0064 A freakin' Commodore bag, a smokin' TRS-80 Model 4P and some 50 year old manuals

[@migry]

4:05 ... and neither did I. I could cry thinking about all the collectable retro stuff and computers which I tossed out.

[@minty_Joe]

If I remember correctly, SWTPC's CT-1024 is based on Don Lancaster's (RIP) TV Typewriter project. They both have slightly identical designs.

[@uni-byte]

"PPd" back in the day usually meant "postage paid", or what we would call "free delivery" these days.

[@jurgenreissing8209]

I have to disagree, the Model 4P is the most astheticly pleasing computer I have ever experienced. To each his own. Love your channels. Thank you.

[@berkeleygang1834]

My dad was enthralled by SWTP audio equipment. Replaced most of his Heathkit audio equipment. PPD = Postage Prepaid.

[@vwestlife]

Or sometimes more specifically, PPD = Postage Paid Domestic (i.e. to within the U.S.).

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Yes but what about Carver.

[@rubberduck4966]

In Germany such types of "Laptops/Portables" were called "Schlepp-dich-tod" - translates to ~ "carry youself dead". This things made people to have arms like Urang Utans reaching the floor with the hands when standing upright.

[@danriches7328]

I mistakenly left my Atari Falcon 030 at my old house when I moved out and I'm just so gutted over it, it'd cost a fortune to replace and I can't afford to spend the £3k required to buy another one. I absolutely loved that machine. I feel everyone's pain when they later realise they shouldn't have ditched old hardware back in the day. Since then I've replaced my Atari ST and bought a BBC model B and an Amiga 500 which are all now working perfectly which is some consolation to the loss of the Falcon, but only just! Great videos Adrian, your channel(s) are on my top list of favourites!!

[@AnoNym-iv9ig]

i don't comment a lot on videos on youtube in general. But this channel deserves one: Watching your videos calm me down instantly. You are so laid back and relaxed in my opinion. And boy are you skilled in electronics and computers and shit. 🙃 i really wonder why your channels hasn't more subscribers. Thank you for your work!

[@lascheque]

If I remember correctly the VIC20/VC20 was sold in that bag for a while, so the german style box should fit in there nicely.

[@PatrickDunn13078]

The 4p is gorgeous. Before you opened it the way the case is reminded me of my wife’s old sewing machine with the case.

[@mr.beansstuff1370]

I use to program one of the CT-1024 systems in the Planetarium at OMSI, with a program in EPROM. It had a "custom" wood case with a monitor on top (Similar to an Apple II). It was hooked to a couple of side projectors mounted to a home made X, Y, Z platform. We called them the "Zoom projectors". One projector could cover half the dome. Toss up a slide of a planet, comet, etc and move it around the dome. Large zoom lens attached to the projector, modified using a stepper motor to make it a motorized zoom lens. This was in the 90's before we purchased a digital Planetarium projector (Digistar II). I didn't build the "Zoom" system but had to teach myself how to program it since everyone who knew how, were no longer there. Bit of a pain to program the movements. Fun days back then.

[@chuckthetekkie]

Can you imagine having to type in a game of today rather than just downloading it ore-compiled? I remember getting these 4 BASIC game books so many years ago and you had to type the entire program. What was cool was that the each book explained what each line was doing.

[@volvo09]

Back when the game was both educational and enjoyable.

[@frankowalker4662]

Ha ha. Can you get the type-in version of GTA V ? LOL

[@PatrickDunn13078]

That was how you learned. I spent hours typing in programs from books and magazines like Compute!

[@chuckthetekkie]

@@PatrickDunn13078 Unfortunately I only had the books to read. I never had a computer that had BASIC until over 20 years later when I got an Apple Iic at an estate sale for I think $20. My parents couldn't afford a computer. My first computer was an Epson that my Aunt gave to me because her boss gave it to her because she upgraded it to Windows 95 and did nothing but BSOD. So it was given to me since I didn't have a computer and I did manage to fix it and I wasn't even 10 yet. I never had any of those early computers as they were just too expensive and could only afford hand me downs. I did get a Commodore 128 but I don't know if I still have it and I don't know if it even worked as it didn't have a PSU. If it was in the basement when it got flooded or in the storage unit that was illegally auctioned off I would no longer have it.

