TRS-80 Model 100 with RARE Bubble Memory Expansion - World's First Laptop

Recently I picked up a couple Model 100 laptops, including one with a very strange expansion unit. This is apparently a "SoundSight Bubble Memory" from 1984. It was a somewhat rare add-on that gave the computer an additional 128k of memory (up from a max of 32k).
While I have not been able to find any information on the Bubble memory online, I did figure out how to interface with it! The associated ROM chip needs to be activated by running "CALL 63012" from BASIC. The user then has a "Bubble" program that lets you view different RAM pages and load/save files to and from the Bubble unit.
I was hoping to also use a TPDD Backpack drive (www.soigeneris.com/tandy-tpdd..., but ran into issues with the two Tandy 100s I have. One appears to have a bad memory chip, and the other is such an early model that it has the wrong modem resistors on the serial port. Because of this, I also couldn't connect either of them to a modern computer via serial port. That might have to wait for a future video when I have time to re-solder some resistors.
The Tandy Radio Shack (TRS-80) model 100 is considered by some to be the first "true" laptop, although there were a few other contenders like the Epson HX-20. The series was followed by the model 102 and 200, all of which I actually had when I was a kid in the 90s! They were based on the Kyocerea KC-85 from Japan, and there were a few compatible clones like the NEC PC-8201 and Olivetti M-10. Accessories included a tape drive, floppy disk drive, acoustic modem, printers, etc. There were also many aftermarket ROM expansions and custom software for various uses. These were very popular with travelling salesmen, writers, reporters, and others who needed a computer outside of the office.
Big thanks to FreeGeek Twin Cities (www.freegeektwincities.org/) for providing one of these laptops and the Bubble RAM!
Backpack how-to video: • Quick Start: Backpack ...
More Backpack documentation: github.com/Jeff-Birt/Backpack
I found a ton of TRS-80 software on www.club100.org/, so if and when I get the serial port working, I can try out all kinds of games, sound and graphics programs, etc!
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[@fiendlybrds]

RIP - cockroach egg purses in the first unit you opened.

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

Yep, my first thought as I found them in an old adding machine.

[@lady_draguliana784]

yep, I was thinking roach eggs or roach droppings depending on density and texture

[@user-pg1qc1rt8h]

So its got basic ? That means programming is possible on it ? It would be awsome if it supported 3.5 inch floppy.

[@michaellichter4091]

Those would have been the future machinists, no wonder it doesn't work.

[@mountainmanmcbeachfront5296]

@@user-pg1qc1rt8hYes you can program in basic and then run the basic programs. I’ve never heard of the floppy drive for it but I have different rom chips you can put in it and even modern SD card mods that people make check out club 100

[@mattparker9726]

18:27 reach out to Adrian Black. I'm sure he'd LOVE to look at these units, he's fixed MANY 1980s PCs and has an entire basement full of rare and dedicated parts to many machines.

[@itrstt66]

does he have a youtube channel?

[@sleeptyper]

@@itrstt66 Adrian's Digital Basement

[@mattparker9726]

@@itrstt66 yep Adrian's Digital Basement is his main channel.

[@isthattrue1083]

Same here. lol. I have many Tandy's. They're the first computers I ever had. I have the Altier, the first IBM PC Compatible, Commodore 64, Amiga, etc. I even have an original Macintosh Plus with Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, etc., signatures etched into the inside of the case. I have many old 8086 computers and 8088 computers from IBM, TARGUS, TANGENT, etc.

[@isthattrue1083]

@@mattparker9726 Oh I got a buddy with a poll barn that makes his basement look empty... lol. Computers from the 1960s and 70s in there.

[@spudstalker9824]

Oh no those look like oothecas at 07:58 this is why I always open old electronics with gloves lmao

[@thant0se]

Work pest control, that is exactly what you're looking at. It may not necessarily be roach, though. That could also be a few species of fairly common fly.

