Let the dismantling begin

Today we started taking apart the iMac. It is a LOT of unscrewing!  We are keeping the screws in separate containers as we go.  Some are really hard to get out.

Getting started

Speakers exposed

Working to remove the hard drive casing

Hard to get to screws!

At Young Makers North Bay Session 2

Today we all went to session 2 of the North Bay Young Makers group.  We started out by going around to different tables that had examples of various useful Maker stuff, such as circuit building kits, mechanical cardboard sculpture, and a table for making cool fabric and duct tape wallets and purses.  Art taught us about electrical circuits and we built some simple circuits.

Afterwards we had a "plussing" session during which we told about our project ideas and saw other people's. We showed the cardboard prototype pics, the iMac pics, and the start of our Scratch layout prototype. We talked about how we would like to add electronics for interactivity. Tony gave us some good ideas for using infrared photosensors for sensing in the dollhouse.

The last part of the session had a great, inspiring talk by Carley Jacobson of Instructables about how she got into making stuff. She shared some of her many "instructable" projects on the site including an awesome Xena costume, a bookshelf bed, plumbing pipe shelves, and beef jerky underwear! Then Mark Harrison of DIY Drones showed us some of his homemade drones and video of them flying. We got to find out how they're made and what it costs to make them (from super-cheap to pretty expensive).

Making circuits. Below, Art shows how electrical circuits work.

Yoda and Hippo approve of Chelsea's LED circuit.

Andrew works on cyberdollhouse bed design in GIMP.

Prototyping the layout in Scratch.

Off to Young Makers

On the road to session 2: Prototyping. Talking about doing some prototyping in Scratch, using LEGO people, 3D printing furniture.

The Operating Table

Ready to disassemble

How to Dismantle an Old iMac G3

We're going to have to take apart the old iMac so we have been researching how to do that.  We watched some YouTube videos and read some eHow instructions. There are some discrepancies in technique and tools needed, so we're going to stick to the official instructions from Apple. They are on ScribeD and you can see them online, but you have to pay to download them. We'll probably follow them on the computer as we do the dismantling.

For materials we did get an antistatic mat and an antistatic wristband if we want to save the hard drive and components. It's not been plugged in for many months now so it shouldn't be holding *too* much of a charge.. We will be careful about grounding nonetheless.  Art has a lot of small Phillips screwdrivers which will be needed. All of the tools are in a box on the table with the computer which is ready for dismantling.

Full Apple guide to disassembly (what we'll follow):

http://www.scribd.com/doc/103447/iMac-G3-Disassembly-Guide

YouTube videos

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kgS5SN548M 
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk3LuEQt8gc
• What a fully gutted iMac G3 looks like (1.34 minutes)  Notice the floor. We might want to fill that in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeVmLMaBqIg
• Warning on how to take front off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuB-H3kxH1U
• Non-slotloader: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtMn1iP22FY

eHow Guides (simpler, but lots of discrepancies)

http://www.ehow.com/how_12180221_disassemble-blueberry-imac.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_6879447_apart-slot_loading-imac.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4924149_apart-imac-g.html

CyberDollHouse - Raw Materials

Here are some pics of the raw materials we'll be using for the casing and major design elements of the dollhouse. The actual iMac G3 slotloader we'll be using is a darker blue than this one, but it's transparent like this one.

Peek-a-boo view from the side. Maybe a window on one side too? Debating on whether there should be a door from the front or side or both.

Front view. The screen will be open and there will be 2 floors like in the prototype. 

Skylight?

The back of these keyboards are very pretty. We talked about using it as a side ramp or as a lawn.. he front is pretty standard. We pulled out all the keys from a strawberry keyboard and started cleaning them with alcohol and Q-tips. We will use them for furniture and decoration.

These mouses are very attractive too. Welcome mats? Couches? Flower beds? 

CyberDollHouse - Prototyping

Last week we started prototyping the dollhouse based on measurements we took from the computer.  I didn't get it from work yet so we didn't have the actual computer to work with. Our plan is to gut an iMac G3 slotloader and make a computerized dollhouse out of it. Our prototypes are pretty primitive but they helped us brainstorm ideas for layout and decoration.

Chelsea tapes in the first floor.

We want to use parts of the computer and peripherals for decoration.
These keyboard keys will become seats and other furniture parts.

Rooms and color schemes discussed. We thought about red and pink for downstairs, blue and green for upstairs.
Andrew takes apart the keyboard.

Bottom floor: Right front is the dining room, right back is the kitchen, left is a lounging area
Top floor: Right is the bedroom, left is the bathroom. 

Side view. Since the iMac G3 slotloader is transparent, rooms will be visible  from the side.
We might cut out windows - not sure yet.