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Inside The Tandy 2500 XL/2

I have a 2500SX. Who made those cases on those series? My 4825SX also has the same exact case. Someone else said there was another manufacturer with the very same type of cases as well.
 
Tandy 2500 XL/2

Tandy 2500 XL/2

acadiel said:
I have a 2500SX. Who made those cases on those series? My 4825SX also has the same exact case. Someone else said there was another manufacturer with the very same type of cases as well.
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In 1989 Radio Shack bought a portion of the Victor Company, The same company the helped in building the Norden Bombs sights of WWII, also designing a much more powerful rival to the IBM PC, the Victor 9000. At the time of purchase the Victor company was designing a new & revolutionary computer in a small footprint running off of the new 286 16 Bit CPU. It was called the Victor 300, after some quick repackaging of the Victor 300 the 2500 series was born. Radio Shack used that small footprint or something very similar on all future computers. Radio Shack was sold that small footprint computers was the answer, they were dead wrong.
 
Small footprint computers sold great for business around 1990. The problem was IBM and Compaq had systems in that arena and very good support organizations. Tandy was not competitive. Taking a computer to Radio Shack is not next day on-site service.
 
I agree with you on most of what you say. The problem as I see it was not the quality of on-site service. The problem was Radio Shacks market at that time was mostly home use. The systems made for business applications was not part of Radio Shacks market. For Radio Shack small foot print computers was not the answer.
 
I love seeing these videos :)

If you would like a bit of constructive criticism, I would recommend doing a separate voice-over instead of recording your audio live. Shoot the footage, talking only for you - to help remind yourself what goes where, then record your scripted audio through audacity or similar - this will allow you to make smoother jumpcuts and be more relaxed when mistakes happen. Easy enough to hit stop, cut out the bit that was mixed up, and re-record. This is how I plan to do the videos for my upcoming channel, because I get awful flustered when I make a mistake :p
 
I think the XL was the first, but I don't believe your are correct on the SX/25 being the last. Here are the models in order:

Tandy 2500 XL - 250-4074
Tandy 2500 XL/2 - 250-4075
Tandy 2500 SX - 250-4076 (16 MHz)
Tandy 2500 SX/20
Tandy 2500 SX/25 HD - 250-1610
Tandy 2500 SX/25 - 250-1611
Tandy 2500 RSX - 250-1620
Tandy 2500 RSX/HD - 250-1621
Tandy 2500 SX/33 - 250-1623

My RSX has a 25 MHz 386SX w/ 1MB RAM on board and could take another two 4MB each 30 pin SIMMs for a total of 9 MB. 256KB video RAM on board with 512 KB possible with standard x4 bit DIP chips.
 
eeguru said:
I think the XL was the first, but I don't believe your are correct on the SX/25 being the last. Here are the models in order:

Tandy 2500 XL - 250-4074
Tandy 2500 XL/2 - 250-4075
Tandy 2500 SX - 250-4076 (16 MHz)
Tandy 2500 SX/20
Tandy 2500 SX/25 HD - 250-1610
Tandy 2500 SX/25 - 250-1611
Tandy 2500 RSX - 250-1620
Tandy 2500 RSX/HD - 250-1621
Tandy 2500 SX/33 - 250-1623

My RSX has a 25 MHz 386SX w/ 1MB RAM on board and could take another two 4MB each 30 pin SIMMs for a total of 9 MB. 256KB video RAM on board with 512 KB possible with standard x4 bit DIP chips.
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Interesting, I know the XL was the 1st. I had know idea of a few on your list.
 
eeguru said:
Also your video DRAM are 40 pin ZIP packages. The original parts list from RS FAXback lists 64x16 - 100ns for the SOJ parts making up the on-board 256KB. The 64x16s are probably going to be hard to find in a ZIP-40. However assuming the motherboard has the spare address line grounded, these 256x16s might work:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/QTY-10-UPD4...-x-16-FAST-PAGE-DRAM-NOS-1-TUBE-/111359673859

G/L
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WOW! Thank you for the link, I believe that will work. I will never say I am the guru of computers, the expert that knows it all about the Rigs I restore. I will promise to restore them & research about them to the best of my ability. I appreciate and criticism or corrections.
 
zombienerd said:
I love seeing these videos :)

If you would like a bit of constructive criticism, I would recommend doing a separate voice-over instead of recording your audio live. Shoot the footage, talking only for you - to help remind yourself what goes where, then record your scripted audio through audacity or similar - this will allow you to make smoother jumpcuts and be more relaxed when mistakes happen. Easy enough to hit stop, cut out the bit that was mixed up, and re-record. This is how I plan to do the videos for my upcoming channel, because I get awful flustered when I make a mistake :p
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I love these suggestions, I loved doing the research on this computer but I felt so much out of my element. I know I will always look for rare computers & restore them. I also know I don't want to do another video like that one. I can definitely use your suggestions. thank you!
 
Havoc said:
WOW! Thank you for the link, I believe that will work. I will never say I am the guru of computers, the expert that knows it all about the Rigs I restore. I will promise to restore them & research about them to the best of my ability. I appreciate and criticism or corrections.
Click to expand...

Looking a little more closely, they might not work after all. I found a data sheet for 64Kx16 100ns DRAM in a ZIP-40 from Micron here:

http://www.datasheets360.com/pdf/303520210808930455

And the NEC parts on eBay I linked to have this DS:

http://datasheet.datasheetarchive.com/originals/scans/Scans-054/DSAIH000102078.pdf

They show pretty substantially different pin-outs. I assumed they were somewhat standardized by JEDEC like dual row packages usually are. So, you'll likely have to find 64Kx16s in a ZIP-40.

-Alan
 
Havoc said:
Hmmmm. Thanks for the follow up. I have done substantial searches already. No luck finding the right Ram.
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I have a 2500/SX20 that I need to find ZIPs for as well. Let me know if you wind up finding any. They're probably the same (or relatively close).
 
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