4 Sep
1998
4 Sep
'98
5:10 p.m.
Hello everybody.
I'm in the process of restoring a submerged TRS-80 Model III. It was
sitting in my friend's basement when his septic tank backed up (yuk.), and
it was sitting on the basement floor (double yuk.). However, his solution
to fixing it was to drag it up the steps on sheet of plywood and let it sit
in the rain for three weeks. Then he gave it to me because he was afraid
to plug it in. I started by taking it apart, and hosing the whole thing
down. Then I took all the boards out, and set them in front of heater/fan
to dry (low power). I did the same to the disk drives, the keyboard, and
the picture tube.
After everything had dried for about a week, I put it all back together,
and turned it on. The tube came on with a bunch of crazy characters on the
screen. I took the main board out, propped it up behind the computer,
tried it again, and the screen came up with the "Diskette ?" prompt. I put
in a copy of TRS-DOS (unsubmerged), and hit reset. ERROR came up in
40-column letters. I shut it off, and pulled the drives. I stuck (well
more like jammed- it was too wide) a 5.25" 360 half-height drive in it (it
ended up at an angle and upside down to fit), and tried that. That time it
worked, booting to the TRS-DOS screen, asking for a date. I typed
"09/01/98". Nothing. I took a key off the keyboard to try to clean it,
and they are the sealed-switch type. I had to unsolder each switch, take
each one apart, clean it, put it back together, and solder it back to the
board. However, I just cleaned the <1>, the </>, and the <Enter> key-
enough for me to enter the date. It worked.
Now's where I need the help. Here's what I need:
-5.25" full-height 360k disk drives (any type but Apple - doesn't need to
be TRS-80).
-External TRS-80 disk drives.
-Cable to connect external drives to the computer.
-TRS-80 Model III hard drive (can be a clone)
-Internal cable connecting RS-232 adapter to the main board.
-TRS-80 Model III software (can be on tape or disk)
I'm also looking for anything for the CoCo Model I and II - ESPECIALLY disk
drives and a printer.
As always, ThAnX in advance,
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
4 Sep
4 Sep
5:01 p.m.
Jason, I think the problem is that the original version of TRSDOS you are using
will not accept a date after 1989.
As you say it boots fine to a date prompt..
You will need to get LDOS to correct this funny flaw in the operating system.
Guess They never expected them to be around so long..
But it sound like you have it working..
Phil...
Jason Willgruber wrote:
Hello everybody.
I'm in the process of restoring a submerged TRS-80 Model III. It was
sitting in my friend's basement when his septic tank backed up (yuk.), and
it was sitting on the basement floor (double yuk.). However, his solution
to fixing it was to drag it up the steps on sheet of plywood and let it sit
in the rain for three weeks. Then he gave it to me because he was afraid
to plug it in. I started by taking it apart, and hosing the whole thing
down. Then I took all the boards out, and set them in front of heater/fan
to dry (low power). I did the same to the disk drives, the keyboard, and
the picture tube.
After everything had dried for about a week, I put it all back together,
and turned it on. The tube came on with a bunch of crazy characters on the
screen. I took the main board out, propped it up behind the computer,
tried it again, and the screen came up with the "Diskette ?" prompt. I put
in a copy of TRS-DOS (unsubmerged), and hit reset. ERROR came up in
40-column letters. I shut it off, and pulled the drives. I stuck (well
more like jammed- it was too wide) a 5.25" 360 half-height drive in it (it
ended up at an angle and upside down to fit), and tried that. That time it
worked, booting to the TRS-DOS screen, asking for a date. I typed
"09/01/98". Nothing. I took a key off the keyboard to try to clean it,
and they are the sealed-switch type. I had to unsolder each switch, take
each one apart, clean it, put it back together, and solder it back to the
board. However, I just cleaned the <1>, the </>, and the <Enter> key-
enough for me to enter the date. It worked.
Now's where I need the help. Here's what I need:
-5.25" full-height 360k disk drives (any type but Apple - doesn't need to
be TRS-80).
-External TRS-80 disk drives.
-Cable to connect external drives to the computer.
-TRS-80 Model III hard drive (can be a clone)
-Internal cable connecting RS-232 adapter to the main board.
-TRS-80 Model III software (can be on tape or disk)
I'm also looking for anything for the CoCo Model I and II - ESPECIALLY disk
drives and a printer.
As always, ThAnX in advance,
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
6:03 p.m.
Jason Willgruber wrote:
Hello everybody.
I'm in the process of restoring a submerged TRS-80 Model III. It was
sitting in my friend's basement when his septic tank backed up (yuk.), and
it was sitting on the basement floor (double yuk.).
<snip>
<1>, the </>, and the <Enter> key-
enough for me to enter the date. It worked.
More time and patience than I have!
Now's where I need the help. Here's what I
need:
-5.25" full-height 360k disk drives (any type but Apple - doesn't need to
be TRS-80).
-External TRS-80 disk drives.
-Cable to connect external drives to the computer.
-TRS-80 Model III hard drive (can be a clone)
-Internal cable connecting RS-232 adapter to the main board.
-TRS-80 Model III software (can be on tape or disk)
Check the stuff Frank Larosa has on his site at
http://www.searchlight.com/frank/milo.htm
He has a Model III set up with external drives to include a 3.5" drive. I'm not
sure what you can do for a hard drive but if you can get some makes/models I
can see what I can scrounge up. As for a full height floppy, the one you have
is most likely a Tandon belt drive and you should be able to lube and clean it
and get it back on line with a little more detailing. Most likely the head(s)
need to be cleaned with denatured alcohol and the mechanism all lubed
(liberally and then wiped off) with a silicone based oil, much like sewing
machine oil. I do use sewing machine oil, the type they have at Walmart in a
white and red bottle sold under the Singer name. I just refill the needle oiler
I bought at tandy some years ago. Use it on VCRs, appliances, etc.
___________________________________________________
Russ Blakeman
Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
ICQ UIN #1714857
___________________________________________________
5 Sep
5 Sep
8:39 a.m.
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6 Sep
6 Sep
11:56 a.m.
New subject: WTB: TRS-80 stuff.
to plug it in. I started by taking it apart, and
hosing the whole thing
down. Then I took all the boards out, and set them in front of heater/fan
to dry (low power). I did the same to the disk drives, the keyboard, and
the picture tube.
Well water (especially Distilled water) is a great start for this sort of
thing.
However I always rinse the boards thoughly with ethanol (If you can
submerge them for a half hour or so even better), this will displace the
water in all of those hard to get places. After this I would then go
through the drying out process...Oh BTW do this is a well ventilated
area...you can get very drunk from the fumes :-), take note that ethanol
can attack some plastics and may affect some solder masks and screen
printing, so you may want to try iso-propyl alcohol...its less abusive.
Cheers
k.j.whitehead(a)massey.ac.nz
Keith Whitehead
Electronics Technician
Electronics Services
Institute of Fundamental Sciences
Massey University
Palmerston North
New Zealand
5301
9447
days inactive
9449
days old
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
handyman＠sprintmail.com -
K.J.Whitehead＠massey.ac.nz -
rhblake＠bbtel.com -
roblwill＠usaor.net