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Brand new (to me!) TRS-80 model II and III

Twylo

Twylo

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
230
Location
Poulsbo, WA
Hey folks,

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a TRS-80 Model II and a TRS-80 Model III from a local gentleman who was moving houses. They're in pretty good shape, but very, very dusty. A-cleaning I will go!

But my question for the moment is about the Model III. I really don't know anything about Tandys, which is a bit ironic since a TRS-80 Model III was the very first computer I ever used. But I was young then, in fifth grade, and I don't remember a lick of it. I have been searching the web like crazy looking for documentation, and I can't find any. I find lots of GIFs and JPGs of manual covers, but no actual PDFs. Does anyone know of a good archive of TRS-80 documentation? I'm looking for ordinary user manuals, as well as any kind of good low level technical documentation about the disk interface. I'd like to try my hand at rolling my own disk interface based on a modern microcontroller, since I'll likely never find a TRS-80 disk interface!

Thanks much,

-Twylo
 
Oh, man. I'd love to have a Model III. Trade you a slightly used 8032 for it. (If you happen to run across another one that needs a home snatch it and let me know. I don't have much time to go out looking for them, unfortunately.) ;^)

From time to time I've checked what TRS-80s are going for on eBay, and... it actually seems like disk controller boards for Model IIIs crop up pretty regularly, if you want the real deal to help out out. (Of course, I check now and I don't see one. Also so far as I know the same disk controller boards that work in the early Model IVs work in the IIIs, so if you see a Model IV disk system up for sale that'd also do it.) There's probably almost enough information in the Radio Shack manuals for you to reverse engineer one, however. Tandy was pretty good about that. And of course the disk system is *much* simpler than that of a Commodore. I suspect once you know which ports to map it to you could pretty much follow a reference design out of a Western Digital 1793 data sheet.
 
Chromedome45 said:
Eudimorphodon. How much would you consider as a fair price for a Model III? No trades though.
Click to expand...

Well... that's a tough one.

Depending on its configuration (I'd want a disk drive and preferably the RS-232 board) and condition I might pay, I dunno... possibly somewhere in the pretty low three digits for it. (I'm aware that whether that's "fair" to the seller or not depends a lot on context. I'm mostly basing that number on a few "working Model III with disk drives" auctions I've seen end on eBay.) I haven't been looking particularly hard since having it would be a hard sell with the wife unless I dumped the recently acquired PET hardware and if I didn't find it locally shipping one would cost a mint. (And be fraught with terror.)

Of course, put a gun to my head and say "you're buying a TRS-80" I'd probably prefer a I or a IV over a III. It's tough being the middle child.
 
Well it's a dual drive model. No RS-232 though. Cosmetically no wrist wear that you usually see seems to be about a 8.5 out of 10 with a couple of minor scratches. And about shipping your right ouch from FL to CA! I have the Model I with 3 floppies and a Model IV. So it is as you say the middle child but I always wanted one. Traded my second Model IV for it.
 
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