[@AdrianBoyko]

About 15 years ago, I had a business meeting with IT folks at the St. Petersburg (Florida) PD and they had literal STACKS AND STACKS of these that they were finally retiring. I guess they had them in the police cars.

[@Lejar6972]

I'm commenting as soon as it came up in the video so that I don't forget (so I don't know if you figure out later): when the battery is soldered on like that, you can get a replacement that you solder in which can take a coin battery. Definitely worth it even if the battery still works, because those are prone to leakage!

[@PU7MZD]

Saveitforparts Space Program just got its mainframe units

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

Except for calling Elon, it may be the only other thing that can get Butch and Suni's chin back home safe from the ISS.

[@ZoranStefanovskiProfile]

I relate to this video more then you can imagine.

[@NG-VQ37VHR]

You're awefully lucky to have lived that many years and still not know what those little "beans" are.

[@saveitforparts]

I grew up in Alaska and we didn't have those little guys!

[@gorak9000]

What are they? Turds of some variety?

[@danielcamposramos9943]

Thank you Gabe for this wild ride bro. My contact with oldest tech was with an Apple II C that my father smuggled past the dictatorship blockade that was in course here in Brazil. Important tip: some "standard" keys to enter the BIOS: del f2 f10 f12 . Try all of them.

[@WilliamHostman]

f8 is also common. Many modern machines use two different ones, one for bios, the other for just the bootloader choice menu.

[@ICanDoThatToo2]

Sometimes the F-keys are set to send other key codes, like volume or e-mail, and you need to hold the Fn key to make them transmit proper F-key codes.

[@RNMSC]

I still have my Tandy 200. It needs a new power switch, The 200 was one of the reasons that Radio Shack was in operation as long as it was. It was the first clamshell computer on the market, and Tandy Patented the concept. For the next 17 years, any laptop computer that was sold in a clamshell format, payed a royalty to Tandy to be able to sell that device. It wasn't the only thing they did right, but moving to selling cell phones pretty much killed the stores.

[@saveitforparts]

Yeah I still joke that you could go into Radio Shack and the teenage manager wouldn't know what anything was outside the phone counter. It was a cool store once you got into the back half!

[@WilliamHostman]

The local radio shacks in Corvallis and Eugene Oregon hung on until about 2015... I hit a total of 4 of them looking for a specific adapter. Eagle River Alaska had one until about 2008... It's just not cost effective to have small local electronic parts stores... and many of the RS stores doubled down on gimmicks and toys with uncompetitive pricing, rather than the thing most serious techs needed it to be: An electronic parts supply.

[@MickeyMousePark]

Grid Compass was the first clam shell laptop released in 1982 ..Grid collected royalties for the Tandy 200 (1985) until 1988 when Tandy bought Grid... in 1993 Tandy sold off their computer division (including Grid) to AST Research.. Tandy went from the late 1970's as largest personal computer company (most years they were ahead of Apple in sales) ..by mid 1980's they were the largest computer company in the world and largest consumer electronic supplier..they were one of the first companies to sell the Motorola brick cell phone in 1989 Model CT-300 ...by early 1990s they were no longer manufacturing their own computers ...Tiger Direct and Egghead were killing the electronics side...they tried selling other companies computers and other companies cell phones. ..like Fry's Electronics and Radio Shack were slow to move to online..and that is what killed both companies among hundreds others..Tandy sold their Computer City stores off in 1998 to CompUSA.. I worked for Tandy at a Tandy Computer Service Center in the 1980s basically at Tandy's peak ..they had a weird business strategy...the Radio Shack retail stores lost money for 10 months a year and November and December made up for it..this worked for at least 20 years..but could not work in the post internet days...the Tandy Computer stores (which in the 1990s became Computer City) made profit every month through the 1980s but died by late 1990s... Radio Shack lasted for 80 years starting in 1921 by 2000 they were pretty much dead...

[@RNMSC]

​@MickeyMousePark Thank you for the correction. I was not aware of either the grid compass, nor that Tandy had purchased them. I suspect that where I had learned the erroneous information was also unaware of those factors, just knew that Tandy was earning royalties on the Clamshell design, and thought it was related to th 299.

