Hello all! I am new to this list, and thought that I would chip in with my solution to the "headless mac connundrem". Tell me what you think! For anyone still trying to find good ways to use a Mac without a display and not have it get sluggish, I've hit upon something new that might work for you, too. It’s called a VGA dummy, and you can make one on the cheap (cost: $5 for parts and $30 for the mini display to VGA adapter). This fix is pretty straightforward with the right schematics and instructions, but be aware that you’ll need a soldering iron and lots of precision to get the job done. You’ll also need some resisters, a VGA connector and, if you want to make it look fancy, a VGA housing. The housing isn’t necessary, it just makes the whole thing a little more cosmetically attractive. If you’re not good with solder and micromechanics, you’ll likely need some help from someone who is. It helps if the person has a little bit of vision so that they can look at the diagrams in the instructions and can see what they’re doing. I’m probably making this seem a lot more daunting than it needs to be. I let my dad do the soldering for me because I’m not good at following schematic instructions and have never used a soldering iron, and he has. But he said that as long as you have a little bit of background knowledge, it’s pretty straightforward. So, here goes. Background: This came to fruition after I got my Mac Mini in early February. I began experiencing general sluggishness in Finder and Safari, failure of the Mac to save my settings, etc. After a Google search, I found that my Mac was mad at me for not plugging in an external display. I also discovered Chris Blouch’s idea, to plug in a VGA to NTSC converter to trick the Mac into thinking that an external display was plugged in. This wasn't the best fix for me personally because I wanted to avoid having to clutter my desk any further, or having to use one of my USB ports to power the box. Also, I wanted to try and find a cheaper alternative. A friend of mine told me that I should try to make a VGA dummy instead (cost: $5 for the parts, plus the cost in time that it takes you to solder and get it working. In the bad old days of Windows XP, apparently, some blind people had success using these VGA dummies to trick their laptops into turning off the screens when there was no dedicated button. When not having to power the LCD screen, the computer’s battery life greatly improved. My friend, who had experience making these, thought that the same thing could be used to trick my Mac Mini into thinking that I was using a dedicated screen. Parts: To do this, I took a trip to my local Radio Shack. My friend had done some research for me and come up with the proper catalogue numbers, so my supplies were already pulled when we got there. You need: • One VGA connector (part number 276-1501) • One VGA housing (part number 276-1539) • Three 75 OHM resisters (I couldn't find these, but 68 ohm resisters did the job just fine) • Solder (preferably micro solder, if you can find it) • A soldering iron Procedure: To help with the actual soldering, and to make sure of which pins to solder the resisters to, my friend referred me to http://soerennielsen.dk/mod/VGAdummy/index_en.php where I was able to get diagrams and step-by-step instructions. One thing to note, that this site doesn’t mention: there is no polarity on the resisters. They can go either way. It took us about an hour to solder everything in place. Ensure that you solder everything tightly so that it won’t easily wiggle loose. Also, if you can, coat the bare resister wires to keep from inadvertent contact. This is why the housing is sometimes helpful. Problems along the way: After putting everything together, we realized that Radio Shack had given us the wrong housing to go around the VGA connector. The housing is like a clamshell that fits into place over the top of the resisters to prevent inadvertent contact. Then the housing is held together at the bottom of the VGA connecter. However, the housing that Radio Shack had mistakenly given us instead didn’t fit properly. It prevented the VGA connector from plugging all the way into the Apple adapter, and because of that, the Mac wouldn’t recognize it. To fix this, we cut off the part of the housing that stuck out too far. Insidentally, this happened to be the part on the bottom of the housing that held it together. To keep it in place, we used silicone glue to hold the two parts of the housing together. This did the job nicely, and after letting the silicone glue dry for 3 hours, I was in business. Hooking it up: After finishing and allowing the solder to cool, it was time to test my VGA dummy. I hooked it up, booted my Mac, and held my breath. Voila! It worked! I no longer experience the problems that I encountered before. Voiceover does not constantly report “Finder busy!” when I try to access my NAS server, and Safari is also a lot more responsive. I am very happy with my fix! Additionally: My dad helped me with this, as did my friend, who is an AT specialist in our area. I got schematics from the above website. This really was just happenstance. I got lucky. I understand that not everyone will want to try this fix, but to each their own. I figured I'd throw it out here and see what you guys think. If you have any other questions, please feel free to either reply to the list, or send me a private message at meben...@gmail.com I will be happy to try to help in any way I can. Happy computing! Megan
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
