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My new TRS-80 Model IV

T

tezza

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
4,731
Location
New Zealand
Those of you that know me will know I've been looking for one of these for some time. These are as common as mud in North America, but rare as here. Many thanks to the seller Bill Degnan who went the extra mile to pack it up well and ship it all the way to New Zealand!

2010-10-04-modelIV.jpg


I've added a note about it on my collections site.

Tez
 
Excellent on the model IV! I know you like the 'molded into one form' as much as I do. Glad to see you also got both floppy drives. The economy ones of these had no drives. It's a fine looking unit, congrats. :)
 
Very nice machine! I really need to get mine running properly - it's still waiting for a keyboard rebuild. And Bill did an excellent job getting it that far in that good condition!
 
mbbrutman said:
...And Bill did an excellent job getting it that far in that good condition!
Click to expand...

He did. I have to admit my heart sank when I picked up the box from the post office. There was a huge dent in the side where it had been stuck a blow by something (baggage cart? Other freight? Someone's boot?) and I was expecting to find shattered glass and cracked plastic. However, the machine was cocooned in layers of bubble wrap and plastic packing bubbles/balloons had been placed all around it. It was fine *whew*.

Kudos to whoever did the packing. It just goes to show how important this is!

I've had a play around with the machine and have been pleasantly surprised that my SVD (Semi-virtual diskette) works just fine with it so a software bank is not far away. Attaching external drives caused some confusion initially as I didn't realise drive 2 and 3 needed to be configured as drive 0 and 1, unlike the Model 1.

This computer is not just going to be just a pretty face. Armed with "Floppy Doctor", I'm also going to use it as a testing/maintenance station for floppy drives similar to Philip Avery's setup.

Tez
 
Last edited:
Hello Tez,

Congratution to your new gear, nice. I also received my TRS-80 Model III, looks like yours, but it was broken due to bad packing. I just don't belive that when I received it, I can see the inside wiring from the display screen. So I removed many screws and removed the cover. To my surprise again, I found the CRT was descended and siting on the bottom of the chasis and also a couple of loose studs around it. Today I still have not completely checkout for a safe turn on. The delay is because the cover was not completely removed yet.due to HV assemblies were fastened to the cover.

Doug
 
I was going to say, the screen looks a lot different than mine. Then I went and looked, I have a glare screen on mine! Derp...

Congrats on the Model 4!! It is becoming one of my favorites as I explore BASIC on it. I've been converting quite a few of my Apple programs to it, just for kicks.
 
tezza said:
He did. I have to admit my heart sank when I picked up the box from the post office. There was a huge dent in the side where it had been stuck a blow by something (baggage cart? Other freight? Someone's boot?) and I was expecting to find shattered glass and cracked plastic. However, the machine was cocooned in layers of bubble wrap and plastic packing bubbles/balloons had been placed all around it. It was fine *whew*.

Kudos to whoever did the packing. It just goes to show how important this is!

I've had a play around with the machine and have been pleasantly surprised that my SVD (Semi-virtual diskette) works just fine with it so a software bank is not far away. Attaching external drives caused some confusion initially as I didn't realise drive 2 and 3 needed to be configured as drive 0 and 1, unlike the Model 1.

This computer is not just going to be just a pretty face. Armed with "Floppy Doctor", I'm also going to use it as a testing/maintenance station for floppy drives similar to Philip Avery's setup.

Tez
Click to expand...

We sent both Tez's system and "Doug's" at the same time, packed the same way but the mail men really had a field day with these things. Doug's must have been dropped for it to have been damaged from within the packing material bubble wrap like that. Too bad you two aren't from the East Coast, you could have just picked up the unit from our new store and repair shop.

Bill
 
I remember the highschool computer lab (mid 1980's) had a couple of those, were fun to mess around with using basic. If I ever see one locally I will snag it.
 
Mine has a green screen. I upgraded it from a 4 used as a terminal in a classroom. I then found a pal chip and added the extra 64k and the ram indicator on the keyboard. Be very careful removing the upper from the lower section. Do it wrong and let the vacuum out of the tube!
 
Well it's about time Tez. By the way nice looking machine and many kudo's to Billdeg for obtaining one and shipping to you. Again congrats! Now you just need a Hard Drive to go along with it:D
 
Yes, thanks.

At some stage I'll devote a "software library"-stockup session to it.

At the moment I've been sidetracked by other projects, namely working through the items in the System 80 haul, soon to be followed by the Wellington haul. Too much hardware to process!! :)

I've finished reconstructing one unit (here is part 1 of 4 linked parts) and am now trying to fix a thorny System 80 expansion unit issue which is taking me into the depths of scope-driven diagnosis.

The Model IV may be lonely in terms of software for a few more weeks yet! However, thanks to Bill's careful checkout and packing it's one of the few units I've received which hasn't needed to be fixed!

Not that I'm complaining. :)

Tez
 
I will probably be putting up a Model III or 4P on Ebay, and maybe some Tandon 100-1A drives. I will let you know when. I need to test, etc to be sure what I have is working.
 
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