[@saveitforparts]

I've heard a lot of retail stores operated that way, it's where the term "Black Friday" came from. That post-Thanksgiving shopping rush was the first time of the year stores would be "In the black" and making a profit for the year.

[@MrMesospheric]

You get today's 'made me smile' award for reminding me of bubble memory. Mmmmmm! Buuuuubbbbbble memorrrrryyyy...

[@W4TRI]

DB-9 was for Light pens and other things. I had a 100 with the case you have. 3 1/2" drive Acoustic Couplers and a Disk Video Interface for home. Thanks for the memories! never saw the Bubble memory before.

[@orca984]

You could ask the 8-bit guy for help, pretty sure he knows stuff about thr TRS80

[@cocusar]

I'd go with Adrian Black because of reasons :)

[@dmacpher]

@@cocusar📎

[@cocusar]

@@dmacpher not only that, but now I feel it's a company, focused solely on the x16 and the petscii robots and such games. it's fine, I don't see anything wrong (besides the 🔫), but it's not why I subbed to that guy. I was a translator of his videos back in the day, I'm not a hater. Just not what I expected. adrian seems to be a more down to earth man, with overall good intentions and I always get hooked on his videos.

[@babayaga7434]

@@cocusarDavid isn't really making much money off the X16 and such, just enough to keep it afloat. He's an enthusiast trying to bring the old days back, same reason he's opening the arcade so cheap. Seems every bit as genuine as Adrian.

[@Dekkia_]

@@babayaga7434 He's also someone who brings a huge-ass gun to a bakery to "own the libs".

[@snowpirate2652]

As someone who grew up with typewriters being a thing in libraries and in my home, I love this formfactor for a basic writing computer.

[@WilliamHostman]

For me, the issue is that it lacks a fold-up screen, to make the ergonomics work; 5° detents to 30° would have been REAL nice.. but added fragility. Many forget just how narrow that viewing angle for the LCD really is.

[@myrandom603]

I have a couple of these and there's a pretty decent multi-ROM floating around that expands the usability of them. There's quite a few games and the serial to WiFi adapter even works on them as well. Awesome video as always and this is somehow reminding me I need to order a fresh OSHA shirt soon!

[@travnewmatic]

Thank you for this rollercoaster 🎉 love your content and hope all is well with you and yours

[@genetomblin2883]

One of the major US news agencies used 100's for field reporters. I personally have a connection to bubble memory. They were supposed to be the next big thing for personal computers ... but they had thermal issues which killed them.

[@gcm4312]

It's very rare to capture capacitors in that stage of their lifecycle! What a find ;)

[@RNMSC]

Most of these caps are from an era before China tried to steel the recipe Japan had developed for electrolytic capacitors, and got the wrong recipe. A lot of companies saw the low price on the new caps out of China, and saved a bunch of money by not buying the proven Japanese caps. Only to learn 5-10 years later that the caps would fail and take the board they are soldered to along for that ride. These caps are going to be good until the electrolytic in the batteries dries out. That will present a more observable problem w/o having to look for damage on the circuit board. (usually)

[@gcm4312]

@@RNMSC it was a (bad) joke about the cochroach eggs :D

[@RNMSC]

@@gcm4312 Ah. joke went over my head. I'm not likely to have reached up to grab it in that case. ;-) I do know that there are a lot of vintage radios that do get their caps replaced, not because of the breakdown, but because of the drying out. Some of them can be restored by feeding power to the radios through a variac and slowly bringing the voltage up until it's at whatever voltage the power supply is expecting. But I think that's more for power supply capacitors. I do kind of like the idea of it being an effective torture test of Cockroaches though. 🙂

[@JonRoulet]

Thank you for this TRIP down memory lane I remember my dad bringing this home. He was proud of his model 100 computer. I was not allowed to touch it a whole lot but it is the first device I got to see work on the world scale with compuserve and he showed me a few games on there. Regrettedly it got tossed out a couple years back and I'm so wishing it had not been thrown out. It was 1 of 3 vintage computers Thrown out the other 2 was a Texas Instruments 99 a and atari ST520. But thanks again for the trip back to the 80s.

