resoldered on the non component (or non copper) side.

4) MacMini's HH LED prep


Using the hobby knife; scrape off enough solder mask to mount your desired color. The author used a 1206 SMT LED - Orange from Digikey - A Stanley AA1101W.

For our calcuations; we are going to assume the forward drop of the stock white LED is a typical 3.6V. Assume typical LED currents of ~20mA.

Since we are using a lower voltage LED; we need to put a current limiting resistor (RLED) into the circuit to "drop" some voltage. Using some electrical engineering - Kirchhoff's voltage law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchhoff's_circuit_laws#Kirchhoff.27s_voltage_law
; we know that the sum of all voltage must be zero.

0 = Vwhite + Vr.led + Vled
or
(a) Vrled = Vwhite - Vled

Kirchhoff's current law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchhoff's_circuit_laws#Kirchhoff.27s_current_law
we know that the current through our LED must be equal to the current through our new resistor RLED.
(b) Ir.led = I.led = 20mA

Using Ohm's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law
we can solve for the value of RLED:
I = V/R ; solving for R
R = V/I

RLED = Vrled / Ir.led ; knowing (a) and (b) yields:

RLED = ( Vwhite - Vled ) / ( I.led )

From our new LED's datasheet we know that VLED = 2.2V; so:

RLED = ( 3.6V - 2.2V ) / ( 20mA) = 70 ohms

The closest resistor value the author had in 604 package was 56ohms; so we will use 56ohms in the remaining steps.

NOTE: If you are going to replace the LED with a newer color like Blue, bright green, or uv... note that the forward voltage of these LEDs is closer to the original White LED. As such; you will *NOT* cut the traces below or solder in a 56ohm resistor as calcuated above. IF IN DOUBT; check your datasheet for it's typical forward drop @ 20mA.

IF your using a standard low voltage LED (red, yellow, orange) with a Vdrop ~2.2V continue. Else skip the next step cutting the trace below.

Cut the long trace on the Kathode (+) side of the LED. Make the cut wide enough to fit a 604 SMT resistor.
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Worklog: ATTN2Detail
Worklog: RPM Flow Sensors for Liquid

[zittware]

5) Mac Mini's HH LED modified


Solder the new 1206 SMT LED to your new landing pads; over the existing hole.

If using a ~2.2V LED; solder your 56ohm 604 smt resistor to the cut trace.

6) Mac Mini's HH LED reinstalled


Reattach the black foam spacer over the new LED - allowing the LED to shine through the hole in the foam.

Reinstall the LED board into it's housing.
Make sure to align the LED to the hole in the black tape.

Gently manuver the LED boards wire out the original hole.

Reassemble the black tape around the modified HH LED board.

7) Reverse your disassembly; returning the mac mini back to it's assembled form. Take care to reassemble everything.

Here's the final look; complete with an Orange power LED which will match nicely with the G35's orange iluminated dash.



Stay tuned for more hardware hacks on this mac mini... plans include (if sucessful) a Hard Drive activity LED, a electric cd eject button, and a CDROM access LED.
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Worklog: ATTN2Detail
Worklog: RPM Flow Sensors for Liquid

[Mickey21]

Nice start and definitely thorough...
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I just love Steam sometimes, dont you???

[zittware]

Lots of work has been done behind the scenes to test the mac mini before the G35 is disassembled for installation... here's some of the highlights.

Before reassembling the Intel Mac Mini; I finished up some last minute issues.

First; To use the mac mini in my car; It was desirable to disable the internal speaker of the mini. To do this; simply remove J23's connector on the back board which connects to the CDROM. I left this connector taped to the black plastic of the cdrom assembly.


Next; To remote power up the mac mini using the Carnetix CNX-P1900 DC-DC supply; I put the supplied power button "y" adapter and routed the external connector out of the rear fan hole. I later changed this to exit on of the bottom vent holes.


I began wiring the P1900 supply to my test ATX powersupply... with a simulated ignition. No pictures here; but can post a diagram if there is interest. This was done to work out the kinks of the power supply, Mini, and 700TSV lcd before it's installed in the G35.

