Model 100 here I come!

[vic user]

I just received a model 100 in the mail today!

Needs a paint job real bad, let me tell you! I hope to God I can remove the top part of the case easy ')

I also picked up "The TRS-80 Model 100 Portable Computer" by David A. Lien, a few weeks ago, in anticipation of the awaiting computer, so I can put this puppy through some laps I hope.

Heard that the Model 100 has a good and easy terminal app., so also hoping that it will be easy to transfer text back and forth from my various computers.

Can't wait to leave for home :)

Chris

[Terry Yager]

Kewl! What color ya gonna paint 'er? The top case does come off real easily, but the clear plastic screen part is permanently attached, so you'll have to be good at masking it off before ya spray. You can't ask for a better book than Lein's for assimilating the basics of the Mod 100, but it doesn't go very deeply into it, if that's what you're interested in. There's lots of info & softwere available here:

www.club100.org

File transfers between the Mod 100 & a PC is a snap, once you have the cableing worked out. You can either buy a null-modem from Radio Shack fr around five buck$, or build your own. Then the transfers can be accomplished using DOS's COPY command, just copy to the serial port. BTW, how much memory does your new aquisition have? That can be a PITA to upgrade. Also, while you have it apart, you should replace the internal backup battery, it''s prolly pretty old by now.

--T

[vic user]

Thanks Terry;

I am probably going to use 'rocky road' colour from the Krylon fusion spray paint, so it will more or less look like a brand new model 100.

i painted two of my vic 20's this colour, and they look great.

i also painted another vic 20 and a mac SE30, forest green, and they look pretty nice too.

glad to hear about the top case coming off easy. i see the four screws, but was unsure what was attached to the top case itself.

when i boot her up, i get 29638 bytes free, so a 32k machine then, after the computer itself steals some RAM?

i really need to have a null modem cable for my other computers as well, so it is a MUST!

glad you know a lot about this thing, as i will be posting questions again i am sure :)

chris

[vic user]

I poked around with it at lunch, and boy is the keyboard dirty. many unresponsive or not very responsive keys, sadly the space bar is one of them :(

hope they are easy to clean on this model.

chris

[Terry Yager]

Bad news, the keycaps don't come off easily without breaking them. Try using compressed air to blow the switches out (insert the nozzle under the keycaps). 29K available to the user is a 32K machine, minus some for system overhead. (At boot-time, the BASIC in ROM is copied into RAM (faster) where it is run from. That accounts for the "stolen" memory). Anyways, about the non-functional keys, remove the keyboard and check all the lil' diodes on each key. I've seen them go bad before too, but they are easy to replace.

--T

[vic user]

too bad about the keys. let's hope some good old air will do the trick then

since i will be painting the case tonight. i can get a good look at the keyboard i hope, and can go from there. at least please let me get the space bar to work ')

chris

[Terry Yager]

The good news is that the switches themselves hardly ever go bad. Usually, it's those pesky lil' diodes.

--T

[CP/M User]

"vic user" wrote:

> Needs a paint job real bad, let me tell you! I hope to God
> I can remove the top part of the case easy ')

Sorry for the late suggestion, go back to basics & paint it in
Black & White Swirls!

If Vinyl records are comming back (yes my music store is
stocking up on brand new Beatle & Byrd vinyl albums! ;-)
then B&W Checkered Floors & B&W Swirls are too! Next it'll
be B&W movies! Bring back the good ol' days! ;-)

Cheers,
CP/M User.

[vic user]

I would love to do crazy designs on computer shells, but need way more practice.

would be nice to do some air brushing.

i sure would like to have a vic 20 gaming computer, and have characters from various games, spray painted all over the shell.

would also like to do the colour spectrum on a compact mac.

or maybe one as a TARDIS :wink:

that one is for you CP/M user!
chris

[CP/M User]

"vic user" wrote:

> or maybe one as a TARDIS ;)

> that one is for you CP/M user!

I had one TARDIS desktop picture, but had
to take it off because it was draining my
computers resources :-(

Was there a particular TARDIS design you
were thinking of? In the early days the
TARDIS seems to change on the inside
(particularly the wall). I liked the one
Patrick Troughton had (episode 10 of The
War Games) with the wall with circles fully
cut out in it.

Cheers,
CP/M User.

[vic user]

hmmm....

i certainly do like the old tardis control rooms better than the newer ones, as well as the older consoles.

i also like it when they have things like antique coat racks in the room too.

i will have to pay more attention and get back to you, which is an enjoyable task, and i have not watched any dr. who for about three weeks :oops:

chris

[vic user]

wow!

i had no idea that any stuff i did on the model 100 would actually save when i turned it off. the computer looks like it has seen a basement corner for many a year (corrosion on the rs232 interface, perhaps soda pop stains on the kyeboard) so i sure did not expect the internal battery to still be good.

man, what a cool way to save info, by using your main power source to charge your internal battery.

who cares about a cassette interface?

love this!

chris

[Terry Yager]

Yr gonna love it for practicing your BASIC on. It'll save all yr lil' programs without external mass storage.

