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ahm

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Mixed in with some of my other junk^H^H^H^Hstuff, I found some sort of TRS-80 computer widget, for lack of a better name. I'm hoping someone here will be able to tell me what it is (although I have a suspicion), and better still, if someone here wants/needs it.

It's a black plastic plug. On both sides, molded into the plastic, it says "Radio Shack" and "TRS-80". The connector is a 25-pin male, and I'd expect it to be the end off a serial cable, except there's no hole where the cable would go. There are exactly 5 pins, which look to be pins 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.

What in the heck is it?

Thanks!
 
hmm i havent a clue, did the trs-80 have a standard serial port?
it sounds a little bit like a loop back plug but i think the pins you need
for that are (dont quote me) 2 - 3, 4 - 5, 6 - 8 & 20 Or 22 (dont remember)
pin 2 is transmit data so it would be connected to the devices pin 3 thats
the recv pin so im not sure what you have there it seems you could send
but not recv and it's not a loopback plug so im a bit lost.
 
I think I may have April-Fooled myself. I just re-read the post, and caught the part about it being a 25-pin connector. The terminator I'm thinking of is a 50-pin edge-card connector, IIRC. Sorry I didn't read closely enough the first time.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
I think I may have April-Fooled myself. I just re-read the post, and caught the part about it being a 25-pin connector. The terminator I'm thinking of is a 50-pin edge-card connector, IIRC. Sorry I didn't read closely enough the first time.

--T

well you got me too! i have'nt a clue about how the trs-80 interfaced
with it's hdd or that it even could support one, i dont have one.
 
Well, the Model II came with one internal full-height single-sided 8" drive, but on the back there is an edge connector for jacking-in optional external drives too. If no external drives are present, the bus must be terminated.

--T
 
joe sixpack said:
hmm i havent a clue, did the trs-80 have a standard serial port?
it sounds a little bit like a loop back plug but i think the pins you need
for that are (dont quote me) 2 - 3, 4 - 5, 6 - 8 & 20 Or 22 (dont remember)
pin 2 is transmit data so it would be connected to the devices pin 3 thats
the recv pin so im not sure what you have there it seems you could send
but not recv and it's not a loopback plug so im a bit lost.

The Model I didn't come equipped with a serial port. (Even on the Model III, it was as extra-cost option). The only connections on the Model I system unit are a cassette port, a video monitor port, and the 40-pin expansion connector. To have a serial port required the Expansion Unit (usually). At least one company (don't remember who) made a serial port option that jacked into the cassette port on an unexpanded unit.

--T
 
What's even worse is having no serial port, no parallel port, no keyboard or mouse port, and no disk drives. I have at least one computer that's set up that way, and surprizingly enough, it's an IBM. The ThinkPad 730TE is a tablet PC which is all but useless unless you have the optional docking station, which I don't. It's sole redeeming virtue is that it has PCMCIA sockets, so there is still one way besides the pen to get your data into the machine.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
What's even worse is having no serial port, no parallel port, no keyboard or mouse port, and no disk drives. I have at least one computer that's set up that way, and surprizingly enough, it's an IBM. The ThinkPad 730TE is a tablet PC which is all but useless unless you have the optional docking station, which I don't. It's sole redeeming virtue is that it has PCMCIA sockets, so there is still one way besides the pen to get your data into the machine.

--T

ibm's good for doing stuff like that. it's great when you have everything
and it works but you lose / miss one thing and it tumbles down like a house of cards.
 
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