Stuff a Mac Mini Into an Old Powerbook 145 for Updated Nostalgia

Repurposing old technology for modern applications is an ongoing trend that has produced some interesting projects over the last decade or so. Sometimes that trend becomes reversed by using relatively recent technology and adapting it for use in outdated tech, which is what Imgur user "Tylinol" did by stuffing a relatively modern 2014 Mac Mini into an older Powerbook, complete with original working keyboard, trackball, and pointer device.

While it may sound simple enough, it was anything but, as a lot of planning is required for hardware placement and interfacing with older components. For his build, Tylinol removed the Powerbook 145’s internals, leaving bare a graphite electrically conductive surface that needed to be taped over before the Mac Mini motherboard and hard drive were mounted inside.

Tylinol then broke down a Powerbook 165c display for use with the new build, as it offered better resolution than the original, and wired it to an HDMI and inverter board to communicate with the Mini. He used a Teensy 3.5 and some creative coding to bridge the communication gap between the original keyboard and trackball and the Mini. For power, Tylinol designed his own laptop-style UPS using a BMS board, buck/boost converter, and several Li-ion rechargeable batteries.

When all was said and done, the updated Powerbook booted successfully on the first go, with everything running as intended on the Mac Mini, including Wi-Fi, keyboard/trackball, display, and speaker, using a stable power supply. Tylinol has uploaded a detailed walkthrough of the updated Powerbook project on his Imgur page, complete with a link to the code necessary to get it up and running.