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Newly arrived TRS-80 Model III (26-1062)

S

stargeezerlabs

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2021
Messages
24
Hi friends:
I am a relatively new member here on the board. I joined in 8/21 but finally starting to have more personal time to devote to my vintage collection.
I recently acquired a TRS-80 Model III, one step closer to having a exemplar of all the machines I used in my youth. :)

That being said, I could use some guidance. I used TRS-80s in the early 1980's in high school, but don't remember much about their specifics and features.
From online research it looks like the 1062s had 16k and no floppy drives. This unit has 2 internal floppy drives and came with a 3rd external floppy drive. (There is no cable for the external drive and it doesn't look like the 1161 or 1163 photos Ive seen. Its all silver without any labels.)

I have located several online resources, this site + trs-80.com which have a plethora of information.
The purchase was from a seller who acquired it in an estate sale purchase. I addition to the unit described above, the purchase came with several original manuals, and a cassette drive. Most of the floppies seem to be copies vs originals.

I am fairly comfortable with the physical restoration of the unit having restored multiple Apple II, Commodore and Atari machines in my collection, however, I could use some guidance on software.
  1. What are the basics recommended to have? TRSDOS? LDOS? Which versions? I understand some versions are very model specific.
  2. After I get this opened up, what is the easiest way to determine if this unit has been modified/upgraded (memory etc)? Are there specific boards and such to look for?
Restoration plans:
  1. Clean everything well.
  2. Retro-bright the keyboard.
  3. Repaint the main cabinet (the paint is worn off where a users wrists would sit)
  4. Stabilize a slight video flicker.
  5. Change out rat-tail power for more moden connector - maybe. I like to keep things OG but if I'm repainting, that's a huge deviation from maintaining original condition so I might do modern referbs to parts.
I know some of these questions may seem like very trivial/newb questions, but the TRS-80 family is not one of the brands I knew/know as well.
Any guidance and restoration wisdom is welcome.
Photos to follow in time.

Cheers,
mark
 
Welcome aboard, you are among friends here.. there are more of us (TRS-80 owners) than is believed (true fact!)

I did a video on how to paint the Model III and the modern plug mod is easy enough and not very expensive, just takes time.
Paint videos can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@texastandyrestorations6485/videos
Support can be had here or on Discord (see below for the address)

Disk Operating Systems, you have model III, you are basically limited to TRSDOS 1.3, LDOS 531, NEWDOS 80v2, MultiDos and a few more obscure ones.
The ones I listed are usually the more popular and all things 80's none of them are compatible with the other in filesystem or formatting.
Note: Version numbers do not mean a better version for the same DOS for the same machine, ie: TRSDOS 2.3 is a Model I OS, TRSDOS 6. xx is a model 4 Version etc.
TRSDOS 1.3 is the OEM of the OS that Tandy Issued, Newdos will be recognized by many as the most flexible and powerful (number of reasons) but also has a steeper learning curve.
Diskette copies can be ordered through a donation at https://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/ website.
 
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Thanks all. I am looking forward to re-exploring the TRS-80. I am sure I'll be engaging the forum a lot as I learn. Looking forward to chatting with everyone.
Patrick: thanks for the video link. I will definitely check it out.

Cheers
 
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