[@saveitforparts]

Oh dang! Sad when old stuff gets thrown out, but there always seems to be a time period where stuff is too old to be useful and not old enough to be antique...

[@JonRoulet]

@@saveitforparts At this point I do think it's an antique my dad was also proud that this was the last computer that Bill Gates actually worked on directly another reason I really wish I had kept track of it

[@JonRoulet]

@@saveitforparts I found something deep in the depths of my garage basement I'd like to share a picture of what I found that I will not be saving for parts do you have a way I can send you this picture of my TRS 80 model 100

[@resdog655]

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog - is used to check to see if every letter is working, when you type 'jumped' you miss the s :)

[@chadwi4648]

Verify: OK! The bubble RAM is where all the greatest test files hang out. :)

[@Bmovie5000]

I had one of those! A hand me down from my wealthy doctor uncle. He bought it for on the go work as a roving pathologist working at hospitals in the Vancouver lower mainland. It was already a curiosity by the time I got it in the early 90’s and had fun fooling around with Basic coding. Sadly it was cast out during one of many moves.

[@mythics791]

I was 12 years old 1982 i first heard about bubble memory. i found it very interesting the history behind this.

[@adayinthelife5496]

Tape memory...WOW you just brought back memories.

[@keokukia9800]

I have a Model 100 and I'm the original purchaser. Still all original and mint condition. I've got the casette, RS-232 cable, and all the other accessories.

[@saveitforparts]

Nice! I wish I'd kept more of my old stuff.

[@Pete37313]

Loving the t-shirt change

[@sivart731]

"I've heard of Grub in linux, but never in a Tandy 100" OMG I literally LOL'd

[@gannas42]

This is a pretty cool retrospective. I wasn't fortunate enough to have access to computers until the i486sx. A friend of mine had a TRS-80 at his house, though, but his father wouldn't let him "play" with it. Heh Those resistors are probably causing you issues... making it look like you have a flow control/checksum problem. I feel you on the hesitation to desolder more on the main board. Even though I have been soldering all my life and even do surface mount soldering this retro repair stuff makes me nervous because mistakes happen. And ruining an antique is painful!

[@SawdustSoftwareSiliconChippy]

Wow, that's awesome! Bubble memory is effectively, permanent, as in , ReWritable RWCDROM, of FLASH RAM memory stick, etc. he he he, how many people picked up on the "banned in Texas" joke. 😆🙄 Great find with the TRS-100's. Lovely presentation.

[@donaldmonroe8503]

Thank you for taking me way back 'in my day.'

[@richardkroon8410]

Banned in texas joke was perfect, great video on a piece of obscure and unusual tech. More like this would be awesome! Save it for parts, or save it for fun? Videos on the backwoods Alaska tech nerd origin story would also be very welcome.

[@phaandorpertwee6981]

I still got my Olivetti M10, originally purchased in the 80s. It's nearly same as the Model 100 but has a tilt screen. Also got the Memory expansion. And oh yes .. a Dataphon S-21d acoustic coupler since it was all portable and battery operated. Good old days of dialup Mailboxes and DATEX-P :)

[@PeteWord]

That was a fun video! I tried calling you at 3 but my cell phone expects more numbers.

