Wurd ! don't loose heart now man ANYTHING is poossible it's just that some require more patience and ingenuity than others. I for one would love to see this and i am sure there are others so give it a shot!!

this sounds like a great little mod if you can get it to work, have you had anyluck trying to use your wacom tablet though you ibook screen yet?

Thanks for the encouragement. :cheer:
But since I don't have the iBook yet, I haven't been able to test the screen. I tried using my little Graphire tablet through the lid of my PowerBook, but there's a lot of titanium in the way—and I really don't want to take this one apart to find out if it works.
I'll try it when the iBook arrives, and I'll let everybody know about the results.

Edit: Does anybody know of a program that would provide the functionality of a chording keyboard? I'd like to try it and decide on a workable layout before messing with hardware. It would also make my mod much easier (assuming it all comes together the right way). I'm having a hard time finding anything on my mind-numbingly slow dial-up.

Post edited by: WurdBendur, at: 2005/04/10 01:58

Well, here I am on my new iBook. I didn't realize just how nice they are. I got a graphite iBook SE, with the standard 466MHz and 64MB onboard RAM. I've installed OS X 10.0.3, which runs quite nicely though it says it requires 265MB of RAM. As soon as I get access to a faster internet connection, I'm going to be downloadingsome updates, and a ram upgrade is the next thing on my list.
Unfortunately, I'm currently unable to disassemble the iBook to test the screen—every screwdriver I've found that I thought would fit is just a bit too big. So, I'll have to search out something smaller. I'll post again when I've got something.

great, can't wait to hear about this.

Great news! It works! :woohoo: And now for the long version:
After removing many screws, including at least a couple that could have stayed, I removed the lid and found my way inside it. Seperating the case was similar to removing a tire, but it went back on easily. The inside was a bit intimidating, and I didn't actually take the display out. It looks like it's going to take some work. So I just lifted it and slid the tablet underneath. But the point is that it works!
I've got my iBook back in one piece, no extra screws, and everything is working, so it's on to the next step. Now to find a tablet...

Post edited by: wurdbendur, at: 2005/04/21 21:14

Post edited by: wurdbendur, at: 2005/04/22 12:17

Damn! That's great it works. Congrats!!!

Actually, I've found that my DVD-ROM drive won't open properly now. I wonder if I put the cover back on wrong. I'll go have a look right now...

On another note, I've continued searching unsuccessfully for software that would give me chording capability. I'm not very good at coding myself... about the best I can do is REALbasic, wich really isn't what I need. But I tried it anyway. There was a problem, though: for some reason, REALbasic doesn't handle text consistently. I attempted to make the chording work on top of my normal layout without changing it. To do this, I had the keydown event insert the desired character, which surprisingly went before the key that was pressed. Then I had it select the last character (the actual key that was pressed) so that I could remove it, and it started inserting them the other way around. I think REALbasic was created to annoy me.
And I didn't even get to the chording part... I think I just need to read up on Objective-C or find a hardware solution. I've found a few chording mods out there, but I don't know how to apply that to the 12-key layout I've got in mind. I guess I could change that, though.

Edit: I was right. The tab at the back of the drive cover that's supposed to go inside was instead sitting on top. I don't know how I missed that, but everything is okay now.

Post edited by: wurdbendur, at: 2005/04/22 12:16

You should put a burner in there while you're tinkering.

damn i love this website... just when i'm starting to lose faith in the imagination of man, i log in, read posts like these and BAM! reconfirmation. I am in awe of what you are trying to do good luck to you on this mod. :woohoo:


I did have a thought in mind.... if you go with a different tablet you might get different results, that 1/4 inch you are counting on might change with brand, and model.... but you probably thought of that already