[@DavePoo2]

12:17 - The postage mark says 1973 for the SWTPC booklet

[@vwestlife]

Tech Time Traveller did a video about that crude dot-matrix printer: "One of the first printers for a home computer: the SWTPC PR40"

[@jhonbus]

The burning smell was "Leftover RIFA". I keep forgetting that stuff's legal over there now 😂

[@tretter1452]

This is Tyler, I did actually watch the previous septandy episode of the TRS-80 4P that Seth sent to you before sending this one to you. If you had told me not to send it, that is my bad as I don't remember that. I noticed on that previous video you had made, that it was a very modded TRS-80 4P lacking the original disk drives, you said something about that in that video. I just figured it would be kinda neat to learn what fault this one has had the last time I powered it up, and it might also be neat to see what changes Tandy had made to the newer machines before the TRS-80 line ceased to be manufactured. It is a much newer machine, you can tell that by the plastic clips on the case's base cover. The other one you had done a video on earlier was a much older version with the metal clips. I also did warn you that it absolutely does smoke when plugged in and turned on! If you decide it is worth while, hopefully it will not be an absolute pain to get back to fully functioning. I was not entirely sure a fault had occurred in the power supply, because wouldn't it just be completely dead after smoking? But you had it do exactly what it did to me 10+ years ago when I put it in storage.

[@laserwave6012]

Hey Adrian and greetings from Sweden. I got one of those bags as well. This is the first time I have seen another one around.

[@williamsquires3070]

I think “PPD” meant, “postage paid”. In other words, the cost included shipping via USPS.

[@RyeOnHam]

Custer is right near the Canadian Border on the 5. Driven through there a few times.

[@vintagekyoshodotcom]

Omg I love that trs4p! I can’t wait to see it work!

[@borayurt66]

Either us, or our parents eventually tossed our 80's computers in the late 90's, when they were considered to be nothing but obsolete junk. There was a dark age there when 8bits were not retros yet, and became totally worthless. I somewhat luckily kept my ZX Spectrum from 1983 mainly because it had sentimental value and didn't take up much space, but I tossed a lot of things, among which my original IBM XT, along with its model M keyboard, tossed my Psion Series 5MX, my Casio Cassiopea Fiva 101 etc, which I am banging my head at walls for now. That ZX Spectrum is the reason I am into retro computers now, enjoying it to the fullest along with quite some other 8bits that I have acquired within the last 6-7 years.

[@CurtisBoyle]

It was cool se eing the old manuals for the SWTPC - I recognize several companies that later went on to produce software for the TRS-80 Color Computer as well. Computerware ended up doing BASIC compilers, utilities, graphics packages, games, etc. (including stuff sold by Tandy themselves). Microware later made the OS-9 operating system for the Motorola 6809 CPU (descendant of the 6800), which was sold for the Coco starting in 1983, and then actually did both “Super” Extended BASIC (adding the Microsoft’s) and OS-9 Level 2 for the Coco 3.

[@wolfgangg.behrens7347]

Everytime I here "super mini" I just look at the videos length and chuckle 😀

[@monchiabbad]

Dear Mr. Black you now have assembly instructions and schemes for the mainboard with 3 connectors so you should be able to have the pcb's made and place and solder the parts, and thus upgrade your swtpc.

[@langph]

My father bought a C16 when I was young. It came in exact the same bag. The C16 box (European) fits exactly in it.

[@frankowalker4662]

Here in the UK, in 1980, the Sinclair ZX80 computer ONLY came in kit form. In 1981, the ZX81 came out as a kit or ready assembled, there was also an upgrade kit to turn the ZX80 into a ZX81. The ready built ZX81 out sold the kit ZX81 so much the kit was discontinued after about 2 months. By the time Sinclair released the ZX Spectrum, it was pre-assembled only. Those manuals and schematics are so cool.