[@MD-rn1mp]

I remember these from high school. They had them in the computer lab. I tried taking the computer class and back then, most people were skeptical that they were going anywhere. I couldn’t figure out how to make it work in the lab so I asked the kid “Mike” running the lab to help me. He was a year behind me and kinda squirrelly looking, but seemed like he knew what he was doing… I was really impatient and I think I transferred out of the class the next week. I think Mike Dell went on to work with computers after high school. I probably should have kept up with him. 🤦🏻

[@55Ramius]

Back in 1976, I picked up a old mechanical adding machine. add, subtract, divide and multiply but I could never get it to work so I just took it apart and found a small clear plastic square( Bublbe memory ) and after looking with a magnifying glass, I could see tiny tiny donut magnets with super thin wires running verticaly and hortizontaly through each magnet. I still have that thing but it is packed away deep somewhere. I am getting closer to having my new garage insulated, walls and wired for a lab and maybe KZbin later. So, I will be going through everything I have stored and should come across it. It looks so delicate.

[@MickeyMousePark]

that would be Magnetic-core memory (1955 and 1975) not bubble memory (1960s-1970s)...

[@mattparker9726]

1:58 I am SO BEYOND jealous that you live near Freegeek. The sheer volume of old PCs and parts there makes me kinda thirsty, ngl.

[@saveitforparts]

I'm editing an interview with all the staff right now, should be out in a couple weeks!

[@falconthefox]

Try to get hold of The 8 bit guy, this is right up his alley

[@manuroitman]

Please tell us more about your childhood, sounds super interesting!

[@isthattrue1083]

The CMOS chip on the bottom is to add an embedded operating system. They were all the rage in the early 80s with Tandy computers. Only computer store I've even been to that not only sold computers but also leather and leather tools. They were also sold inside Radio Shack stores. I also had a Tandy 1000 RLX back in the day.

[@travnewmatic]

Came for the old ass computing, stayed for the bootloader jokes 💪

[@PamelaCurry]

I used to work tech support for PCSG. I was issued a model 100 with a Chipmunk floppy, the memory bank (256k) the battery bank b and a rom bank and of course the SuperRom.

[@aserta]

7:57 cockroach pods - either American or Brown Banded. The literal bug in the system. :)

[@AddieDirectsTV]

2:07 Yes! FGTC!! I volunteer in the Retro Room on occasion.

[@Sorbus79]

I'm sure 'Hey Birt!' would be a good contact. He has loads of portable Tandy troubleshooting videos

[@polybius223]

A few years ago, I was given an Atari 800 (sadly now has a dead keyboard) from a family member. More recently, I just added a TI-99/4a, and a C64 to my “roster”. Hadn’t ever seen a Commodore of any kind in person before I got my 64. I will say, I like the 99 more than either. It looks nice, without being massive like the 800, and has a surprisingly decent keyboard. My favorite thing is that it has easier to remember (for me) BASIC commands for graphics and sound. The POKE command just always seemed like an afterthought to me, and makes the Commodore have a slight “prototype-y” feel. “CALL SOUND” just feels more “right”. The three computers still on my “wanted list”, are a 100 like yours, a bare bones 98 era machine (Think a Packard Bell would be a cheap way to fill that void) and a Compaq Portable (or an SX-64, either would be cool.) I’ve also got a 486, but something’s wrong with it right now, and I don’t have an AT keyboard for it.

[@patchvonbraun]

I lugged a Toshiba T1100 through New Zealand in 1989. Like a damned chump :)

[@Zulgeteb]

@28:03 sometimes it doesnt work with usb keyboards unless you change it in the bios (i think its called USB Legacy) so try keyboard with DIN-plug maybe? also its not always F12, some use (depending on brand/version) F1, F2, F10, Esc or Del also be sure the Fn is or isnt active depending on what is required. And i think sometimes pressing spacebar (or was it another key) makes bootscreen visible (maybe also showing key you are looking for).

[@_mrcrypt]

Amazing! Dig that backpack, too! Thanks 🏴‍☠️

[@chadshobbies4018]

My first computer was a trs 80 coco. I learned to code in trs color basic. It was the beginning of a long journey of coding.

[@steveaw5895]

Hey , it’s the end of June. Time for some boating videos. I’ll still watch whatever you post, but I like boats.

[@jimmaag4274]

My first computer was a used COCO I got for working afternoons at Radio Shack in the fall semester of '85. Rigged up an old portable cassette recorder for mass storage. I had the 4K RAM upgrade.

