The Tandy 1000 TL Restoration Project

[Zombie]

The Tandy 1000 TL is an ancient computer from 1991. It is an 8 Mhz 80286 with 768 KB RAM, an 8 bit data bus, IBM PC Jr. Graphics style adaptor and a VGA adapter, a 21 MB Hard disk that is failing, an 8 bit Western Digital Network Card, and Integrated Tandy DAC 4 sound.

I am interested in 'restoring' this Tandy to operating condition. The only thing that needs replacement is the hard drive. Considering the lower voltage consumption, I have opted for an XT IDE hard drive controller, and IDE to Compact Flash adapter.

I have 5 8 bit slots to work with.

It sports:

A VGA Card
A WD0003 AUI Network card with an AUI to UTP Tranciever capable of 5 Mbps Simplex
21 MB Tandy Hard drive soon to be replaced by a 512 MB CF Adaptor.
Serial Mouse
Blue Chip Keyboard

Couple things:

I am wondering ablout some of the Proprietary Connectors: Game Port Connectors, Parallel port connectors. I'd like to know how easy it would be to add a Dongle so that regular 15 Pin Game port controllers work in those odd ports. Also, Parallel port dongles for printers.

Networking:

My network is an "Open Directory" OpenLDAP+Samba 3.5+Kerberos setup. Meaning I can use WatTCP applications, and in addition to MS Client 3 for DOS.

Additional suggestions or improvements welcome.

 

[kb2syd]

The Tandy 1000 TL is an ancient computer from 1991. It is an 8 Mhz 80286 with 768 KB RAM, an 8 bit data bus, IBM PC Jr. Graphics style adaptor and a VGA adapter, a 21 MB Hard disk that is failing, an 8 bit Western Digital Network Card, and Integrated Tandy DAC 4 sound.

Well, old but not ancient.

I am wondering ablout some of the Proprietary Connectors: Game Port Connectors, Parallel port connectors. I'd like to know how easy it would be to add a Dongle so that regular 15 Pin Game port controllers work in those odd ports. Also, Parallel port dongles for printers.

The Tandy joystick ports are not quite compatible with the PC standard so a simple cable adapter won't work for you. You can make a parallel adapter, but be aware that the tandy interface is closer to the centronics standard than the PC interface. I think it has one extra signal. You can find a lot of the documentation for the 1000TL at http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/documents.html

 

[eeguru]

Be sure to Retr0brite the case. Most of the old Tandy cases didn't fair well over the years.

 

[Agent Orange]

The Tandy 1000 TL is an ancient computer from 1991. It is an 8 Mhz 80286 with 768 KB RAM, an 8 bit data bus, IBM PC Jr. Graphics style adaptor and a VGA adapter, a 21 MB Hard disk that is failing, an 8 bit Western Digital Network Card, and Integrated Tandy DAC 4 sound.

I am interested in 'restoring' this Tandy to operating condition. The only thing that needs replacement is the hard drive. Considering the lower voltage consumption, I have opted for an XT IDE hard drive controller, and IDE to Compact Flash adapter.

I have 5 8 bit slots to work with.

It sports:

A VGA Card
A WD0003 AUI Network card with an AUI to UTP Tranciever capable of 5 Mbps Simplex
21 MB Tandy Hard drive soon to be replaced by a 512 MB CF Adaptor.
Serial Mouse
Blue Chip Keyboard

Couple things:

I am wondering ablout some of the Proprietary Connectors: Game Port Connectors, Parallel port connectors. I'd like to know how easy it would be to add a Dongle so that regular 15 Pin Game port controllers work in those odd ports. Also, Parallel port dongles for printers.

Networking:

My network is an "Open Directory" OpenLDAP+Samba 3.5+Kerberos setup. Meaning I can use WatTCP applications, and in addition to MS Client 3 for DOS.

Additional suggestions or improvements welcome.

You may want to experiment with the a multi-function IO card which has a serial/parallel/game port. I not to sure about the printer as I believe your TL still uses the edge card/cable setup. Also, I replaced my SX's RTC card and installed a RTC module under the BIOS chip - very worth while I think. What kind of games would you be running over and above the capabilities of the Tandy joy stick port?

 

[Zombie]

A few Commander Keen games and old IBM CGA games. Among other things.

 

[Zombie]

Networking

Networking

I'm actually considering replacing MS-DOS 5.0 with FreeDOS. I'm not so sure yet. I would like to know more about its Memory foot print, and how resource consuming it is. Because the current Suite of DOS based Wattcp applications don't even support DHCP. IRC barely functions, and I am very concerned about RAM usage.