[@somethinggeeky]

The main channel video of fixing that burning computer is going to be epic. Can't wait

[@jaredwright5917]

So many cool products in that SWTP catalog. I'd love to build all of the kits and go through all the projects.

[@tarzankom]

Those manuals were ancient. Such an uncommon piece of doc.

[@KennethScharf]

PPD, "Post Paid"? PR40 printer used a small dot matrix printer mech that was intended for use in point of sale terminals (cash registers) to print sales receipts.

[@tekvax01]

those vertical Vu meters were quite popular back in the 70s! many ham radio and CB SWR bridges had them; as well as quite a few cassette and reel-to-reel recorders.

[@anakondase]

I have one of those bags, colours are a bit different though. Got it when I did my internship at Commodore Scandinavia back in 1985. It was perfect to transport my C64/1541 and other stuff I needed to different happenings.

[@Electronics-Rocks]

I kept the first computer I bought which was a Vic20 which I turned into EPROM programmer & Logic Analyser as college projects. My first project was to control my train set. I did damage the Via which has been replaced a couple of times.

[@xnonsuchx]

Skip to 36:12 if you aren’t that interested in 6800 docs

[@ShadowTronBlog]

PPD typically means Postage Paid Domestic meaning the seller will pay for postage in the US.

[@GDLarcade]

I remember typing in programs for my C-64 from Compute magazines (and Compute's Gazette). Such a pain but if they worked it was great and you could learn a lot from them. Eventually they had checksums in the programs you typed in and a program to check the checksums. Of course, you had to type in the checksum checker program first, haha. If I remember right there was eventually a disk version of the magazine. I re-acquired my first computer, a VIC-20, about 10 years ago and it still works and looks great after a little TLC. The cassettes with all my programs either got recorded over or lost over the years, but it's nice to have the computer again. My C-64 is long gone along with all the programs and everything. Never thought after getting an Amiga I would ever care about the C-64 again... :( I did save all my Amiga stuff so that's a plus. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[@8bitwiz_]

7:00 I think ppd means "postpaid". 9:52 That Star Trek graphic was normally used to show off graphics from the COSMAC ELF, so maybe it uses the same RCA video chip? 12:30 Yes, that printer looks weird like that, like some kind of display for an antique, it looked strange even back in the day. 21:45 I'm mostly surprised that they didn't put that code into a 16-column hex dump, like that later one. (And that's called "S19" format.) The checksums can help you find typing errors.

[@The_Hanter]

41:06 - You can see smoke coming out of it 😄 Or was it just dust blown out by the fan?

[@mogwaay]

I can definitely see you heading off to a VCF with your Commodore bag of C64s slung over your shoulder 😅

[@Dukefazon]

4:15 - yeah, that's sad. We had a C64 that was sold to buy an Amiga 500, that was sold too to buy a PC. We got these machines relatively late, so when the Amiga was sold my brother bought an Intel Celeron based system. So we no longer have any of those old machines or disks. I used to draw a lot of cool stuff in Deluxe Paint on Amiga, made little animations and quirky images. I wish I still had those, those are the only things I really miss and cannot be replicated. BTW, I still have that Celeron based system!

[@jeremychrzan]

Adrian's going to be taking his VIC20 to LAN parties in that Commodore bag. 🙂

[@toddsilk8153]

Reguarding the MP-R. If you had a mp-a2 processor board there were sockets for the 2716 eproms. The software for the programmer came on cassette tape. If I remember correctly there were two types of 2716 rom chips and you had to be sure you got the correct ones for use in it. The AC-30 used 300 baud and what was called the Kansas City format for the audio on the tapes.

[@the_holy_forestfairy]

@4:00 min I'm still mourning my extremely overclocked AMD K6II with 2 Voodoo2s, SoundBlaster LIVE!, max RAM and max HDD or my Maxed-Out A500 and Maxed-Out A1000. I was just stupid back then...

[@Cincinnatijames]

I got a VHS tape at a thrift with a part of North and South and a few episodes of Dynasty. It has all the commercials including a Commodore 128 commercial.

[@stigmichaelsomsrilundin8255]

Thats the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) in the picture :)

[@craigforrest]

I think PPd means Postage Paid. Great video!

