• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Model II on eBay

pski

pski

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Nov 26, 2014
Messages
1,886
Location
New York
I see a Model II is for sale on eBay so I thought I'd offer my take on the unit since they are relatively rare compared to some other Tandy machines and some potential buyers may not be familiar with purchasing one of these beasts.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-Rad...777494?hash=item2ca53caa96:g:i98AAOSwxN5WXhI0

This is a late Model II built just before the release of the Model 16. You can tell this by the TPI disk drive. The TPI drive replaced the Shugart drive near the end of the Model II run. The drive is discernable as a TPI from the offset LED on the door switch. The earlier Shugart had the LED in the center of the switch.

There are pluses and minuses to the late Model II. Pluses are the fact that the machine will have later cards with most of the necessary service updates. It will also have a later ROM, possibly one with hard drive support. Minuses are the TPI drive which is impossible to find documentation or spares.

The machine looks to be a standard build. There is no hard drive connector on the back so it most likely has the standard 4 cards: Z80 CPU card, keyboard/video card, 64k memory card and FDC (floppy) card. Another plus is that this machine most likely has the late FDC card which means it has a seperate floppy bus for the external connector so you won't need the external floppy terminator if running without a floppy expansion unit.

The unit is in fair condition with noticeable damage beyond scratches.

A keyboard is apparently not included so be prepared to spend another $75 to obtain one and it will most likely need a rebuild.

This machine needs special care in packing if it is to arrive undamaged. You can't reinforce this enough with a seller to prevent a lot of pain on both sides of the transaction.

Since the machine is not shown as working, be prepared for the machine to not light up and be useable immediately.

Come back to this forum for help if you take the plunge!
 
I've been intrigued by the Model II, but have mixed feelings about it. It's a nice looking machine, but dealing with the struggle of the rarity and the 8" floppies isn't something that I'm eager to dive into. If I ever find one in the wild, I'll be sure to pick it up, but I won't go chasing after it.
 
Regarding the rarity of 8" floppies, there is a backup plan available in that the Lotharek floppy drive emulator will work with the II/12/16/6000 computers with a suitable wiring adapter between the computer's 50-pin floppy bus and the emulator's 34-pin floppy connector. Of course, it's still more fun to play around with barn door sized floppy disks, but at least the machines can be booted and used without them if necessary.
 
I'd be frightened to ship one, considering how such a large and heavy behemoth of a computer is housed within a (seemingly?) brittle plastic case.
 
I managed to chip my 6000's front bezel the other day just trying to align it with the floppy drives, and using a bit too much force. :(
 
vwestlife said:
I'd be frightened to ship one, considering how such a large and heavy behemoth of a computer is housed within a (seemingly?) brittle plastic case.
Click to expand...

Even though it is a concern, the II case ships relatively well compared to its brethren. The 12/16B/6000 are the real ones to be frightened of due to the larger single piece case. I think the give of the segmented multi-piece design of the II/16 top case reduces stress on the case as a whole.
 
Another indication of this being a late Model II is the provision for the Arcnet port. Another is the short power and reset switches. The switches on the earlier models were long and were probably prone to accidental shutoffs. However, the short switches were not as late a modification as the Arcnet port, but occurred, I would guess, about midway through the run off the Model II.
 
NF6X said:
Regarding the rarity of 8" floppies, there is a backup plan available in that the Lotharek floppy drive emulator will work with the II/12/16/6000 computers with a suitable wiring adapter between the computer's 50-pin floppy bus and the emulator's 34-pin floppy connector. Of course, it's still more fun to play around with barn door sized floppy disks, but at least the machines can be booted and used without them if necessary.
Click to expand...

I'm one of those stuck-up guys who likes to keep things somewhat original. I actually have an 8" floppy drive sitting in the garage without a belt (please don't ask what kind, I'm not digging it out any time soon). However, I've seen 8" floppy disks only once, and that was about 20 years ago.
 
Back in the early 80's, my company was paying $10 apiece for Model II 8" floppies. Our system had 4 floppy drives.
 
The emulator is also handy for creating new floppies from downloaded images, since you can't just walk down to Radio Shack to buy a copy of General Ledger any more. :)
 
I remember passing up two Model II's in a Goodwill about 10-12 years ago because I didn't know what they were (they were in with the toasters as I recall so obviously Goodwill didn't know what they were either). As useless as they are I'm still kicking myself for not picking them up.
 
tempest said:
I remember passing up two Model II's in a Goodwill about 10-12 years ago because I didn't know what they were (they were in with the toasters as I recall so obviously Goodwill didn't know what they were either). As useless as they are I'm still kicking myself for not picking them up.
Click to expand...

All I ever find at my local goodwill these days are some crappy Dell systems or such. I would go into shock if I every found a Model II there!
 
Eh, the goodwills around here don't even sell computer systems at all. Occasionally some flat-panel monitors but thats it. Once I found an empty floppy disk holder and some very old parallel/serial cables and realized they probably just trashed whatever system that went with.
 
vwestlife said:
I'd be frightened to ship one, considering how such a large and heavy behemoth of a computer is housed within a (seemingly?) brittle plastic case.
Click to expand...

Mine was shipped from the province over about five years ago after being found with the disk cabinet in a country ditch. Rough? Yes. Working? Yes.
They are massive enough that if you use the correct box they won't bother flipping the thing on its side or something damaging because it's both so heavy and so bulky.
 
SomeGuy said:
Eh, the goodwills around here don't even sell computer systems at all. Occasionally some flat-panel monitors but thats it. Once I found an empty floppy disk holder and some very old parallel/serial cables and realized they probably just trashed whatever system that went with.
Click to expand...

The Goodwills around here don't sell computer CPU units, just monitors, keyboards, and other accessories. There was a conspiracy theory that it was part of a scheme to restrict the market for used computers because Goodwill signed a contract will Dell to send all donated computers to "electronics recycling". Also all CRT TV sets and monitors either get sent directly to recycling or are refused by the store when anyone attempts to donate them.

However this must be only regional, because Goodwills in other parts of the country do sell computers and CRTs, and even list them on eBay.
 
I bought mine from a member of another forum and he did a beautiful job of packing it. Took all day just to get it out of the box! Which was very sturdy and filled with expanded foam pellets.

Naturally, it worked, although I have done quite a bit of work on it since. I really love the old girl!

Which reminds me, I must go and play. Got a Hans01 LoTech adapter to fit... And a CP/M driver to write (rolls eyes).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top