25 Aug
1997
25 Aug
'97
3:47 a.m.
Roger Merchberger wrote:
Whilst in a self-induced trance, Marvin happened to
blather:
As of last week, RS said they could no longer supply the boot disk
fot the DVI. I tried to order one from RSU and while the order went
through at the store, I recieved a letter from RS stating that the DVI
boot disk is no longer available.
I was at one of the local thrift stores (a once a
month or so
experience)
and found a Radio Shack TRS-80 Disk/Video
Interface unit for $0.90
with
manual. Apparently it was marked down from about
$3.95 or so to get
it gone
and I was more than happy to help out at that
price even not knowing
what it
was. After reading the manual, I still don't
know but it talks about
the
portable computer and I see one reference to a
model 100. Anyone
have more
information on this thing as far as what it
attaches to? The model
100 is
obvious but since it talks about the connecting it
to the Portable
Computer,
are there others this thing might work with? Also
since it didn't
come with
a floppy disk, is this just a standard TRS-DOS or
is there something
special
about it? Finally, it is missing the connecting
cable and does
anyone have
the pinout for it or know where I might find it
on-line? Thanks!
Ohhhh... nice buy! They wouldn't happen to have 3 more at that price,
would
they??? ;-)
The DVI as it was shortened to would give 180K floppy (40 track, SSDD,
18SPT) storage and 40x24 & 80x24 VT-52 compatible screen capability to
a
Tandy 100, 102 (later, lighter, redesigned 100), or the Tandy 200
(which I
own).
[[ Editor's note: Obviously, you need one of the above-mentioned
portables
to make use of the DVI... ]]
It needs a special cable that I have seen for sale on comp.sys.tandy,
and
at the for-sale listing at:
http://www.value.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~thedock/c100sale.pl
[[ Editor's note: this is a cgi-program accessable from the "For Sale"
link
at:
http://www.the-dock.com/club100.html
They also have a wanted listing and a guestbook! ]]
It *does* require a boot floppy disk, I believe these are still
available
at Radio Shack for a few $$$ apiece (at least in the US... not sure
about
other countries) I have a boot disk for the DVI that boots the Model
100 --
too bad it doesn't seem to work with my T200. :-(
I do have the pinouts for the cable, but the connection to the M100
was a
specially wired 40-pin DIP cable, that I've heard is mongo-painful to
try
to build yourself (and, of course, RS doesn't stock those IIRC). The
cable
for the T200/T102 is easier to build with 40-pin IDC connectors and
ribbon
cable (I successfully converted an IBM-PC Clone IDE data cable)
If you wish more information on this or most anything else from the
"Model
'T'" world, just let me know.
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.