A "Takky" CC is one that has been modified to accept a logic board from any of the following computers:
For an explanation of the name "Takky," please refer to Stuart's Colo(u)r Classic Compendium.
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2.2.2 — What motherboards can I use for a "Takky" upgrade?
Thanks to James Fong, I have put together a table with the various "Takky" upgrade motherboards and their specs. I leave it to the upgrader to know what speeds individual model numbers are; EveryMac has an excellent profile section that details these differences.
CS I is Comm Slot I, and CS II is Comm Slot II.
| Model | Code Name | RAM type | Expansion Slots | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 640, 58x/63x | Show and Tell | 72-pin, 80 ns SIMM | CS I, AV, LC PDS, TV tuner, video out. | 1, 4 |
| 52/53xx | Codyceps | 4 | ||
| 62/63xx (except 6360) | 4 | |||
| 6360, 54/6400 | Alchemy | 168-pin, 70 ns DIMM | L2 cache, CS II, AV, PCI, TV tuner, video out. | 2 |
| 55/6500 | Gazelle | 168-pin, 70 ns EDO DIMM | 3 |
I have compiled a parts list, and one of the CCSCC members has posted the wiring diagrams.
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2.2.4 — Do I need to add an extra power supply to my Takky?
That depends on how much power you're using already. If you have a very high-capacity hard disk, PCI cards other than Ethernet, a G3/G4 upgrade, or have done a lot of other power-consuming modifications, you'll probably want to add one. The 630-series power supply seems to be a popular choice, usually modified with the addition of a relay to turn on when the analogue board turns on. Leaving the hard drive and CRT on the stock power supply and moving the rest over to the added power supply seems to be a popular way to go.
Some folks have run into capacity problems with 630-series PSUs; i.e., the PSU doesn't provide enough power to run everything in the CC. Since it's becoming harder and harder to find small Mac PSUs that will fit the space and have the capacity required (greater than the 630-series PSU's 160 watts), 1U ATX power supplies have been investigated as an option. Information on adapting an ATX supply to an x400/x500 board (which are substantially similar to an iMac board in terms of power requirements) can be found here.
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2.2.5 — What's the deal with 3.3V regulators?
If you have an Alchemy (6360, 5400/6400) board, you'll need to add a 3.3V supply line in the wiring harness as shown on the Takky wiring diagrams page. If you have a Gazelle (5500/6500) board, you might be able to get away with leaving it out. If you have problems booting, however, you should add it and see if the problems go away. If you're running a G3/G4 upgrade, have the RAM maxed out, or have any PCI cards installed, you'll almost certainly need the regulator. If you have one of the "Road Apple" x200/x300 boards, you don't need the 3.3V supply at all.
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2.2.6 — Can I upgrade my Takky to a G3 or G4?
Yes, provided that your Takky is based on an Alchemy or Gazelle motherboard. Sonnet and a few others make upgrades that fit the L2 cache slot on these boards. Stuart has a page describing what's involved besides simply installing the upgrade. Note that you will have to add a 3.3V supply (see above), if you haven't already, in order for this to work.
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2.2.7 — Help! The IDE connector diagrams make no sense!
Advice for wise PowerCC/Takky builders: carefully note the way the factory IDE cable is attached to the harness and the black IDC connector. If you wire your new, longer IDE cable in exactly the same way, you won't have any need for making sense out of the IDE diagrams.
Alexey Danilchenko and Stuart Bell have put together a page on Stuart's site that explains the issues with the Takky wiring diagram much more clearly. I'd advise anyone building a 630-style harness from scratch to read it very thoroughly and understand it well.
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2.2.8 — How do I overclock a Takky?
Assuming you don't have a G3- or G4-based upgrade card in it, and you don't have the Macintosh Processor Upgrade in a 63x/58x-based Takky, there are three main ways.
The 63x/58x boards can be overclocked using Marc Schrier's procedure. While he claims the 580 cannot be clock-chipped, my experience says the boards are substantially similar (if not identical) across the 58x and later 63x machines, so I see no reason why this wouldn't work. If anyone has access to a 580 and a 63x-series desktop, I'd be curious to try an overclocked board in each and see if there are any problems.
The x200-series boards can be overclocked using Takashi Imai's procedure. Expect to see at best about 90 MHz or so, but the procedure isn't entirely clear as to whether the 22.5 MHz crystal oscillator is added or is already on the board. If it's a part you have to add, I wouldn't be too surprised if something as high as 25 MHz might work (end speed of 100 MHz with the 4x multiplier). If anyone can confirm details, please let me know. I have a 75MHz 5200-series board that I'll be working on at some point.
The x300-series (except for the 6360) boards can be overclocked using Takashi Imai's procedure. As with the x200 boards, the procedure isn't entirely clear as to whether the 22.5 MHz crystal oscillator is added or is already on the board. If it's a part you have to add, I wouldn't be too surprised if something as high as 25 MHz might work (end speed of 125 MHz with the 5x multiplier). If anyone can confirm details, please let me know.
The x400-series (including the 6360) boards can be overclocked using Takashi Imai's procedure. Additional information is at the 6400 Zone's overclocking section, and on Marc Schrier's site, reported by Ed Nye. The 6400 Zone also notes that the bus can be overclocked from 40 MHz to the 50 MHz range, and Ed Nye reports some very useful information about this procedure (which I heartily recommend though it may cost slightly more).
