I’m a trying to resurrect my poor Mackie D8B that i bought from a thoroughly nice chap about 10 years ago, but that never worked from the day i’ve had it!
The goal is essentially to attempt a new os for it, to run on a Pi or pc.
So far;
Mackie OS 5.1 running on a VM.
Its running on a virtual machine (using UTM), graphics and all. Though isn’t perfect. But the goal is to replace it anyway so theres a few bugs i can live with.
it currently doesn’t hold the registration, and on occasion the interface on the VM ‘pauses’ for a moment.
It connects to a test emulator (pictured on the left) via piped tcp serial from the VM itself.
i tried it initially with VirtualBox, however Mackie os seems to only support Cirrus VGA or some older ATI cards. So i used UTM (mac os) which supported Cirrus. After a little patching it seemed to run!
Virtual Console
I have a basic mock up with most of the superficial functionality on the console. it has several modes; a virtualised mock of the actual console, a ‘DAW’ view (which aims to mimic the original view), and a compact view (also in the original).
built in python its an HMTL page so is accessible over a local network too. So, the theory is i can run it headless, with a screen (attached to a Pi) or over the network.
Next step..
A wee snag, the ASTEC 5v PSU blew up. Im currently waiting on a replacement. In its place an alternative 5v 30a supply, but the faders don’t seem to like it.
Assuming i can sort that, the next phase it to load the python scripts onto an external device (like a Pi) and test from there.
Unless the PSU blew the faders to then, to be frank, it will for ever live in the technology cupboard of remembrance.