Mac Bong!

I’ve been hammering away at the Resources page on my site, trying to drag dusty memories out of the crypt. Most of the compact Macs are covered now, but the real beasts—Mystic and Takky—are still waiting in the shadows. The problem? Those mods are ancient history, and my notes look like lyrics scrawled on a beer-stained napkin. It’ll take a little more time before I can summon them back to life.

Working on the Color Classic, I kept hitting the same wall—having to plug in a keyboard just to boot. Total nuisance. There’s the brute-force trick: leave the analog board powered, then slam in the logic board to spark it alive. People do it, and sure, it usually works, but it’s like playing a solo on a cheap amp—loud but not reliable.

I wanted something cleaner... A small device built for one purpose: wake the Mac on switch box. It works with the Color Classic, Mac II series, Quadras—anything with PFW soft power. But just flipping the switch wasn’t enough, so I pushed further: USB mouse support.

At the same time, my partner-in-crime Wing Yeung ( founder of MFA2 WorkShop, Representative design: Wdrive)took it further. He wrote code to add USB keyboard support, drawing on his arsenal of Arduino libraries used Apple II keyboard project. That’s when the project really roared to life. Enter Mac Bong!—a device where vintage Macs can thrash with both USB and ADB gear.

Not every USB keyboard and mouse out there is supported, but most will play. If sync misses at boot, hit the reset button and it locks in. For visibility, I wired up keyboard and mouse LEDs so you can see the signal pulsing like stage lights. And yes, it also doubles as an ADB adapter for Macs and the Apple IIgs.

We’ll sell it as a finished unit, maybe as a kit—still undecided. Everything is SMD, stacked up like a tower of amps: Arduino Nano board plus USB host shield, riding on top of the PCB. To some, it might look overbuilt, but we’re not mass-producing. I’ve got a stash of Nano boards from the SPIISD project, so the design makes sense.

This “stack the boards” approach has always been a part of the hacker playbook—cheap, modular, effective. It might look like a rough prototype, but it’s accessible, even to someone who’s never soldered under stage lights before.

I’ve never claimed to be a perfect engineer, but I build with intent. When I see a path forward, I don’t hesitate—I design, test, and refine. That’s how progress is made.

And that’s the thrill of fusing new tech with vintage Macs: it’s raw, it’s direct, it’s honest. Not polished for the mainstream—just pure engineering with the gain set high. That’s the kind of hacking I live for!