Acquired a Tandy 3000NL got questions

[Patrick.B (TTR)]

So I managed to get a very worn Tandy 3000NL with VM1 Monitor.

I discovered very little information about this system, and aside from Specs and a few YouTube videos of pe4ople showing off their working version of it I was wondering if there was a deeper "watch out for …." informational video/document to read up on it to prevent "explosions" (I am from the Trs-80 Model 3 generation so PSU filter caps come to mind)

any suggestions appreciated here is my find.

 

[vwestlife]

I'll be surprised if it works, with all that rust!

That VM-1 monitor is for the Tandy 2000 and is incompatible with any standard PC video format like CGA, MDA, EGA, etc. But someone who has a Tandy 2000 might be interested in it.

 

[2icebitn]

Tandy sold cards that drive the VM-1. I have 2, 1 doesn't work particularly well though. He very well might have such or similar card already installed.

 

[eeguru]

Tandy sold cards that drive the VM-1. I have 2, 1 doesn't work particularly well though. He very well might have such or similar card already installed.

The VM-1 and CM-1 accepted the same timing since they were driven from the same clocking circuit on the T2K. So I assume it came with the STB400 card that TRS sold under the 'Enhanced Color Graphics' adapter for the 1200 and other models. And the 3000 HL press release actually listed the VM-1 and CM-1 as the primary options for that model:

ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/tvdog/tandy1000/documents/3khlrel.txt

-Alan

 

[2icebitn]

Tandy also sold an actual EGA card and rebadged Samsung EGA monitor contemporary with the 3000s. The 3000s were featured in ads with both the CM-1/VM-1 as well as EGA monitors. Not sure about the 1200.

 

[vwestlife]

But the VM-1 has a DIN video connector, which would require a special adapter. And I don't see the STB-400 in it. It's much longer than that short 8-bit video card (looks like EGA or VGA) it has installed.

 

[2icebitn]

My Deluxe Text Adapter, one of them, came with the necessary cable. Din on one end, d-sub on the other. There were different version of the STB card, iinm they varied in length. He may not have the right card though. I suspect though he may.

 

[Patrick.B (TTR)]

Well I am pickingit up today, so I shall all let you know about the video "issue" hell for all I know the monitor doesn't even work

 

[dlightman]

The 3000NL is one of my favorite Tandy's! It's pretty much a no frills 10 Mhz 286 AT system. I added the 8MB memory card, Tandy 1MB SVGA card, IDE interface with a 1G DOM and a ethernet card with an EEPROM containing the XUB.

The only thing to watch out for is it's one of the Tandy's where they powered the floppy drive via the floppy cable.

 

[blackepyon]

Could certainly use a good sand-blasting, but the chassis is probably recoverable.
Knowing Tandy, that 3.5" floppy drive is probably a Shugart. I've had luck replacing it on my 1000RSX with more a "modern" floppy by swapping pins 10 and 12 on the cable (assuming it's drive A). The trick will be finding one that has an eject carriage close enough to the original that you can keep the blue eject button.

 

[blackepyon]

The 3000NL is one of my favorite Tandy's! It's pretty much a no frills 10 Mhz 286 AT system. I added the 8MB memory card, Tandy 1MB SVGA card, IDE interface with a 1G DOM and a ethernet card with an EEPROM containing the XUB.

I know that IDE doesn't require much to interface with the bus, but I've never seen a card that barebones before!

 

[2icebitn]

Those have to be gals/pals. The most basic ide card has about half a dozen chips and maybe a room. I have a similarly sized card, 3 74ls and a square Goldstar chip.

 

[2icebitn]

Sandblasting isn't necessary. You could use electrolysis - easy and cheap, when there's a lot of rust. Industrial Scotch Brite pads with oil or washing soda and vinegar for lighter corrosions.

 

[dlightman]

The IDE card is a Microflex UTC-3001i. They were popular in the the IDE cdrom era, super simple but can only be configured as a secondary, tertiary or quaternary controller. The 2 chips are a ATF20V8BQL EEPLD and HD74LS245P.

 

[blackepyon]

The IDE card is a Microflex UTC-3001i. They were popular in the the IDE cdrom era, super simple but can only be configured as a secondary, tertiary or quaternary controller. The 2 chips are a ATF20V8BQL EEPLD and HD74LS245P.

Well, the 245 is a jellybean, but a dump of that PLD might be cool. It'll have the functional equivalent of a 668 in it for address selection, but I'm curious as to what else might be in it.

 

[Patrick.B (TTR)]

@dlightman actually I found one of those 8M expansion boards on ebay, was mislabeled as a t5000 expansion but I got someone to get me p/n on the his board and it was the same as that one. waiting on delivery (Tuesday this week)
well I have been diligently working on it, Ill post a blog about it later, its been a lot of fun, and right now I am at the stage that it boots, I get Long -short short - long beeps, then after about 10-15 seconds a short-short beep.
still waiting on my vga card I ordered (arrives Tuesday) and then I can connect a lcd vga screen to it and see why its all beeping at me. theST225 seemingly is a beast it powered up like it was only yesterday it was built. no bearing noises, further on boot/working status on that. but I have options if it does not.
A couple of pictures of before and after on the restoration, yes the whole thing needed a lot of elbow grease but it really come out nice.

Power Supply Before and after

assembled

anyways more to come later

 

[Patrick.B (TTR)]

well its been a few weeks since I got the beast and well its bee n a long haul of work, full chassis/case/cover sanding and painting, restoration of the PSU entirely blown all its caps, both 3.5 and 5.25 drives where dead. the MFM card and ST225 just did not make ti either, so after some soul searching I resolved to keep pressing on , ordered a ISA-16 to IDE card. I have a floppy drives but the system seem to be acting out in two way.

Problem 1.
Using the Tandy cable (one that has holes on it) the driv4es remain lit like it was inverted, and inverting the cable doesn't actuate the drives. so weather the controller is bad or the cable is bad (wait for next problem) (drives/floppies tested on another PC just fine)

so when I boot my system I get 512K with 0000 extended.
I have an Extended memory card with 2MB on it, I tested the ram sticks pairs on the main board extended slot all pairs register 512K just fine on the main board.

problems 2a
I have the two extended slots and the main ram area loaded and I only get 512k instead of 640K . I have checked twice my jumpers are they are E23-34 and E22-21 as per manual
Problem 2b (related I am sure in some way)
when I change the jumpers and remove the extended (512K on sims) from board and put the extended 2MB board in the slot, the system as it has no ram, system refuses to boot at all. (ignoring the ram in Main board)
I also removed the Main board ram, and go same result with extended filled, I still only get 512K ram.

so I will assume at this point that ram (main board is bad) but it doesn't explain why the extended board doesn't work. is there a "CHIP" I should try to test that would explain this ?

help?

 

[blackepyon]

Well, first thing I'd check for problem 1 is to replace the cable if you suspect that it's bad, and check around the floppy header and floppy drive controller chip for corrosion. I'm trying to find a service manual for the 3000NL to see which chip it might be.

 

[Patrick.B (TTR)]

any luck finding a service manual for the 3000?

 

[blackepyon]

any luck finding a service manual for the 3000?

I sent you a private message on that, with some other things to try.

Anybody else is welcome to try their hand at Google-fu, but this one's pretty obscure.