Introducing (and interest check) CircuitTalk: LocalTalk for PowerMac G4

[zefrenchtoon]

@CircuitBored
There is also the official service manual
Same method btw

Mac Mini G4 Service Manual (2005)(Apple Computers) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Mac Mini G4 Service Manual (2005)(Apple Computers)

archive.org

 

[CircuitBored]

@CircuitBored You'll need a putty knife and patience.

I did it! I ended up using some little triangular prying tools that came with a MacBook repair kit. They worked really well but it was still a slow process as I didn't want to damage anything.

I had a poke around and that's how I realised that the modem was USB-only. I'll be using the factory debugging port for my serial card.

 

[CircuitBored]

I have purple boards available!



Sadly the silkscreen on this batch is blurry (see picture) but I have knocked the price down a little as a result. The actual final product is now going to have to cost £50 but these kits will be £40 each (48 Euro, US$52). I am expecting the batch of corrected PCBs to arrive some time next month.

I have three different kits available for iMac G4, PowerMac G4 Quicksilver/Sawtooth, and PowerMac G4 MDD. The desktop G4 kits include the requisite IDC cable. The iMac version has a soldered cable

To be clear: these PCBs will be fully assembled and ready to go when they get to you. No soldering required!

Postage is priced per-person but here's what you can generally expect:

UK: £5
Europe: £15 (18 Euro)
North America: £25 (US$33)

 

[kdrone]

Hello! New here.
I am interested in a board that will work on my Powermac G4 400 (PCI), any news on that? Either case, please put me in line/notify me of updates on that!
Or is there a way to adapt the already existing ones to work with my model G4?

Thanks for doing this

 

[CircuitBored]

I am interested in a board that will work on my Powermac G4 400 (PCI), any news on that?

I now work full time so progress on these projects has slowed a bit. However, I am currently stuck at home with covid so there may well be some news on the G3/PCIG4 side of things later this week...

I've put your name on the list of people in line for one of these cards.

 

[MS3]

Hello, amazing project and great to follow the thread. I’m interested in an MDD version. Are units still available? (Hope you got thru Covid too)

 

[CircuitBored]

Hello, amazing project and great to follow the thread. I’m interested in an MDD version. Are units still available? (Hope you got thru Covid too)

Hi MS3, welcome to the MLA! Thank you very much for your interest in the project. Unfortunately the last few boards from this batch have been spoken so there are no more kits available right now. However, I will be ordering a new batch at the end of the month so new kits will be available mid-August. If you'd like me to reserve one for you just let me know.

Thankfully I am now almost fully recovered from covid, just a little bit foggy at times. The challenge for this week is simply staying out of the heat...

 

[MS3]

Hi MS3, welcome to the MLA! Thank you very much for your interest in the project. Unfortunately the last few boards from this batch have been spoken so there are no more kits available right now. However, I will be ordering a new batch at the end of the month so new kits will be available mid-August. If you'd like me to reserve one for you just let me know.

Thankfully I am now almost fully recovered from covid, just a little bit foggy at times. The challenge for this week is simply staying out of the heat...

Thanks for the welcome! Yes, mid Aug sounds ideal, looking forward that and would love to reserve one. Do you need anything in the meantime for this? I’m in the EU - is that ok for shipping?

 

[jasonbuchwald]

Hi MS3, welcome to the MLA! Thank you very much for your interest in the project. Unfortunately the last few boards from this batch have been spoken so there are no more kits available right now. However, I will be ordering a new batch at the end of the month so new kits will be available mid-August. If you'd like me to reserve one for you just let me know.

Thankfully I am now almost fully recovered from covid, just a little bit foggy at times. The challenge for this week is simply staying out of the heat...

I hope you continue to recover! I actually have an original Geethree serial card in my MDD, and it works well. I would love to get one of your cards for my Mac mini. When they become available, I am most interested!

 

[just.in.time]

Very cool project. I’d be interested in 2 (one for a QuickSilver G4 and one for an iMac G4 USB 2.0) once the next batch is ready.

 

[kdrone]

I now work full time so progress on these projects has slowed a bit. However, I am currently stuck at home with covid so there may well be some news on the G3/PCIG4 side of things later this week...

I've put your name on the list of people in line for one of these cards.

That is great to hear! i'm very much looking forward to this.
Recover quickly and swiftly! I fell for it last week myself

 

[CircuitBored]

An update of sorts:

As is often the way, my personal life has stepped in the way of this project for the time being. I am settling into a new job and have begun the long process of moving house. The upshot is that I am finally going to be living independently but at the short-term cost of all my hobbies and projects being put on hold.

I am due to move into my new apartment and the end of September and my new workshop should be set up and ready for use around the end of October. Realistically you should expect the next batch of CircuitTalks to show up alongside the godforsaken AirCircuitTalkPro (a hellish combination of @cheesestraws' AirTalk and CircuitTalk) some time around the end of the year.

