Testing Mac SE LocalTalk Port HOW-TO?

[cmholm]

How can I test whether a classic Mac LocalTalk port is working?

I'm a long time Mac user, starting with a then-new SE/30. In 2023, I picked up a booting Mac SE at VCF West. I've rounded up the RAM to 4MB, and added a BMOW Floppy Emu to give the working dual floppy drives a break. I haven't yet replaced the PRAM battery or recapped the boards. It's possible one of the two ADB ports isn't working.

I bought and configured a TashTalk 2 Raspberry Pi Hat, which is successfully serving files to a Mini vMac instance over Ethernet. I bought a set of PhoneNet dongles with their termination resistors, and connected TashTalk and the Mac over RJ11. Based on console messages from TashTalk, I *believe* I have TashTalk Router up and configured correctly.

Over on the Mac (System 6.0.8), I've enabled AppleTalk. When I select AppleShare, I see nothing. I installed MacTCP, but it's been a long time since I last worked with it, I had no confidence that I configured it correctly, so it's not currently enabled. It's possible that I need to have another go at installing Network Software 1.4.5.

The rest of my current crop of Macs are post LocalTalk, the next oldest system being an aluminum PB G4.

Assuming for a moment I have the TashTalk and Mac correctly configured for LocalTalk/AppleTalk, how can I test whether the Mac's LocalTalk port is functioning?

 

[finkmac]

the easiest is to use a second mac, and just do localtalk between them with a standard "apple peripheral 8" cable.
you could also construct a loopback cable and test with mactest/snooper... but I don't have a pinout for that.

if i had to guess, your configuration is wrong somehow. it's very easy to get the tashtalk/tashrouter set up incorrectly!

also for the record... mactcp is NOT necessary in this setup. that's only for IP networking

 

[Mk.558]

You cannot realistically test the RS422 ports without a loopback cable or a more conventional method of actually using the ports. Some diagnostic software can test the serial communications controller, but actually testing beyond that requires a loopback cable.

Couple of options you have. Use an AppleTalk bridge. Without knowing what version of PowerBook G4 it is, it's hard to say if Jaguar would work on it, but maybe it could. There's a special grey disc of 10.2 that can boot and function on G4 Mac minis despite the normal OS restriction. You could also use Netatalk on a Linux VM or real machine.

Another option is to use a RS422 to RS232 adapter and use terminal emulators. Or pseudo-PPP dialup.

finkmac is correct about MacTCP. MacTCP is for TCP/IP stuff, and MacTCP cannot handle AFP over TCP.

 

[nathall]

Connected to SE printer port? Don’t know what TashTalk is, but is it configured to serve over serial vs Ethernet? Macs were built from day 1 with networking in mind. Usually nothing showing in Chooser is an issue on the serving end.

 

[finkmac]

silly thought, what OS is the minivmac server running on?

 

[cmholm]

Ventura 10.6.9

 

[cheesestraws]

I bought and configured a TashTalk 2 Raspberry Pi Hat, which is successfully serving files

When you say "serving files", do you mean you're running netatalk on the Pi? What version of Linux are you running it under?