Tandy 10
Tandy 10
Hi All:
I noticed the post about the Tandy 10. There was indeed such a unit, made by ADDS. I worked at one of the first Tandy Computer Stores in New England, and we received one for our grand opening. I recall that it was one of only a handful that Tandy had bought.
It used a terminal similar to the one pictured above. It was built into a desk, with the electronics in a section below the desk.
There was a card cage, with a wire-wrapped backplane. the card cage bore the label of a company that did the wire-wrapping (I seem to remember they were in NY state).
The computer had 48K RAM, 2 8" floppies in an unusual configuration- I think it might have been single density, double-sided. It used a version of CP/M. The disks had to be purchased pre-formatted from Memorex, I believe. There was no formatting program available. There was a parallel port, and a serial port was to have been available, but may never have been shipped.
The system retail from Tandy was $9,995 plus shipping. The shipper was a company that specialized in delicate equipment such as pianos.
I sold the Tandy 10 to a bowling alley, but only after I wrote the software they needed to track bowling scores. After a year or two, they purchased a TRS-80 Model II, and they asked me to trasnfer the data to the new computer.
Since no serial port was available, and the disks were not compatible with anything else, I ended up having a parallel-to-serial built, wrote some software to do the transfer, and managed to copy all of the data and programs off the Tandy 10. For my work, I got paid in some cash, and got to keep the Tandy 10. I had to disassemble it from the desk to move it.
There was no technical manual available, as ADDS was to have produced a two-volume set, but never completed volume 2. I was able to obtain one after mine failed, by begging a rep at ADDS, who ended up sending me what she said was the only one available, and at no charge!
The failure of my unit turned out to be a bad 2102 RAM chip (there were 3 16K boards, each with 128 2102s on it).
After moving the computer a couple of times (disassembling it and reassembling it), it finally died when I accidently kicked out one of the 12-volt supply cables while the unit was powered up. I kept all of the parts for years, but eventually dumped all but a couple of the boards. I believe i still have the manuals and sales lit, though.
I hope this info is helpful!
I'll be happy to answer any questions that I can.