The x500-series boards can be overclocked using Takashi Imai's procedure. The 50 MHz bus overclocking doesn't apply to these machines as they already have a 50 MHz bus.
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2.2.9 — What Mac OS is best for my Takky?
This one has to be broken down a bit. :)
My blanket recommendations are 7.1 on anything with a 68K and 9.1 on anything with a PowerPC, but I need to qualify those somewhat.
The advantages and disadvantages listed in the Mystic section apply to any 68K-powered Takky CCs as well.
Using System 7.x or OS 7.6.x on any of the PPC-powered boards is a waste of time. The OS contains virtually no native PPC code, which slows it down a lot more than it needs to. If you're low on RAM, turn on virtual memory and install Mac OS 8.1, which will be pretty snappy with anything under 32 MB RAM. RAM is so cheap, however, that installing another 32 MB or so won't cost more than about US$20 including shipping (in the US).
If you have 64 MB RAM or more, and plenty of HD space (500 MB or so), just install 9.1 and call it good. Disable or delete anything you don't need (like Speech Recognition) and you'll have a system that's as lean as 8.1 but much faster due to fully PPC-native code in the OS. I've used 9.1 on a lot of different Macs and it's by far the most stable and fastest OS I've used on Macs with over 64 MB RAM.
Don't bother with the various hacks required to install Mac OS 9.2.x. The changes from 9.1 to 9.2.x were all for OS X's Classic compatibility and are useless within the Classic Mac OS itself. Furthermore, many people have reported problems with 9.2.x on machines not intended for it (anything pre-G3). Don't waste your time.
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2.2.10 — How can I add a TV tuner to my Takky?
Scott Johnston has a pretty good tutorial on Stuart's site.
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2.2.11 — Can I use 64 MB or larger RAM modules in my Takky?
The 63x-series boards (including the 58x and 640) work just as the 575 board does as far as RAM configurations for the first slot. The second slot takes only single-banked modules. Interestingly, the 63x-series boards are the only CC upgrade boards that can be upgraded past 136 MB RAM, by using a 128 MB module in the first slot and a 64 MB, single-banked module in the second slot for a total of 196 MB RAM. (Yes, I've done it. No, I don't know what the heck to do with 196 MB RAM in a Takky.)
My testing is yet to be completed on the Codyceps (x200/x300-series) boards, but watch this space for information. I suspect the issue that plagues the PowerCard upgrade similarly haunts the first-gen PPC boards based on the 630, and that 64 MB is an absolute limit no matter what.
No one has ever gotten a Gazelle or Alchemy board to recognise DIMMs of capacities greater than 64 MB. This limitation caps the Alchemy boards at 136 MB (8 MB onboard + 2 x 64 MB DIMMs) and the Gazelle boards at 128 MB (0 MB onboard + 2 x 64 MB DIMMs). If you have succeeded where others have failed, please feel free to trumpet it from the rooftops. Just be sure to include proof, like a screen shot.
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2.2.12 — Will Comm Slot cards fit my Takky?
The official Apple specification says that Comm Slot I and II cards should be no more than 40 mm in height, which will present no problems when installed in a Takky. However, a good number of manufacturers chose to ignore this specification and as a result, a lot of Comm Slot I or II cards are too tall to fit inside the chassis. The Apple Comm Slot (I only) and Sonic Systems Ethernet cards (for either slot) are short enough to fit, as are the early (horribly slow) Global Village modems (also CS I). The Global Village Platinum V Comm Slot II modem is too tall, as are many Asanté, Dayna, and Farallon cards as well as the Apple Comm Slot II Ethernet card. The 3-10 mm of extra height necessitates various surgical modifications to the chassis, ranging from a small slit all the way up to cutting off a section of the portion of the hard disk bracket.
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2.2.13 — What options do I have for an external monitor on my Takky?
Takkys using anything but the Alchemy or Gazelle boards can utilise an LC PDS video card, though such cards are quite rare and generally slow compared to their NuBus counterparts. All Takkys have the option of using the Apple Presentation System for external video mirroring. PCI-based Takkys (Alchemy or Gazelle boards) can use the full range of 7" (or shorter) Mac-compatible PCI video cards, including such cards as the Voodoo 3, ATI Radeon PCI, and nVidia GeForce2 series, allowing nearly any external monitor to be driven.
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2.2.14 — How can I keep the remote control (IR) receiver from the donor Mac?
Directions for wiring up the IR/sound board from the various PPC-based Takky donor Macs can be found in the Kan-chan FAQ, at the bottom of the page.
As far as mounting the IR receiver, your best bet is probably somewhere near the top of the screen. The microphone slit has been suggested many times, although there's really no inherent limitation to where you can mount it as long as you can find space and IR signals can easily get to it.
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Last Modified on 06 November 2013
by Chris Lawson
All layout and HTML code is copyright ©2000-4 by the pickle and Chris Lawson. Text content is ©1999-2005 by Stuart Bell, Chris Lawson, members of the Colo(u)r Classic Forum, and members of the Club for Creating the Strongest Color Classic (CCSCC). Quotations from other sources used by permission. While every effort is made to verify information, neither Chris Lawson nor the other copyright holders take any responsibility for the content or accuracy of external links. If you break something as a result of what you read here, it is exclusively your own fault.