For now my spare time is being occupied with how to move around thirty Macs across the city. Fun stuff!

Thank you to all for your continued interest, patience, and support.

 

[kdrone]

An update of sorts:

As is often the way, my personal life has stepped in the way of this project for the time being. I am settling into a new job and have begun the long process of moving house. The upshot is that I am finally going to be living independently but at the short-term cost of all my hobbies and projects being put on hold.

I am due to move into my new apartment and the end of September and my new workshop should be set up and ready for use around the end of October. Realistically you should expect the next batch of CircuitTalks to show up alongside the godforsaken AirCircuitTalkPro (a hellish combination of @cheesestraws' AirTalk and CircuitTalk) some time around the end of the year.

For now my spare time is being occupied with how to move around thirty Macs across the city. Fun stuff!

Thank you to all for your continued interest, patience, and support.

Thank you for the update! And best wishes with the move. I hate moving!

In the meantime, I just realized something really silly: my Powermac is the AGP model, not the PCI model! I was looking at System Profiler, and the videop card howed in the PCI branch but said AGP and that confused me. Went to look "under the hood" again and yep, that is an AGP port alright!
So does that make a difference? Do I still need to wait for a new design, or can I use the current design?

 

[CircuitBored]

So does that make a difference? Do I still need to wait for a new design, or can I use the current design?

Big difference! The current version of CircuitTalk will work on your G4. This week I have actually had a surprise delivery of five more internal modem connectors that I forgot I'd had snail-mailed from China, so I could potentially put a couple of extra kits together this weekend if you are really wanting one. I'll need to double-check the rest of my parts inventory first though.

Those connectors took almost six months to get here - pretty astonishingly slow!

 

[Jockelill]

Hi!
Amazing project!! I’d like one if it also works in the Digital Audio version (466Mhz G4).
Joakim

 

[kdrone]

Big difference! The current version of CircuitTalk will work on your G4. This week I have actually had a surprise delivery of five more internal modem connectors that I forgot I'd had snail-mailed from China, so I could potentially put a couple of extra kits together this weekend if you are really wanting one. I'll need to double-check the rest of my parts inventory first though.

Those connectors took almost six months to get here - pretty astonishingly slow!

wow amazing news! And yes I very much would love a kit! Thank you! Please let me know thru here how to proceed, whenever you're ready.

 

[kdrone]

Hello!

Don't mean to nag, but I was away for some weeks, and was wondering if anything ever happened regarding a new batch of kits?
Thank you!

Big difference! The current version of CircuitTalk will work on your G4. This week I have actually had a surprise delivery of five more internal modem connectors that I forgot I'd had snail-mailed from China, so I could potentially put a couple of extra kits together this weekend if you are really wanting one. I'll need to double-check the rest of my parts inventory first though.

Those connectors took almost six months to get here - pretty astonishingly slow!

 

[CircuitBored]

Don't mean to nag, but I was away for some weeks, and was wondering if anything ever happened regarding a new batch of kits?

There is news! Having secured a G3 version of StealthSerial I will be using my limited stock of parts for prototyping the G3 version of CircuitTalk. The short-term result of that is that there will not be any G4 kits available in the next couple of months. However, I am currently in talks regarding having both the G3 and G4 kits produced on a much larger scale so the availability will be much better in the future. I simply don't have time to produce the kits myself any more, having recently started a new full-time job.

Sorry for the disappointment but I promise you that there will be many more CircuitTalks available in the near-ish future.

 

[kdrone]

There is news! Having secured a G3 version of StealthSerial I will be using my limited stock of parts for prototyping the G3 version of CircuitTalk. The short-term result of that is that there will not be any G4 kits available in the next couple of months. However, I am currently in talks regarding having both the G3 and G4 kits produced on a much larger scale so the availability will be much better in the future. I simply don't have time to produce the kits myself any more, having recently started a new full-time job.

Sorry for the disappointment but I promise you that there will be many more CircuitTalks available in the near-ish future.

Great news! It's not disappointing at all. We will get more widely available interfaces for more computers in the end, so that's only good!

 

[Nixontheknight]

There is news! Having secured a G3 version of StealthSerial I will be using my limited stock of parts for prototyping the G3 version of CircuitTalk. The short-term result of that is that there will not be any G4 kits available in the next couple of months. However, I am currently in talks regarding having both the G3 and G4 kits produced on a much larger scale so the availability will be much better in the future. I simply don't have time to produce the kits myself any more, having recently started a new full-time job.

Sorry for the disappointment but I promise you that there will be many more CircuitTalks available in the near-ish future.

although, wouldn't a G3 circuitTalk work on a G4 Yikes? Because the technically use the same logic board