Model 100 Portable Computer

potatohead

So, I'm finally over that whirlwind conference that consumed me last week, polishing up the color fractal code I said I would post a few days back.

Once in a while, I decide it's time to go digging through the "by the pound" thrifty store. Usually, I'm hoping for a Apple ][, or some retro game console bit I would like to have. Last week, it was a fantastic old, multi-band, battery powered radio. Love it, and it's going to be my office decoration.

This week, it was a working TRS-80 Model 100, complete with the nice carrying case!! 10 bucks! Just low enough to warrant a play session, with few worries. Sold!

I've never owned one of these before, though I thought about it many times in the past. It's got a terminal I can use with the Propeller. Gonna try that today. I think I can file transfer too, which sort of turns the Prop into a simple bulk storage device.

What really struck me was the BASIC as OS concept Bill Gates implemented for this little computer. Truth is, it's excellent!! I spent some time just writing, twiddling with the BASIC, and doing some basic file management.

This machine runs off a 4 pack of AAA batteries, with a run time of about 20 hours. Nice. It's got a dot-addressable LCD that I'll probably compute a fractal on, just because I want to know if the machine will run for a few days straight...

People have been talking about prop PDA devices... Well, something like this, equipped with SD card, might make a whole lot of sense. There was a video terminal device produced for the Model 100, along with disk drives and all sorts of stuff.

LCD tech has come a long way forward from this monster. The schematics are so COMPLEX, and from what I've seen done here, over the top based on how we do it now.

IMHO, this would be a excellent target PDA like thing. The form factor is good. Seems to me, incorporating a nice LCD for enough text and monochrome graphics (maybe grey scale, maybe not), some pins, buffered and exposed for device connection, video out, vga out, and keyboard would make for a rather nice portable Propeller, running Kye DOS.

Who knows? With a bigger battery, maybe powering a full on TV capable LCD, locating it in one corner, with various inputs, and sockets on the other, with keyboard below, might make sense too.

Just thought I would share my impressions. What a great little computer! I can see how journalists would run around with these things, writing up current events, then phoning them into the editor. I'll bet there is still some minor league data collection use like this going on with these things.

http://oldcomputers.net/trs100.html

8085 at 2Mhz on a few batteries! Who would have thought? It's impressive for the time.

localroger

potatohead, I have two NEC PC-8201A's I got specifically to gut and propellerize, a project I work on occasionally when I have time. You got quite a deal on that Model 100; there are still active users and they regularly fetch $100+ on eBay, and there are many hacks to modernize them. I went with the PC-8201A's because they aren't quite compatible with the 100 so destroying one or two of them doesn't deny them to the community that depends on them for real work; there really isn't anything else out there in quite that form factor.

You'll find that the service manual with full schematics and plenty of info on how it works is all online, which is nice.

Invent-O-Doc

Oh Yes, I had the NEC PC-8201, a cousin to the model 100. This was a really nice machine. Some of the high-tech reporters of the early-mid 80s used the built in 300 baud modem and optional acoustic coupler to file stories from pay phones. Still a good notetaking machine. Nice MS ROM BASIC. Enjoy!

potatohead

Yeah, I picked up on the very active users. I won't gut this one. If anything, I'll eventually let it go to somebody who will use the heck out of it. Mine appears to be very lightly used. The number of add-ons, and the general scope of capability is actually quite impressive, as is the ongoing activity.

Somebody had written various financial computation programs, and left a few notes.

The keyboard is awesome! Did some writing, and got that very gratifying feel from a keyboard that has depth of movement. Gotta love that.

I think I might make a CAD model or two for 3D printing. Seems to me, the small form factor Parallax keyboard would be a simple starter piece, and I've got a nice 5" LCD too. Just kind of collecting parts and thinking of things at this point.

The basic is pretty great actually. There are a few things I would prefer be otherwise, and that's because I did a lot of Applesoft and Atari style basic. Minor nits. It's really very well done, and quite powerful, particularly with the LCD being dot addressable.

Too bad about no bulk storage locally. That would be a great platform for a Z machine... Who knows? Probably somebody did it anyway.

The one thing I know I'll do is write something nice and long. It's just begging for that

localroger

Some of the M100 mods involve vastly expanded RAM and mass storage, but it's supported mostly by paging in 24K chunks representing work sessions, so you can't just use the box to edit say a novel. My plan is to have about the same power consumption but with probably two propellers implementing a much more full environment. The keyboards and displays are awesome and there simply isn't anything comparable available new; a display that size will now be QVGA, backlit, color, and draw 300+ milliamps instead of 50 or so, and hell even full size desktop keyboards aren't made any more like those portables were, with real switches and tactile feedback.

Ding-Batty

Many of the early M100 adopters were journalists -- the good keyboard, good battery life, small size and weight, and built-in 300 baud modem worked well for them.

Mine still works, and I have 128KB of bank-switched memory for it. I have also worked on the Virtual-T emulator for the M100 (but I have not yet finished my changes enough to contribute them back).

Mine was built in 1983

dwfunk

M100's!

Was my "terminal" of choice doing PBX work eon's ago! Sure beat the ole TI Silent 700 for portable terminals.

I've 3 of them. One got a smashed screen so I removed it's RAM and installed them into 1 of the others. I've got several of the option ROMS, forget now which ones. Data base, book reader (and some books). You had to manually embed formating commands into the word processor . . . but with a good 9 pin dot matrix you could print some neat stuff!

I need to dig those back out . . . They would make a cool download terminal for the Flight Computer I want to build . . .



-david