--T

[vic user]

you know it Terry!

and that sched program or whatever it is called is really neat.
i have not tried it yet, but have been reading the book, and if used a certain way, can be a little database. too bad it can't recognize files other than 'note'

i showed peopleat work the model 100 today, and just through talking someone mentioned that they wished they had learned basic.

i was shocked, because i assume everyone knows basic :)

after i told people how easy it is to pick up, you should have seen some people's looks.

i think they thought only nerds could program, or something :D

i hope a few decide to try to code something, and realize anyone can do it, and i am a great example!.

chris

[Terry Yager]

Well, I've never been able to grok BASIC much at all (or Pascal, or C or...). Assembly language comes much easier to me. What does that make me, an Uber-geek, or what?

--T

[carlsson]

Corrosion on the ports? Wow, I'm not sure I ever saw that on an old computer unless it had been operated outside or in really harsh environment.

I don't know what I make out of someone who readily reads and works with assembler but not more compound languages. Maybe it comes from your generation had to work from the closest level of programming and got used to it. But yes, for me it is much easier to translate a Basic or C program into machine code than the other way around.

[vic user]

well, the guy i bought it from was/is a journalist, that wrote about car races in USA, and toured around with it, until his company got him a pc notebook, ages ago.

so maybe it saw the odd rain drop?

i will for sure have to give the port a good scrubbing.

the inside of the machine looked fine, and very dust free actually. more to do with the well made shell i think than owner care :wink:

the keys are still very dirty. you should have seen the felt sheet! dust bunnies galore!

if i could get the damn 'n' key to work, then i could make myself a 'note' file. and the 'd' key too, since i would like to make an 'adrs' file too.

damn, why did this comp. not come with a template 'note' and 'adrs' files :)

so far, i am getting around certain letters, by representing them with other characters. so long as i don't try and run any of the programs, it's ok.

chris

[carlsson]

There are no asphalt marks on the keyboard or elsewhere? :) I suppose a computer like this doesn't automatically obey a dumb terminal on a serial port? Otherwise it might be an alternative to using the real, dirty keyboard.

[vic user]

I have not read up much on the telecom part and all that. Hope to do this tonight actually.

I did find a male to male db 25 cable, in my stack of cables, so maybe a null modem cable?

The two most needed keys at the moment, are 'd' and 'n'.

after hitting 'n' about 500 times yesterday, and also rubbing it a bit, i finally managed to get the 'n' to appear, so i saved a 'note' file real quick!

chris

[Terry Yager]

I have not read up much on the telecom part and all that. Hope to do this tonight actually.

I did find a male to male db 25 cable, in my stack of cables, so maybe a null modem cable?

The two most needed keys at the moment, are 'd' and 'n'.

after hitting 'n' about 500 times yesterday, and also rubbing it a bit, i finally managed to get the 'n' to appear, so i saved a 'note' file real quick!

chris

The Mod 100 makes a good terminal for the PC, but I dont think I ever tried it the other way round.
The null modem I've always used with that setup looks like this:



db-25___(pin #)___db-25

2 <----------------------> 3
3 <----------------------> 2
4 <----------------------> 5
5 <----------------------> 4
7 <----------------------> 7
6 +
8 +----------------------> 20
20 <---------------------+ 6
+ 8



It's the same wiring diagram as the one they sell at Radio Shack.

--T

[vic user]

wow! what a well designed computer. no wonder people still use it quite a bit.

i am getting a null modem cable on monday, and i have been poking around the term app. to get used to it, and it seems really easy to send text to other computers.

found out how to delete files as well.

and thanks to your suggestion of trying to get right under the key caps with compressed air, Terry, i have managed to get all keys except 'z' to work fairly well.

the 'd' and 'n' work all the time now!

i hope i am successful in uploading .bas files to it as well, since i found a nice archive of games and apps. for it :)

chris

[vic user]

Yr gonna love it for practicing your BASIC on. It'll save all yr lil' programs without external mass storage.

--T

you are not kidding Terry!

i am loving coding on this puppy.

it is very similar to CMB basic 2.0 (no coincidence!)

so basically, (no pun intended) the model 100 is becoming my portable vic 20, at least for coding.

it freaks me out that you can just turn off the computer, and my program is saved!

i have also noticed, that the keys that were not working well, tend to stop working well again, after i have not used the computer for a few days. i am taking this as a sign that the model 100 wants to be used every day, so i am obliging :)

i am just about to send away for a phone and printer cable, from the model 100 site, run by rick hanson.

seems like a really nice guy

[Terry Yager]

Yeah, Club100 is the source for all things Kyocera. They have a great file library too. Oh, yeah...[Hint:] if you have an old connection cable around from an old PC case, the cable that goes from the mobo to a D-shell connector on the outside of the case, just use that, along with an ordinary printer cable. The 24-pin header connector that jacks-in to the PeeCee's mobo is the same as the printer port on the 100. Total cost--nothing, if ya have that stuff laying around anyways. (If ya don't someone here might be happy to provide one)...