[@jeromethiel4323]

What's kinda funny, it's the case that's the hard part to keep nice. You can usually fix the electronics, but you cannot get replacement plastic case bits. You may be able to 3D print something, but even that is hit or miss. But even custom chips can be worked around. The case, not so much. So scoring a good case computer is like finding unicorn poop.

[@jose_garcia_]

The bag is for the boxed VC20. I've got it complete. Greetings from Spain.

[@fumthings]

Adrian, you didnt do the two sign at the beginning, but dont worry, i did it for you.

[@johnboy1810]

You know, for a second when that manual said "runs in 4k", I thought resolution - closely followed by "that's a bit advanced for the time isn't it"

[@MartinAncher]

I remember I received a bag like that with my Commodore 64. I live in Denmark, so it was probably for the European market. Mine was used a lot, was thrown out being totally both torn and moldy. Just over-used.

[@jaycee1980]

Those Tiger amps were notorious for blowing up due to instability!

[@tramadol42]

Yeah, my VC20 stuff still lives in this bag

[@smeezekitty]

Since the font is very consistent, I wonder if OCR can be used to get the hex values of the programs. Probably need to be manually checked but that's much easier than a full manual transcription

[@CygnusTM]

“PPd” is short for “postage paid”, so shipping is included in the price.

[@Trenchbroom]

Yes as opposed to COD - cash on delivery.

[@TalleyLewis]

I tossed my dual voodoo2's when I got a Geforce 256. So I feel you.

[@stefanegger]

Oh my god... He said it does not fit, of course it does fit. It is made to fit a EU PAL VC20 styrofoam and a Datasette, as it was sold as a set. The rest of the space next to the Datasette 1530 (on top of the VC20 packaging) was filled with a cardboard inlay/rectange. Does not fit Does not know is different to does not fit.

[@JeepinBoon]

My luck, it's usually the Rifa across the mains input that goes and I'm snatching the power cord.

[@PrinsessePeach]

This video makes it a bit easier when I think about throwing out my first PC, a 386 SX 16 MHz with 5 MB of RAM and a 20 MB HDD. I also had a EGA monitor. I wasn’t the only one dumb enough doing that.

[@PrinsessePeach]

🤓

[@tommyovesen]

I have the exact same nice bag. It's supposed to carry the VIC-20 in it's box, then it fits perfectly.

[@neilthomas6042]

Interesting and entertaining video. I got rid of most of my stuff, for basically a pittance; wish I kept it. Most of my stuff now, I’ll try to keep. Any problems that arise, I will take to be repaired, since I’m not technical in any way. My Raspberry Pi’s, if they go wrong I won’t get them fixed, just buy new ones, because the are cheap.

[@Starchface]

Yeah there was that weird time from about 1990-2005 when we were throwing away "old" computers on the basis they were obsolete and useless junk. I threw out my Coco 3 in 2000 and have been kicking myself ever since. I hope someone rescued it from the trash.

[@properjob2311]

I would love a bag like that

[@terryraymond7984]

The Apple II had Stellar Trek it was a blast

[@agranero6]

My first professional computer was a TRS-89 Model I, soon after a TRS-80 Model III (aon their clones) and a gave maintenance on TRS-80 Model II, TI-99, Osborne and even Superbrain (in Brazil there was a clone of it). But I never heard about Model IV (in Brazil at least at that time Apple and PCs were becoming more popular I guess). But there was a clone of Model III that was called CP-500 M80 that was a Model III with CPM suport. I imagine if this was not a clone of Model IV with a Model III form factor. I have fond memories of TRS-89 Models I and III. They were the ones where I learned to program after I bought an Apple II clone (called DM II).

[@borayurt66]

Hımmm, that clip on thingy with LEDs is really neat,. I am guessing there must be some simple trickery to visually slow things down in that box because otherwise high speed data will be virtually indistinguishable from a solid HIGH. It can be very useful tool to crudely check activity on logics and RAM ICs before desoldering them... I am getting ideas grinding in my head, I wonder if DIP IC clips are still easy to get...

