I have been given a smashed up TRS-80 Model III shell. And I have evil plans to resurrect it Here I'll try to post a diary as I go along.
The story is, it was shipped from USA as a working machine but unfortunately arrived with the monitor and motherboard smashed to smithereens, and with most of the internal mount points sheared off. It's been sat at TheCorfiot's for a few years and presented with a challenge, I'm going to try to salvage the case into something usable!
Initial concept is to transplant an LCD and get the keyboard working with a raspberry PI model 3 and emulate most of the home computers of note in one proper terminal-style Retro BattleStation. Emulation is one thing, but presentation and aesthetics are important too.. can I get that right? So the shortlist must include TRS-80 Model 1/3 as well as 4, plus the essentials of Atari 800, C64, Oric, Pet, C16 (commodore's via Vice under Retropie or Combian), of course Amiga (Amiberry)...certainly coco's and Dragon32, SCUMM, Speccy, 6128. I really want to get the BBC emulator compiled and working under retropie/ Emulation Station, set up in the menu's etc.
How hard can it be? It will take some engineering to fit the screen nicely and will need to surely cut away some moulding from where the CRT was...how to mount the LCD? How to make it flush, car filler might be a plan. How well will the screen be presented, and will the look be credible?
OK lets do this.
Step 1: initial plans
Initial thought was transplant an LCD into it and either ask Dave at Tynemouth software to build a custom usb encoder to re-use the original keyboard (which he can surely do, clever chap - see his blog at tynemouthsoftware, he has form), or to create a driver and read the keyboard in over the GPIO pins. The wiring seems straightforward as its an 8x8 matrix but the software and config is fiddly. I dont know how well the keyboard works. Will it work in Retropie? not sure. But with Tynemouth's expertise, yes.
I also find the keyswitches in the TRS are very very similar to Cherry MX. I could undersolder them all if I need to, but nagging thought it the TRS has a decent amount of keys missing, no F keys, that might harm a credible emulation station. hmm..
Or, I could kludge/ engineer a modern USB keyboard in and get the look right with new /retro keycaps...
Onto the LCD - the screen was 12" and over the last months I've found a few 800 x 600 res LCD panels and driver boards. After a few weeks of debating if 800 res was too low to be of any decent quality.. aha! Now I have found a 12.1" LCD, in a metal frame on alibaba. 4:3 ratio, seems almost the exact size, £60 quid. 1 x ordered.
Step 2, measure properly, clean the case
..and confirm exactly how the hell to do this.
Bathe her and bring her to me. Don't tell the wife what I used the downstairs shower for.
Direct-to-floor cleaner is usually best, today Flash got the job. Filthy. Hands now sore
I've now noticed the black moulding can be removed. It's all smashed on the inside anyway. Maybe instead of machining/ filing this flat to suit the screen I can do a better job removing it altogether.. OK, measure it up..
The case outer is in pretty good nick! and re the screen opening, she's wider at the top than at the bottom. Ooo. 275mm x 215mm.
Forgive the pics being askew. I'll post some pics in the next weeks as I fix this up and work out a couple kinks along the way.
part 2 coming soon
The story is, it was shipped from USA as a working machine but unfortunately arrived with the monitor and motherboard smashed to smithereens, and with most of the internal mount points sheared off. It's been sat at TheCorfiot's for a few years and presented with a challenge, I'm going to try to salvage the case into something usable!
Initial concept is to transplant an LCD and get the keyboard working with a raspberry PI model 3 and emulate most of the home computers of note in one proper terminal-style Retro BattleStation. Emulation is one thing, but presentation and aesthetics are important too.. can I get that right? So the shortlist must include TRS-80 Model 1/3 as well as 4, plus the essentials of Atari 800, C64, Oric, Pet, C16 (commodore's via Vice under Retropie or Combian), of course Amiga (Amiberry)...certainly coco's and Dragon32, SCUMM, Speccy, 6128. I really want to get the BBC emulator compiled and working under retropie/ Emulation Station, set up in the menu's etc.
How hard can it be? It will take some engineering to fit the screen nicely and will need to surely cut away some moulding from where the CRT was...how to mount the LCD? How to make it flush, car filler might be a plan. How well will the screen be presented, and will the look be credible?
OK lets do this.
Step 1: initial plans
Initial thought was transplant an LCD into it and either ask Dave at Tynemouth software to build a custom usb encoder to re-use the original keyboard (which he can surely do, clever chap - see his blog at tynemouthsoftware, he has form), or to create a driver and read the keyboard in over the GPIO pins. The wiring seems straightforward as its an 8x8 matrix but the software and config is fiddly. I dont know how well the keyboard works. Will it work in Retropie? not sure. But with Tynemouth's expertise, yes.
I also find the keyswitches in the TRS are very very similar to Cherry MX. I could undersolder them all if I need to, but nagging thought it the TRS has a decent amount of keys missing, no F keys, that might harm a credible emulation station. hmm..
Or, I could kludge/ engineer a modern USB keyboard in and get the look right with new /retro keycaps...
Onto the LCD - the screen was 12" and over the last months I've found a few 800 x 600 res LCD panels and driver boards. After a few weeks of debating if 800 res was too low to be of any decent quality.. aha! Now I have found a 12.1" LCD, in a metal frame on alibaba. 4:3 ratio, seems almost the exact size, £60 quid. 1 x ordered.
Step 2, measure properly, clean the case
..and confirm exactly how the hell to do this.
Bathe her and bring her to me. Don't tell the wife what I used the downstairs shower for.
Direct-to-floor cleaner is usually best, today Flash got the job. Filthy. Hands now sore
I've now noticed the black moulding can be removed. It's all smashed on the inside anyway. Maybe instead of machining/ filing this flat to suit the screen I can do a better job removing it altogether.. OK, measure it up..
The case outer is in pretty good nick! and re the screen opening, she's wider at the top than at the bottom. Ooo. 275mm x 215mm.
Forgive the pics being askew. I'll post some pics in the next weeks as I fix this up and work out a couple kinks along the way.
part 2 coming soon