Open LocalTalk <-> EtherTalk Bridging Possibilities

[benfranske]

One of my "wishlist items" for vintage computing is to have an open LocalTalk/EtherTalk bridge project. Unfortunately I don't have time to work on it myself at the moment but there is some movement worth documenting so someone else can start work on it or I might be able to find it again when it gets higher on my project priority list...

• tashtari on 68kMLA has created an open LocalTalk transceiver using a PIC called TashTalk. See 68kMLA and Github
• sfiera on Github has code that can bridge EtherTalk and LToUDP. See Github

My thought is that it would be simplest to just start by attaching the TashTalk to a Raspberry Pi to give the Pi a LocalTalk interface. Then it should be possible to either expand MultiTalk to speak directly to a local TashTalk interface, or port code from the project into a new project that allows bridging to LocalTalk too.

Theoretically you could probably do this all with a microcontroller with an Ethernet interface and skip the Pi. My thought is that it's almost certainly faster to debug and prototype it with a Pi. It would also allow you to conveniently build a netatalk fileserver and MacIP gateway into the same device.

 

[Tashtari]

If you're still interested in this (two years later, sorry for the thread necromancy), you might find TashRouter interesting - it's a full-fledged router, not merely a bridge, which is capable of connecting to TashTalk directly as well as EtherTalk and LToUDP. It works well installed on a Raspberry Pi, but for anyone sufficiently interested, it also makes for an easy-to-read (I hope!) model on which a specialized embedded device could be built.

 

[benfranske]

Thanks! I am, though time is limited for my vintage networking at the moment as a young child seems to do that. I actually did run across the TashRouter project recently and appreciate all your work on that, it looks awesome!