PowerView


Any BlueSCSI v2 or Ultra can emulate a PowerView SCSI Video card for Macintosh.

The PowerView SCSI Video card allowed many Macintosh computers to have a second monitor over SCSI.

Setup

Physical

Connect your BlueSCSI via USB to the modern computer you’d like to use as a screen. BlueSCSI does not (yet) have a direct to VGA solution so you will use a modern laptop, desktop, phone, or tablet as your second screen.

eg:

Vintage Mac <SCSI Cable> BlueSCSI <USB> Modern device with screen

BlueSCSI SD

Create a file on the root of your SD card named VD3.hda for a PowerView on SCSI ID 3.

Vintage Mac

Install the PowerView Control Panel. For links see below.

Reboot

Web Client

On your modern device goto https://bluescsi.com/powerview/ and hit connect. If all went right you’ll see your second monitor!

Native Client

If you’d like to run a native (Mac/Win/Linux) app instead of using WebUSB you can use the BlueSCSI PowerView app here (Coming soon).

PowerView Control Panel

We’ve patched the PowerView extension to allow it to be used on any 68020-or-later Mac, PowerPC is untested, so please test!

When in doubt use the Patched driver.

Patched: (url coming soon)

Unpatched version 2.1 - https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/radius-powerview-driver-101 - A more limited set of computers.

Natively Supported Machines

Radius’ PowerView software gates itself to a hand-maintained list of tested Macs (the sMch resource, read by both the INIT boot check and the control panel). Any machine not on the list shows “Machine ✗” and the panel refuses to run — this is what the Patched driver bypasses.

The list grew over the software’s lifetime as Apple shipped new models. It is a support/testing whitelist, not a hardware limit — capable machines that shipped later (notably the Quadra 700/900/950, all 68040s) are simply absent, which is why they need the patch even though the hardware is perfectly able.

Version 2.1 (21 machines):

Mac II family Compact / LC PowerBooks
Mac II Mac SE/30 PowerBook 140
Mac IIx Classic II PowerBook 145
Mac IIcx Mac LC PowerBook 160
Mac IIci Mac LC II PowerBook 165c
Mac IIfx Mac LC III PowerBook 170
Mac IIsi PowerBook 180
Mac IIvi PowerBook Duo 210
Mac IIvm (Performa 600) PowerBook Duo 230
Mac IIvx

Version 1.01 (the original release) covered a shorter list of 11 — the models that existed in 1990–91: Mac II, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, IIsi, SE/30, LC, Classic II, PowerBook 140, PowerBook 170.

Compatibility

As you test please fill in compatibility below

Patched

  • Quadra 700

Unpatched

  • SE/30

History

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