Hi all,
Some may be aware that I recently purchased another Dick Smith System 80 (TRS80 I Clone); however this one has disk support. It came with an interesting story so I thought I would share it.
I had been looking for an expansion unit and disk drives for my current System 80 for some time without much luck; so much so that I had stopped actively looking. I was browsing these forums about 3 weeks ago when I came across someone talking about making disks for a video genie (same as the System 80, just rebadged). I made some comment about the difficulty of finding expansion units and disk drives and fortunately enough a forum member (Gazza) PM'd me with some info about one for sale in Australia on eBay. I had actually set up a saved search for such things, but the seller had not put in the keywords 'Dick Smith' so my search didn't find it.
The seller was offering a System 80 Blue label (last model), Dick Smith green phosphor monitor, late model expansion unit, 2x disk drives and a Dick Smith 'Mini Matrix' printer. The seller wasn't a System 80 person but knew enough to take a few pictures of the unit booted into basic. The disk drives were untested as the disks were too badly damaged from exposure in a shed.
It wasn't quite what I wanted (I just wanted disk drives and an expansion unit) so I contacted the seller and asked if he would separate the expansion and drives. I got a 'maybe' reply, however I then thought about it and decided it would be wrong to break up the collection. The asking price was fair and I had some spare Christmas money. Only problem was the unit was a 1680km (~1000mi) round trip from me.....
So what do you do - I got my dad lined up as a co-driver and drove 1000mi in one day from 5AM to 12AM there and back. Luckily Australia is big and fairly unpopulated so it was quite an easy journey with a V8 motor and cruise control.
I was actually surprised when I saw it in person as there was some extras I didn't know about. It still had the optional ($5.99) covers on the monitor and the System 80 itself! To be honest that's all I took in at the time as I then had to hit the road in order to get home.
When I got home I unboxed everything and took a look. Everything had been stored in a shed for the last 25 years so it was dusty and dirty. The vinyl covers had saved the monitor and System 80 from a lot of damage though as it appeared the shed was leaky when it rained (albeit rarely as the town I got it from is quite hot and dry). That would also explain why the disks got ruined. I removed the covers to everything and to my surprise there was very little dust and detritus inside. The disk drives were a little oxidised on the alloy frames as they were at the bottom of the pile (and probably picked up moisture from the floor) but nothing serious.
I then began cautiously plugging everything in. Starting with the base unit and monitor everything worked perfectly. I then connected the expansion and had a bit of a moment when it wouldn't boot but then remembered if no disk drives are connected you must hold the break key.... With the expansion the RAM was then expanded to 48k which is good. Connected the floppy drives and to my astonishment everything worked fine! Well for a while at least until the capstan came loose on one of the Tandon TM100's (I started a thread on it so no point repeating the repair here). Once the drive was repaired I am happy to report everything but the printer has been tested and working fine. Once I get a ribbon I will give the printer a try; however I am fairly confident it will work fine as it is almost in museum condition.
Pictures are below for those who are interested:
Some may be aware that I recently purchased another Dick Smith System 80 (TRS80 I Clone); however this one has disk support. It came with an interesting story so I thought I would share it.
I had been looking for an expansion unit and disk drives for my current System 80 for some time without much luck; so much so that I had stopped actively looking. I was browsing these forums about 3 weeks ago when I came across someone talking about making disks for a video genie (same as the System 80, just rebadged). I made some comment about the difficulty of finding expansion units and disk drives and fortunately enough a forum member (Gazza) PM'd me with some info about one for sale in Australia on eBay. I had actually set up a saved search for such things, but the seller had not put in the keywords 'Dick Smith' so my search didn't find it.
The seller was offering a System 80 Blue label (last model), Dick Smith green phosphor monitor, late model expansion unit, 2x disk drives and a Dick Smith 'Mini Matrix' printer. The seller wasn't a System 80 person but knew enough to take a few pictures of the unit booted into basic. The disk drives were untested as the disks were too badly damaged from exposure in a shed.
It wasn't quite what I wanted (I just wanted disk drives and an expansion unit) so I contacted the seller and asked if he would separate the expansion and drives. I got a 'maybe' reply, however I then thought about it and decided it would be wrong to break up the collection. The asking price was fair and I had some spare Christmas money. Only problem was the unit was a 1680km (~1000mi) round trip from me.....
So what do you do - I got my dad lined up as a co-driver and drove 1000mi in one day from 5AM to 12AM there and back. Luckily Australia is big and fairly unpopulated so it was quite an easy journey with a V8 motor and cruise control.
I was actually surprised when I saw it in person as there was some extras I didn't know about. It still had the optional ($5.99) covers on the monitor and the System 80 itself! To be honest that's all I took in at the time as I then had to hit the road in order to get home.
When I got home I unboxed everything and took a look. Everything had been stored in a shed for the last 25 years so it was dusty and dirty. The vinyl covers had saved the monitor and System 80 from a lot of damage though as it appeared the shed was leaky when it rained (albeit rarely as the town I got it from is quite hot and dry). That would also explain why the disks got ruined. I removed the covers to everything and to my surprise there was very little dust and detritus inside. The disk drives were a little oxidised on the alloy frames as they were at the bottom of the pile (and probably picked up moisture from the floor) but nothing serious.
I then began cautiously plugging everything in. Starting with the base unit and monitor everything worked perfectly. I then connected the expansion and had a bit of a moment when it wouldn't boot but then remembered if no disk drives are connected you must hold the break key.... With the expansion the RAM was then expanded to 48k which is good. Connected the floppy drives and to my astonishment everything worked fine! Well for a while at least until the capstan came loose on one of the Tandon TM100's (I started a thread on it so no point repeating the repair here). Once the drive was repaired I am happy to report everything but the printer has been tested and working fine. Once I get a ribbon I will give the printer a try; however I am fairly confident it will work fine as it is almost in museum condition.
Pictures are below for those who are interested:
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