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Tandy 3800 HD Repair/Restoration

I really DO love being wrong! :p

Here is the pic to prove it... and my faux-pas... having thought I replaced my 'battery fix' with a 'normal' one.
Oh well.. :D

Picture020.jpg
 
Woo! I finally solved the mystery of why that system only liked that one particular AC adapter and not the other one I have! The one AC adapter it liked was missing that little bit of plastic on the end that spaces the power plug so it doesn't butt up against the back of the power socket and potentially short. After filing down that bit of plastic that was still on the other power supply it now charges that system correctly. Why it needs that bit of plastic removed, who knows, maybe it's just from age and being plugged/unplugged while being used for so many years. Either way, at least I finally have it working with a proper AC adapter.

Guess I wasted my time/money trying to procure the right tool to open up the old AC adapter. Oh well. Regardless, the tool will be here on Monday. If it can open up the power supply, at least we will all have that bit of knowledge now, and I will post up high res pics of the internals of the power supply so we have a better idea of how they are constructed and if/how they can be repaired if they go bad. I hope Conmega is right about there being a fuse/something serviceable in them. I mean, why make it so it can be opened if it wasn't meant to be repaired by someone (although not necessarily the end user)?
 
WELL... FINALLY!!!

I thought the damn thing was going all 'Paris Hilton' on me...

:D

... actually I ordered the ones I linked to on ebay... :rolleyes:
Not sure when I'll see em... but Ill have them! :p
 
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The 4.5 mm "gamebit" bit was an acceptable fit. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough to allow for the screws to be removed easily and without any damage to the AC adapter nor the screws. So, we now know that we can easily, and cheaply, get the right bit to open up a Tandy AC adapter.

The AC adapter does indeed have a fuse in it (although it is soldered). Unfortunately, in the case of this AC adapter, the fuse was still good. Something else must have gone wrong with it. As such, I chucked it. However, I did take a bunch of pictures of the internals, which I will post up later. Hopefully someone can get some use out of those.
 
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Here are the pics, they are of rather poor quality, but the macro setting on my camera is complete crap. I decided to keep the internals of the AC adapter for reference. If anyone wants a specific part # or value off of any of the internal components, let me know and I'll do my best to get it for you.

HPIM0481.JPGHPIM0485.JPGHPIM0489.JPGHPIM0493.JPGHPIM0497.JPG
 
Well its great that we now know how to open the things!
Now if anyone has any broken I can take them all and fix them :rolleyes:
Anyway I got the IBM 5140 in the mail today and the Burroughs!
The IBM looks like it has a standard power connector and should be able to find one easy... But... The Burroughs... has this... strange connector... Ill take pictures of everything later but yea! Any help on the power connector for the IBM? or the Burroughs? Also I'll be working on the Tandys in a bit... Got a lot of things to do....
 
WELL WELL WELL something goes in my favor!
I took the battery out of the IBM laptop and found a plug to fit were there battery plugs in then hooked it up to that Tandy power pack that came with the 1500 Paralel gave me since its very close rating for voltage and amperage...
Pushed the power button and...
HEY PRESTO it booted to the IBM application selector!!!!
The floppy appears to be a bit corrupt missing a few files as it warns you at boot and one of the applications don't work but hey! Something finally works!
The screen is an older model non back light screen and one of the horizontal lines of pixels appear to be dead but hey IT WORKS OUT OF THE BOX FROM EBAY!!!
Now to try and find an actual power pack for it... then test the printer!

I also found out... the Burroughs has... this... very strange 36v power supply and its plug is just... strange... I will either have to find TWO of these power supplies for sale... (I found ONE on this strange site for 99 british pounds!!!) ORRR I will have to find something that can work in place of it... (unlikely because of the strange plug it uses) OR I will have to open it up and see if I can connect power some other way and hard wire it to a different power supply... (I need two because the 5 1/4 in floppy also needs a separate power supply from the CPU unit AHRG!) Also it has a male parallel plug that is labeled video... I've NEVER seen such a video plug considering I was born in 1997 I probably never got the chance... BUT any idea of what I will need to do to see video off this thing if I get the power sorted out? (Don't worry I will take pictures later to show you all the plugs and such!)
 
I'm glad that 1500 was good for something. If you hadn't taken it I was just going to bin it.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this spare 3800 if someone doesn't want it. I won't bin it, but I guess I'll just put it in the basement to collect dust.
 
Alright just did a bunch of soldering... soldered the 3 wires I broke on the floppy drive... Soldered that Power IC back onto the 1500's board so HOPEFULLY the 1500 will work and so will this floppy drive... I will make a video or something shortly showing my mess of computers and parts XD
 
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HEYYY The 1500 ran its bios test at the push of the power button!
Now we are getting somewhere!
Let me see if this floppy drive will work and if it does I may be able to try this DOS boot disk I got from that IBM machine!
Things are working out now!
 
Ok this is total unnecessary but...
I put the floppy drive in the 3800... Put in the IBM DOS boot disk... AND PRESTO FINNNNAALLLLYYY ITS ALIVEEEEEE
NOW all I need is a HDD which... I shall be getting from you leeb if you still have it and this thing will be ready to put back together!!!!!
SUCCESS IS IN REACH!
 
The 2064 has been reformatted with 6.22 and all the 'other' original software(s) have been transferred.
It is configured as type 19 so it shouldn't be difficult for the 3800 to find... :rolleyes:

Having trouble finding the best way to get the CD built tho... All the newer OSes don't want to talk to 'old format' DOS... and I think I wiped out my ME drive when I took it out... tho I ought to check again.

Might even be able to provide some 'goodies' hiding on my 1500s 2024... :p
 
Considering the 1500 doesnt have a hard drive or a floppy... or a battery... itll have to wait till it gets anything done to it...
also if you cant get the stuff on a cd drive why not send a few floppys with stuff on them? Or is it that much data? I mean if they fit onto 3-4 floppys it should be ok right? or do you have a limited supply of floppys? 1.44mb floppys will do fine for anything and they are common (in my house anyway) but yea do whatever!
 
The 1500 had a trashed 2024 in it (the jerk who sold it to me obviously opened it, found out he had no idea what he was doing, and closed it back up, since the rubber gasket was missing and the screws that hold it together were stripped :mad:), so I would imagine a 2064 will work.
 
Well, IF the 1500 has a good HD cable connector, a 2024 certainly isn't beyond the realm of possibility...
However, I am NOT going to give up my HD cable... THAT I NEED to keep! :D
 
Wait did you trash the 2024... Because... It's controller board would still be good on it... Hmm... Also the cable would be useful... I also need one of those...
 
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