On tap tomorrow is a trip to Radio Shack to get a DPDT mini switch and a 1/4" audio plug for the continued installation.
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Worklog: ATTN2Detail
Worklog: RPM Flow Sensors for Liquid

[Lancer]

Good luck on this Saturday. I hope yall get a lot done.
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Recent Projects:
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[zittware]

Lots of progress (or destruction depending on how you look at it) this weekend thanks to the austin modders meeting at my house.

Thanks to Hawk for his maneuvering and help disassembling the entire dash.

Special thanks to Po (and red?) for assembling the Center console monitor. It's been moved to the G35 but only the vga has be routed to the mini. The console is sitting on the drv side seat for the moment. (where I stopped tonight).

Today I did a fry's run and acquired the 16gauge wire I need to finish the wiring harness for the mini psu & audio adapter. I also picked up a USB2.0 hub for the left of the mini.

Finished the wiring harness and installed the PAC-NIS2 audio adapter under the center console. Verified that both the PSU and the mini power up as expected with the ignition. Was going to install the PAC Noise Isolator I bought; but the frackin thing has the wrong connectors on each side. I'll have to rewire it or just not use it.... right I leaning toward not using it.

I also re-etched the custom LED board this morning with the proper layers inverted. It's been reinstalled in the PSU... ::crosses fingers that it works::
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Worklog: ATTN2Detail
Worklog: RPM Flow Sensors for Liquid

[zittware]

After a long weekend... and several nights after work; I'm proud to present that the G35 MacMini project is alive and playing MP3s... dishing out gps coordinates via Google Earth and Earth Bridge..

First a Stock picture... before the install:


And here it is after the install:

Yeap... here's the car when everything put away. still looks stock - which was ONE of the goals of this project.

Bet your thinking: "ok smart ash... wtf are you trying to pull"
:halo: nothing ... I swear!
The touch screen is located in the same location as the stock navi screen. Closeup of the MP3Car.com's 700TSV touch screen installed in the center console. Plans are in place to purge the housing of it's brushed aluminum bezel... but you'll have to wait to see that! Later in the project.

Onscreen is Google Earth running Earth Bridge... and Winamp Playing mp3s in the foreground.
Why you might ask? Because MP3Car.com has yet to honor it's $50off coupon for Streetdeck for my September order.

But... Where oh Where is the MacMini?

The same location as the stock Navigation system.

Ofcourse you can see a closeup... you needn't ask!

Macmini installed in the G35's navi cubby uses a DigitalWheelz Din Converter from MP3Car.com. G35 was secured in the DIN converter using #6-32x3/8" standoffs on both sides.
The modified CarNetix CNX-P1900 PSU is mounted on the right side.
The left side is reserved for the USB2.0 hub... to be installed later.
All of this will be polished off with a custom cnced front panel when I get a chance.

More later...
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Worklog: ATTN2Detail
Worklog: RPM Flow Sensors for Liquid

[MrArmyAnt]

looks really good! Impressive.
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"If it ain't modded, what's the point?"
~Copyright MrArmyAnt, 2002-2006, or end of time, which ever is later.

MacBook Pro Running Vista - Home of the gender confused laptop.

[PoMan]

It would be sweet if you could figure out a way to fit a removeable hard drive bay to the right also. I know that is a stretch (unless they make a 2.5" one). I guess you can always use a USB HDD for movies and long trips
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No matter how you shake and dance, the last drop always falls in your pants

[Sheldog23]

Very nice. It will look really sweet once you get that faceplate on there. I need to make you a little Austin Modders decal for it or something.

Poman frontpage! lol
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www.austinpcmods.com

[BR@VO]

Looks good bro, Very nice fit. You wanna come up here and do my 1978 chevy P/U LoL
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R/S
BR@VO
"If All Else Fails With a store Bought Mod, Mod the Mod"

[486hawk]

Nice good to see it all in one piece. =)
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ummm... True!

[PoMan]