[@KD2HJP]

Ahhh.. A Trash 80. I was a Shacky circa 1986ish - 1994 ish.... Such cool days

[@luisestebanr6311]

looks so cool

[@The_Traveling_Clown]

My most vintage computers right now are TI 99/44 and 44/a. I also have a NABU that can kinda be use today.

[@rdmclark]

I wish i still had my Tandy 102 i had when i was a kid, used that to dial into my library card system.

[@2.7petabytes]

My stepdad’s boss owned an Osborne back in the early to mid 80s. My stepdad was an electrician for a small audio company. it was technically considered a portable computer. I guess, it seem to weigh about as much as a neutron star.

[@mattparker9726]

21:30 Yeah I think you're spot on with the corrupted RAM chip(S).

[@joegee2815]

3:07 "...people were still making up their own connectors left and right" Like Apple does to this day where they can get away with it. And charge a ton for 3rd parties. I had one of these back in the 80s. Made a great terminal to dial into our Unix based department computer.

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

From what little I remember about it, "bubble" memory was serially accessed memory which used "magnetic bubbles" which were "pushed" through whatever the storage medium was. For its day, it was quite storage-dense when compared to most other kinds of storage. I believe that it used a destructive read, which meant that the bits needed to be written once again after reading in order to keep the data. Its main problem was speed. The serial access scheme slowed down access times quite significantly. Along with improvements in storage density of other media, this led to bubble memory being dropped as a data storage method. Edit: It's "jumps", not "jumped", otherwise you don't hit the letter S and the whole idea of using the phrase is to use every letter of the alphabet. 😄 Edit2: The serial connection issue looks very much as though one end is misconfigured compared to the other. Maybe the Tandy is trying to use 7 bits and parity, or maybe it can't actually use 9600bps and both ends need to be configured for a lower speed, or maybe it can't use xon/xoff for flow control and needs to use CTS/RTS. But the fact that the resistors are wrong is also a possible reason for the problem. If you can get the RAM chips out, you may be able to test them using something like the TL866 programmer and chip tester. Edit3: I presume your telephone was one of the old "party line" magneto telephones? I had a couple of those fitted into my old home at one time, not as proper telephones but as an intercom. It was a very old house with a separate bathroom/laundry/toilet building, so the magneto phones were a good way of getting attention if you'd forgotten something you needed for your bath and didn't want to dry yourself, dress yourself, toddle back inside to get what you'd forgotten, toddle back out to the bathroom, undress again and get back in the bath again (by which time the water would be significantly colder, and we didn't have piped hot water, so you had to bathe and get out before the water got cold).

[@saveitforparts]

Yep, we had some old army field telephones with the AC ring crank and a bunch of D batteries for voice amplification. Occasionally had to go fix the wires that squirrels would chew on!

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

@@saveitforparts Cool. Mine were proper Post Office telephones, designed to run off of 3V from two 1.5V cells. Originally, the cells were supposed to be huge things around 1.5 times the height of a coke can and a bit thicker around. I just used a couple of D cells, though. They worked just as well, since the only reason for using the huge cells was to make them last longer.

[@RinoaL]

I have this same exact computer with the bubble memory expansion! I got it in jacksonvillve IL at the steam festival so I wonder if it was something more available in the midwest since I've never seen the bubble memory module in california.

[@grogvaughan5649]

Wow, haven't thought about my old "trash 80" portable in decades. I used it for writing programs for my desktop in middle school in the 1980s

[@lutomson3496]

I built my first computer in 1977 got my trash 80 shortly after, worked with Steve Jobs at Atari before he started apple did final testing on the 400 and 800's sucks to be old though but wise!!

[@grogvaughan5649]

@lutomson3496 middle 1970s one of my scout leaders worked at the University of Akron computer lab. Learned fortran & cobol programming from him there. After my dad saw I was actually good at something he had me start doing stuff for the family business.