--T

[vic user]

thanks, i will look around in my basement, and see what i can come up with.

if i can't find anything, i will post again asking :)

[DoctorPepper]

Well, I've never been able to grok BASIC much at all (or Pascal, or C or...). Assembly language comes much easier to me. What does that make me, an Uber-geek, or what?

--T

That depends. I went from BASIC on the IBM PC to 8088 Assembler and found it made way more sense to me. Now-a-days I tinker around in C and Perl mostly, with a bit of Java and Bash shell thrown in for good measure ;-)

Howard

[Terry Yager]

Yeah, I fooled around with shell scripts for a while (about 5 minutes), running bash under linux. Kinda like DOS batch files.

--T

[carlsson]

Actually, I think Bash et. al. are available in DOS too, so you can run it atop of (or replace?) COMMAND.COM if you prefer.

[DoctorPepper]

Yeah, I fooled around with shell scripts for a while (about 5 minutes), running bash under linux. Kinda like DOS batch files.

--T

But Bash shell scripts are MUCH more powerful than DOS batch files.

There are also other options, namely Perl, Python or Ruby. These are nice little scripting languages that are supprisingly full-featured. I've been working in Perl since 1998, and it is still my favorite language to use when I need to crank-out a quick program. Mainly for one-off programs.

I refer to it as my Swiss Army chainsaw!

[vic user]

Not too bad or what?

I just changed the batteries for my model 100 last week.

That is after almost daily use, for on average about 30 minutes, since August some time.

God, I love this computer!

Chris

[Terry Yager]

Wow! That's pretty good. I don't recall ever getting that kinda mileage outta my ol' Model T's. I never did get the full 20 hours like Tandy used to advertize. I do recall that the more memory you have the more the batteries drain, i.e., a 32K machine sucks down the juice a lot faster than an 8K machine. Also, if you keep a lot of files in memory, it'll drain the batteries faster than an empty machine. If you use the serial port a lot, that'll kill the batteries too, so if possible, use an adaptor when transferring files between the Mod 100 and your PC.
OTOH, I charge the batteries in my Epson PX-8 about once a month, behind about an hour a day of use. That's only about 30 hours to a charge, not the 50 hours the manufacturer used to claim. (This is on a brand-new set of Ni-Cads, replaced last May). I'm not complaining tho, I wish I could get that kinda battery life from all my portables.

--T

[vic user]

I never thought about how doing different things would affect the drain on the batteries.

I wonder if batteries today last longer than when the model 100 first came out, and thus people don't have to change batteries as often now, as compared to 20 years ago.

Man, you really seem to like that Epson!

Chris

[Terry Yager]

I never thought about how doing different things would affect the drain on the batteries. [

Yeah, on the Mod 100, the biggest drain on batteries is that pesky RS-232C port. On my Epson laptops, the built-in tape drives are also a serious battery killer.

I wonder if batteries today last longer than when the model 100 first came out, and thus people don't have to change batteries as often now, as compared to 20 years ago.

I'm sure some advancements in battery technology have been made in the past 20 years or so.

Man, you really seem to like that Epson!

I'm not ashamed to admit that it's my favorite.

--T

[carlsson]

I've wondered about these AA size batteries. Before they used to be 1.5V, but today at least the rechargeable ones are marked 1.2V. I don't understand how this works, if the voltage on a recharged battery is higher than the specified one and 1.2V is as low as it ever will go (if voltage drops during time - I thought only the Ah would drop). The other solution is that most gadgets are not so picky if they get 1.2 or 1.5V per battery.

[tachyon]

Batteries work differently depending on the type.

The old battery testers checked voltage, since a carbon-acid or alkaline battery's voltage decreased as the cell was used. People who design battery powered equipment use a nominal voltage of 1.2 for AAA, AA, C and D cells although the original voltage will be close to 1.5 and the final usable voltage may be as low as 0.9 volts. Most "portable" computers actually operate on 3-ish volts internally, so brand new alkaline batteries will provide approximately 6 volts, which pass through a voltage regulator inside the computer to provide the operating voltage to the chips. Assuming that a computer requires 3.15 volts to power the voltage regulator (5% higher voltage input than output is conservative) then four AA batteries will provide the appropriate voltage until they can no longer supply the needed current.

The voltage curve on Ni-Cad, NiMH and Lithium batteries is much flatter, but as they reach the end of their charge they too drop voltage.

Tachyon

[okto]

Bad news, the keycaps don't come off easily without breaking them.
not true! mine were a snap (pun intended) to get off! use your prybar of choice (small flathead screwdriver, swizzle stick, finger) to pry the keycaps up off the microswitches. they will take a bit of effort, but not so much that you should be at all worried about breakage.