68kMLA Classic Interface

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TashTalk USB
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-08 07:16:44
Round 2 just finished up at the fab! Should be here mid next week and fingers crossed is all good. Have 40 of them on order so should be plenty to go around.IMG_3851.jpeg
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-11 18:25:51
New revision should be here Thursday! Still have 4 prototype ones that are free to a good home (just asking for shipping).

First handful of devices are in the wild now too. Working through the feedback from the first testers, and have releases up here: https://github.com/FeralFirmware/TailTalk/releases.
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-15 21:44:54
They are here and finally ready for sale! Just posted a thread here: https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/tashtalk-usb.52299/.

For everyone who expressed interest here I have reserved ones for each of you and will be DM'ing you in the morning to see if you are still wanting one. Thanks again!
Posted by: schrockwell on 2026-05-23 13:22:02
I just wanted to chime in as a happy customer. I connected my M5 MacBook Pro to a Macintosh Plus with a serial cable, and used the TailTalk GUI to share a local folder and move files back and forth. Literally could not be easier.

Previously I was using BlueSCSI Wi-Fi and an FTP server to transfer files. This is so much cleaner and simpler.

IMG_1205.jpeg
Posted by: iantm on 2026-05-23 13:35:53
Amazing. I can’t wait to set it up.
Posted by: iantm on 2026-05-23 19:00:20
I will concur — this is fantastic and incredibly easy to set up with Phone Net and TailTalk. Got a little MacLab running, all of them talking to the MacBook and each other. I can download everything on the modern Mac and share things directly rather than loading on FloppyEmu!

I hadn't thought about sharing a file like that, though — that is grand!

Many thanks @Bolacore for making this happen!


IMG_7966.jpegIMG_7960.jpegIMG_7956.jpeg
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-23 22:38:28
I am so happy these work well for you both! Really makes me happy knowing both the hardware and software are helping people out 🙂
Posted by: Scout on 2026-05-24 11:09:09
For some reason, I get the notice that it is available to purchase and back in stock and when I go to Tindie it says backordered. Are they selling out that fast or am I having a DNS problem?
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-24 11:10:25
I think Tindie is bugging out honestly, I have not added anything today. The last time I put things up was earlier this week. New boards are supposedly arriving on Tuesday with Fedex and will post a notice here when they're about to go up
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-26 12:02:17
New boards arrived, just programming and testing them now. Should be up for sale in the next hour on Tindie again.
Posted by: gsteemso on 2026-05-26 12:21:27
Is there a link or something for that? I checked this thread, and the other thread linked above, and all either one said was "it's for sale" (and the price). I've never used Tindie. Heck, I'm not sure I'd ever HEARD of Tindie before this. I'm assuming it's a dot-com rather than a .biz or whatever... When I find it do I do a search for "bolacore" or for "tashtalk" or what?
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-26 12:23:09
Oh right sorry that would be helpful 😅

https://www.tindie.com/products/feralfirmware/tashtalk-usb/ - here is the link.
Posted by: Scout on 2026-05-26 15:58:24
I think Tindie is bugging out honestly, I have not added anything today. The last time I put things up was earlier this week. New boards are supposedly arriving on Tuesday with Fedex and will post a notice here when they're about to go up
Was just able to order it an hour ago. thanks for the heads up.
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-26 15:59:41
Thanks for the order! I should have all of today’s orders in the post tomorrow afternoon 🙂
Posted by: Iesca on 2026-05-29 00:56:33
I myself am having some strange behavior testing it between my iMac 2010 and a IIfx. TailTalk seems to have trouble recognizing the TashTalk, disconnecting and reconnecting sometimes helps, but then half the time I get "Error: Failed to start AppleTalk stack: Failed to open TashTalk serial port" etc etc. "Invalid Argument". If I do connect from the older Mac via Chooser, it randomly hangs or disconnects after a short time.

iMac 2010 running Ventura 13.5 via OCLP
Macintosh IIfx running System 7.1 on a BlueSCSI v1, 20 MB RAM

I am using two LocalTalk boxes, one an official 8-pin one from Apple, the second a "BelTalk" Belkin AppleTalk 8-pin connector.

I have set the "MacShare" volume to a folder on an HFS+ formatted hard disk drive. I am connecting the TashTalk to the iMac with a USB-C to USB-A cable.

EDIT: Oops, just got a Bad F-Line instruction crash on the IIfx... Not sure if that's related or not.

Also, Bullet characters in file/folder names ("•") don't seem to be translating correctly to the AppleShare server. Attempting to access them from the older Mac results in "File Not Found".
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-29 06:27:44
Hm do you see anything interesting if you watch Console on the iMac? Curious if there’s any logs that might help explain it. Is it going through a USB hub or anything like that, or just plugging straight in? Any chance you could try another cable just in case too?

Will take a look at the bullet character too - wondering if I missed a MacRoman conversion somewhere that is causing it to fail lookup later.
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-29 16:57:36
Figured out the bullet issue - It helps if I convert back to MacRoman on the reverse direction 🙂 Fix will be in the next release.
Posted by: Iesca on 2026-05-29 16:58:20
Huzzah!
Posted by: Bolacore on 2026-05-29 19:09:44
Well that didn’t take long before someone just took the design files and just made them for cheaper without saying anything to me 🫠 I get it’s GPL licensed but it would have been nice to at least say something.

So uh, get em cheaper here I guess https://jcm-1.com/product/tashtalk-usb/
Posted by: gsteemso on 2026-05-29 19:55:21
Meh, I'll rather spend my pennies on the guy who's actually doing the work before I patronize a “zero-value-added” seller. Seems only fair. Open-source hardware is meant for people to improve on the original, not just to act like concert-ticket scalpers and undercut actual development.
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