[@TheRetroGamingPrincess]

Now given their age absolutely even if you can't replace it anytime soon. Desolder those batteries and get rid of them! I've had a few of these specifically die from battery leakage!

[@jedharding3492]

Gabe says "dingus" = drink

[@Thegameztransit]

Nice Video!

[@RushCampAndPrep]

"I'll get around to that later" Yep... sure you will....

[@HaconMagnus_AI]

Love it I owned 4 of them over the years, the first one when it was brand new, I did a trade for it. Bought another one around 1987 , loved it. Than around 2007 I bought a couple and sold them, they were mint ! If I recall this was a personal project of Bill Gates. Cheers.

[@bullzye101]

very cool old school stuff tho ... but what a mission trying to get 1 to work but good on you tho show us them lol .. big thumbs up 👍😃👍

[@treahblade]

LOL as someone who just soldered on some pins to a single board computer today I understand the hesitation to solder onto computer motherboards :P Probably does not help that I am terrible at it and my soldering iron sucks. These are some pretty cool machines and I have never seen bubble memory either. Holy crap tho the amount of double A batteries in that thing tho.

[@johnbecker8768]

My number was 3. That's awesome!

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Starting at about 20:05 in this video... CATS gonna CAT...😊

[@starrmann314]

SIFP-"Id like to order a pizza for delivery please.." Pizza Parlor-"sure, what's your phone number?" SIFP-".......... 3"

[@Geek-a-Zoid]

TY for the video

[@snowpirate2652]

The struggle of getting into the BIOS is so real! XD

[@gorak9000]

you have to spam esc, f1, f2, f10, f12, and del (with your 5 hands) - no one ever agreed on what the stupid setup key was

[@illusion180976]

To get into bios: PS2 keyboard or basic usb in lowest bandwidth usb port. DEL key on some mobo's rather than F12, I have also seen F2 and F5. Also only start spamming whichever key you are trying after the keyboard lights flash or while they are in the process of flashing. Happy travels and thanks for the vid :-)

[@gorak9000]

also sometimes esc, and f1 as well

[@illusion180976]

@@gorak9000 True :-)

[@TSGEnt]

THis was great! I was very close to getting trs-80 (trash-80) but opted instead for an Atari 400. Love it!

[@saveitforparts]

I had one of those as well, mainly played cartridge games on it though. I remember the keyboard kind of sucked for typing your own programs.

[@TSGEnt]

@@saveitforparts Indeed the keyboard sucked. I ended up hard wiring a real tactile keyboard I sourced from a local eletronics parts store back in the '80's and kludged it into the 400. Worked great.

[@NexxuSix]

20:50 Gabe, try reseating and socketed chips… the corrosion on the pins over time will act like an insulator, giving you problems with digital components. Reseating the chips will freshen up the connections.

[@UncleBildo]

OMG, ain't seen a TRASH-80 in eons! I played with one of those as a geeky kid.

[@cpm1003]

Bubble memory was non-volatile, like core memory. I think it was also power hungry when in use. The chip had to warm up in order to work, and had a built in resistive heater.

[@firepinto]

We had a trs-80 desktop as a kid, an external floppy drive bigger than a loaf of bread. I played a lot of the Castle Guard game cartridge.

[@SPotter1973]

My brother and I stayed up all night typing in the program in the back of the Vic20 manual. Hundreds of lines of basic for it to only make the cursor flash multiple colors....and we had Syntax errors galore. My friends brother designed a light pen to work with his Apple II c it tied in with the Hello program and directory. Years later I bought a apple II e clone with DUAL DISC.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

FWIW: I remember seeing something on TV decades ago about _"bubble memories."_ I was under the impression that technology was supposed to be the 'next best thing'. Clearly it was not.

[@saveitforparts]

It was probably revolutionary for the time, but tech moved so fast in the 80s/90s that a lot of good ideas turned out to be dead ends.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@@saveitforparts>>> Yuppers.