[@Salmonaxe223]

Tech Time Traveler did a video on that SWTPC printer.

[@tibr]

Isn't it just awesome how Adrian uploading can turn a good day to a great one 😄

[@mfree80286]

11:45 I recall watching another youtube 'archivist' getting that very line printer up and running, or attempting to....

[@JenniferinIllinois]

Commodore bag to take your Commodore 64 to a LAN party for some gaming. Hehehe...

[@mfree80286]

PPd might be post paid delivery, but given the costs and the business model it's more likely to be Price Published to Dealer, akin to saying MSRP.

[@terryraymond7984]

Was the paper tape the punch cards that you could store programs on?

[@roybixby6135]

Back when I was a programmer in the 70s I collected many files. But I transferred them to a PC in the early 80s - still got them but on backup tape. I still have the 8' 5¼ 3½ and 3 inch drives and disks. Pity i'm too lazy to plug a tape into a computer today ... 🦘

[@kevinkeeney9418]

Heh. Smokin' is a very different thing than smoking in these videos.

[@Thelemorf]

I still have my original NES, Snes, N64 and amiga 500 all with the boxes and manuals. Also still have my first pc (486 dx4 100) and the fulltower from my first own pc build. 😂

[@TheGreatAtario]

It's funny how quick you've gotten at rattling off "South West Technical Products Corporation" :3c

[@geoffpool7476]

Would like to see more videos about the TRS 80 4P. I have the exact same box. Also, where do you upload your scanned docs? Thank you!

[@CoreyDeWalt]

Tech time traveler has one of those swtp printers and demonstrates it.

[@jckesinger]

My uncle is from out near Custer, he'd be a bit older but I'd bet that if he didn't know Mark his family'd know Mark's family.

[@williamsquires3070]

I’d paint the 4P to match the rest of the TRS-80 lineup. Oh, and get rid of any other RIFA caps in the power supply! 😊

[@michaelstoliker971]

How many bread bins does it hold? PPd means postage paid (or prepaid).

[@bitslasher89]

Could you in theory use that documentation and diagrams to re-create the PCBs and build new versions of this computer?

[@KrzysztofC-1]

So how long are non-small mail calls if this was 45mins

[@kd5byb]

PPD = post paid. Or as we'd say today, FREE SHIPPING!!! ;)

[@icsunonova]

u have to put the boxed vic20 in it,,,this is how u bought them back in the day..i had 1 too

[@CherryKirktown]

I left my complete TRS-80 Model 1 with my parents when I went to university. It was modded with things like speed double and lower case font. I had the expansion interface with full memory and two floppy drives. There was also an "official" printer and vox unit. While I was away, my mom tossed the entire system. Such a waste.

[@christopherdecorte1599]

Since you are using a pc as a terminal when you scan the games record wouldn't you be able to format the scan to recognize the characters then use copy past to quickly load them instead of manually typing the code? Seems doable to me but the terminal I used was in the library when I was a kid a long time ago lol.

[@dennissdigitaldump8619]

Could probably OCR the program sheets, and make a script to send the program via serial from a modern pc.

[@furripupau]

Somebody on youtube has a video of that SWPTC printer working.

[@stevethepocket]

That's a pretty forward-thinking position for the arrow keys on that 4P keyboard!

[@elizabethdue4801]

Well. This big adult kid know how to fix stuff.... burning TRS-80 computer

[@ntsrvr]

That wasn't a soldering iron. Someone dropped their cigarette.

[@joeysartain6056]

PPD means postage paid.

[@raymaster]

cant imagine getting something of the value from ones parents after getting hurt.. must have been a rich family.

[@ultrametric9317]

Maybe that wasn't magic smoke, maybe it was fried arthropod :)

[@galenrubybloom9063]

PPd... Postage Paid! The price listed includes the cost of US Mail delivery to you!

[@maddoggt6145]

Still better than anything with Intel inside.

[@bobsbarnworkshop]

Ppd means “postage paid”

[@Mrshoujo]

Commodore bag? That's nothing. I have an Atari Jaguar duffel bag!

[@federalexpression]

ppd: postage paid?