TRS 80 Model 12 Picked up

[Peter Cetinski]

For Model 12 software checkout

https://pski.net/trs-80-model-ii-archive-project/ <https://pski.net/trs-80-model-ii-archive-project/>

Regarding the size of the M12, it’s ironic that if you look inside it's a lot of empty space for what it does.  It’s meant to be upgradeable to Model 16B specs with an optional card cage and MC68000 hardware.

The keyboards do come up for sale on eBay regularly, but they are uncommon.  It will run you between $100-$150 depending on condition.  The 12/16B/6000 keyboards are interchangeable.  You can also use a Model II/16 keyboard by fashioning a gender and pin-swap adapter.

> On Jul 29, 2020, at 12:00 AM, devin davison via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> Greetings. It has been an interesting day. Rather late in the day, a buddy
> notified me of a local thrift store that went under, and mentioned there
> may be some computers on site up for grabs. Upon arrival, the place was a
> mess, but the folks there were friendly and gave me the tour, everything
> had to go, the shopkeeper skipped town and left the place full of junk for
> the Building owner to clean out.
> 
> I found a TRS 80 Model 12, a vga commodore branded monitor, commodore
> cassette drive, among some misc 5.25 floppy disks. There may be more, I
> need to go back for another sweep in the morning.
> 
> The computer is extremely big, taking up an entire kitchen table,rivaling
> the space that is taken up on my desk for a pdp 11. I am looking to clear a
> space to work on it without dropping parts.
> 
> The machine looks to be clean, However i am missing the keyboard.
> The machine does not power on or show anything on the screen. I do hear a
> high pitched hiss, so there may be some kind of power supply issue. I was
> not aware of this model of machine, I am curious if anyone has a spare
> keyboard for sale.
> 
> I am not familiar with this model, it has 2, 8 inch floppy drives on the
> front. I am curious about the format of the disks, would it be possible to
> use another computer with an 8 inch drive to make a floppy to start the
> machine, or do the drives use an odd difficult format that would be
> impossible to write?
> 
> http://devindamico.com/Uploads/TRS80M12.jpg
> 
> --Devin D.