[@elevenbucks5682]

I recall looking at a trash 80 in 1980. they were priced at $1400 then, think how much that would be today.

[@alexgayer85]

I have a pair of Model 102s which are very similar… I believe the 100s are notorious for faulty capacitors. In addition to changing the memory batteries, I’d recommend a recap service and see if that helps. Cheers!

[@mre9593]

the 9 pin socket was for the barcode reader (there use to be a magazine that let you scan a basic program into the TRS80) as for the "hard drive " it might be the com settings? ? I'd like to get one, but I probably would have to get a new memory battery. I also had a Assembly chip expansion.

[@cocusar]

Would be cool to see a simple board with leds connected to the user port or something, and use them for automatic antenna tracking! Or even better, something like a vhf/uhf relay. of course everything can be done easier and quicker with an arduino, but what's the fun on that?

[@tarstarkusz]

Phillips head screws were well entrenched and nothing new by the time this was out. They were first used in the 1930s. Certainly by 1970, pretty much all consumer products with screws in them used Phillips head.

[@barkeaterden]

wow...I had a model 100...used it to takes notes for a IBM 360 assembly class that I shouldn't really have taken. Looking to replace it with NEC Ultralite PC-17-02 to do packet radio goodness

[@kennethevoy]

Try moving the USB connection of your Linux desktop keyboard to a different port. Motherboards turn on the port groupings one at a time and keyboards have a small boot time. I had to move mine to the port group next to the onboard devices to catch F12!

[@mattparker9726]

16:03 I have heard of TS-DOS but never used it myself. My first PC was a full fledged 286, so it already has MS-DOS installed (5 I think with Norton shell) It's a late model being produced either in late 1990, or early 1991.

[@myofficegoes65]

I think the memory power is a rechargeable NiCd battery that gets charged up when the AA batteries are installed or when powered with the 6 volt adapter

[@Peter_S_]

Wild, I was just mentioning bubble memory in a conversation with a coworker a couple hours ago.

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome.

[@p-196]

you can reboot your Linux machine directly into the bios/uefi setup with the command "sudo systemctl reboot --firmware"

[@ChosenOne6666]

He is one of the smartest of our generation

[@Tinyflower1]

so thats what the clockworkpi devterm is inspired by

[@noland65]

Regarding serial, maybe try "COM:58N1E", which is 1200 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop-bit, XON. The system remembers the setting of the last COM command and defaults to this, so you should have to supply this only once. (First digit of the parameter is the baud rate [5 for 1200, 1=75 … 9=19,200 ], second one the word length [6,7,8 bits], then parity ["O"dd, "E"ven, "N"one, "I"gnored], then the number of stop bits [1 or 2], and finally XON ["E"nabled, "D"isabled]. )

[@AddieDirectsTV]

We still have one of those floating around the WCCO engineering department.

[@saveitforparts]

Nice! It's fun when they still have some niche use or are kept around "just in case" :-)

[@AddieDirectsTV]

@@saveitforparts it’s not even for that lol. They found it while cleaning out a storage room during the pandemic lol!

[@thes764]

"I've now changed that things gender twice and gotten this video banned in Texas" ROTFL.

[@joeg1992]

Very cool, I still have the NEC PC-8201 version of The Tandy from back when I was a kid, we bought it new. Mine worked last time I turned it on. I do have some of the manuals, do you think they would have what you need?

[@saveitforparts]

A lot of the manuals are online, although I'm keeping an eye out for a printed one.

[@HennerZeller]

In my TRS80 100 schematic transcription (on github) I annotated the relevant resistors mentioned in the bulletin. Soldering required unfortunately. If you want to avoid desoldering the old ones, you can probably get away with parallel soldering 390 Ohm resistors in parallel (on the back of the board). Might be a tad less annoying.

[@saveitforparts]

Nice! I have the tech bulletin downloaded and ordered some resistors. I'm not actually great at basic electronics, but I keep meaning to learn more! I'll download your PDF as well for reference :-)