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1.5 Ghz TRS-80 III Refit!

I wish I could find the link (I'll have to search around for it a bit). Someone did a similar mod with either an Atari 800 or a TRS-80 or maybe a Commodore (pretty sure it was an 800 though). The cool part was they actually wired a converter to get the original keyboard to work as a ps/2 keyboard. I guess it was scancode conversion, however that was the only one I've seen that was sort of cool. Otherwise it's just sawing apart and old computer and putting new parts inside which doesn't personally impress me.

If I can find it I'll post the link though, maybe they have good ideas on how to get some original parts to work with the newer hardware.
 
barythrin said:
Someone did a similar mod with either an Atari 800
Click to expand...
Yes, on the Mini-ITX site there are a lot of mods of varying technical degree. Although they deal with motherboards of the particular Mini-ITX or smaller (Nano-ITX, Pico-ITX) size, many techniques could be applied on other mods as well.

The Atari 800 mod does not have a functional keyboard:
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/atari800/

The BBC Micro mod however does have its original keyboard:
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/bbcitxb/

Already here we see two approaches: either use a custom microcontroller to decode a vintage keyboard, or graft a modern keyboard controller onto the matrix of the original keyboard.
 
Sorry for the lack of updates , i have been so busy wioh work i haven't had time to work on the project.
I did find a keyboard that fits nicely.
pictures later ;)
 
well here the new keyboard, its a back-lit keyboard.
sorry for the poor picture quality.
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Wow, nice fit! Now with that cleared, I actually I have belief that you can do this! Before I was skeptical because of the keyboard, but now with that cleared, the only problems you might find are mounting issues with the mobo, and seems you intend to use the original cages for the drives, you shouldn't have a problem. I think you should go ahead and put that CD drive up top, but then find a mobo BIOS capable of supporting 5.25 floppy drives, and leave one of the originals in there! As for the keyboard, could you please tell us the brand and model number? Now that you have done that much, I may be intrested in finding a case and doing that myself!

--Ryan
 
Well the Keyboard i used is not the best one,, I used a Sunbeam backlit Kb because it was one i had. but i had to heavy trim the keyboard itself, no wiring or circuits were altered . Just keys removed and excess plastic where the case screw towers go.
The keyboard has been tested and functions.
If i were to do it again ,, I would look for a keyboard that is narrow , square and does NOT have the quick function keys at the top.
The important thing is a flat surface.
This is the one i used :
23-178-001-02.jpg

The one below is the one i would have preferred to use because it would have required less modification :
23-233-001-03.jpg
 
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I'm suprised, that photo of the Internal TRS-80 Model III doesn't seem to have a lot of stuff in it - or is that after all the stuff has been pulled out? I can see the Disk Drives have been pulled out.

I'm like the others when it comes to pulling things out and modify it, has it got much memory or can it only limit itself to the 48k my book from 1983 states. It's Z80 based so perhaps it can have CP/M on it and if it has the optional 640x240 graphics card that would be good too! :-D
 
LoserDave wrote:

no disk drives, it was a base model that used a tape player to load programs on tape.

Hmmm that's interesting that I've never picked that up before - probably because Model II and Model 16 are Disk Based. Of course to have CP/M (assuming that machine can support it) it would need a Disk Drive - it looks as if the machine only hold two disk drives even though the book states it can have upto 4 5.25" disk drive with a capacity of 328k (per Disk I assume) or it could have (as an option) upto four Hard Disks capacity of 5Mb.

Make an interesting games machine with the Graphics card, a Disk Drive and a Hard Disk and while being a Z80 based machine it would be interesting to know if there was some 3rd party support for CP/M to cater for that.
 
Actually, it would take 2 internal and two external floppy drives (about 80K per drive SSSD using Tandy equipment and software) with less on the first drive as it has the operating system and some utility programs.

It COULD, with a third party HD interface, take 4 hard drives of up to, I believe, 70MB each.
 
Druid6900 wrote:

It COULD, with a third party HD interface, take 4 hard drives of up to, I believe, 70MB each.

Geepers 280Mb! With that sort of space you'd want more than just 48Kb!! Even one of those disks would be ample space for CP/M assuming it would run on it (seems likely since it's an Z80). The Graphics Card is also an optional feature so it makes me wonder if a 3rd party made a compatable graphics card with additional Video Modes? I just have this sense that this machine was built at a time when Radio Shack were basically looking to the future in building something which would have been able to compete with other machines down the track. It's a wonder that C64s, CPCs were still going even into the 90s with software being made, so perhaps Model III was seen more as a business machine (even though it had games and states it can be used at Home), the only other clue I can guess why Model III didn't take off may have been due to price of it and/or the price of upgrading it. Base Model only has 16k - graphics card is optional, Cassette as Standard, Disk Drives and Hard Disks were optional. Having a disk based system wasn't cheap back then, though while growing up with a Cassette System in the 80s many people seem to except that with a number of other systems. Perhaps the Display could be a drawback - is the display monitor a black & white monitor? (No mention of colour which tend to suggest it could be). I guess the price would be of concern.
 
Well ,, My grandmother died, i broke a rib and the homeowner at my current job just started getting upset about his tile job , that it was taking too long.
And money is tight,, So,,,,sad to say,
my TRS-80 III refit project is on hold:(

However i did stumble across this website where someone was doing something similar.
http://cocom3repack.blogspot.com/
So , at least im not completely alone in my insanity.:p

By the way, anyone know where i can get a model 3 drive bay?
 
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I'm so sorry to hear the news. I wish you and your family well.

Interesting site, but what he(?) is doing seems quite pointless, and seems inefficient, seems it will take up alot more room than the CoCo alone, even though the all-in-one factor would be convinient.

Well be sure to let us know when you resume your project. I can't help you on your quest for the bay though.

--Ryan
 
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