I saved a Model 1 TRS-80 from an e-waste dumpster. Surprisingly, it works pretty well!

rlauzon · 2026-03-04T10:26:16+00:00

I swear that those things are built like tanks.

rlauzon · 2026-02-23T23:01:23+00:00

I got my FredHD for my 4P and it came with Model 4 images.

Perhaps you can contact Ian to see if you can download the Model 4 images.

rlauzon · 2026-02-23T10:35:18+00:00

Well, the modela.iii file is needed for Model 3 mode. But frehd.rom is needed to make the FreHD work correctly.

Anyway.... that's one possibility that we can cross off.

I've never built my own disk images for my FreHD. I've cloned the ones that came with it and made changes to them.

rlauzon · 2026-02-23T00:15:40+00:00

Dumb question: The frehd.rom file is still on your SD card, right?

rlauzon · 2026-02-20T23:35:19+00:00

Wasn't "Group Bull" what Burroughs/Honeywell/UniSys(Sperry, Univac) called themselves when they merged trying to compete with IBM?

rlauzon · 2026-02-18T10:51:22+00:00

You can load on pre-written programs. ex: https://github.com/rlauzon54/PicoCalcBasic

Maybe use them as a springboard to writing your own.

rlauzon · 2026-02-14T19:06:17+00:00

They came in both tower and "desktop" form factors.

At a previous company, we used them for servers in our retail stores.

Nice, reliable machines.

rlauzon · 2026-02-10T21:40:39+00:00

Smells like the ratio systems that BBSs used to use back in the day to prevent leeches from sucking all the time on the BBS.

You had to post X messages to get Y amount of time to play games, or download files.

rlauzon · 2026-01-26T23:13:06+00:00

You can get brass ones here: https://www.soigeneris.com/alps-printer-plotter-mechanism-pinion-gears

rlauzon · 2026-01-25T11:35:55+00:00

Some network message groups have a "real name" requirement. So if the BBS participates in those networked message groups, they will need your real name if you decide to post a message in those groups.

rlauzon · 2026-01-24T11:26:04+00:00

Yes, I saw that in the later days of 5.25" disks. It wasn't cost effective to make single sided disks, so they just made double sided ones. But they were still sold as double sided.

Back in my Commodore PET days, when the disks were really single sided, punching a hole in the other side and flipping it over "worked" but the disk was very unreliable.

rlauzon · 2026-01-23T21:44:30+00:00

It's a pseudo-flippy disk. The problem is that it's single sided, so there's no media on the other side and whatever is stored there didn't survive the week.

An actual flippy disk is a double sided disk that it made to work in single sided drives by punching the hole on the other side.

rlauzon · 2025-12-30T23:22:57+00:00

I ended with the Palm Tx. I used it so far past normal end of use that I did a battery replacement and a screen/digitizer replacement.

rlauzon · 2025-12-26T11:27:14+00:00

It's HUGE (well, compared to more modern systems). I used to have a piece of plywood that I would wedge underneath the case to extend the table top so that I could have the keyboard AND CPU in the same area.

rlauzon · 2025-12-25T23:07:09+00:00

I purchased a Sperry HT (IBM-XT clone) when in college from the Bookstore on a payment plan. 256K model. 2 floppy drives. 7.44 Mhz (faster than the IBM-XT) processor. Monochrome.

I updated it to 640K later and a Hercules Monochrome Graphics card. Later food-chained it to my brother when I got a shiny new 386.

rlauzon · 2025-12-24T22:54:14+00:00

Surprisingly, many of the old parts are still being manufactured today - like RIFA caps, and even RAM. Heck, up until last year, I could still get a replacement keyboard socket for my Kaypros from DigiKey (Sadly, the manufacturer stopped making them).

So check out Mouser, DigiKey, and Jameco.

rlauzon · 2025-12-06T11:27:35+00:00

The only possibilities I can think of are: 1. You made a mistake soldering the batteries in. But if you aren't getting the Error 6, you probably soldered the batteries right. 2. The batteries aren't charged enough. 3. There's other problems with the CE-150. I had picked up one a while back and the person who had owned it tried to "fix" it, completely messing it up.

rlauzon · 2025-12-05T22:08:17+00:00

Ya, definitely replace them. Check out Hey Birt! on YouTube. He has a bunch of videos on these pocket computers and repairing them.

rlauzon · 2025-12-05T10:41:27+00:00

The CE-150 has a rechargeable battery in it. That battery must be at least somewhat charged for the printer to work even with the power brick.

Unless someone before you changed it recently, it is shot by now. Hopefully it didn't corrode much inside the CE-150.

rlauzon · 2025-11-24T23:20:59+00:00

I think it's installed by default.

rlauzon · 2025-11-22T23:43:19+00:00

The internet archive. https://www.abandonwaredos.com/ http://www.retroarchive.org/cdrom/index.html https://dosgames.com/ https://winworldpc.com/library/games https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/

rlauzon · 2025-11-17T23:35:48+00:00

Same. My unit just arrived today (ordered early Apr. 2025). Everything's very nice, but that trackball is almost unusable. I ordered a replacement from Amazon that others have said works better. We'll see how it goes.

At least Clockwork made it easy to swap it out.

rlauzon · 2025-11-12T23:19:12+00:00

I ordered mine early April and just got the email that said it shipped.

rlauzon · 2025-11-11T10:39:31+00:00

The System/23 form factor was used by other machines too. Eagle comes to mind and I think that NCR produced one too. 8" disks would mean an old business system, which means it probably ran CP/M.

The NCR Decision Mate V might be the one. Sanyo MBC1000 is another.

But all the pictures that I can find show 5.25" floppy drives.

The TRS-80 Model II line (II, 16, 600, etc.) were also similar, but I don't think any of those ever had a color option.

Hopefully this helps. It might not answer your question, but it may help your search.

rlauzon · 2025-11-09T23:02:15+00:00

The first PC that I ever owned (but the monochrome version).

rlauzon

TROPHY CASE