Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!diablo1.usenet.blueworldhosting.com!peer05.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!fx06.iad.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Daniel Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy Subject: Re: TRS-80 Model 100 Board Replication References: <877cwved6z.fsf@sc1f1dan.com> <87sffhdgq7.fsf@sc1f1dan.com> <4acb35f8-8906-4f62-a2b9-baff982f5be6n@googlegroups.com> Message-ID: <87346nn4jj.fsf@rpi3> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.2 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:/Dridt2YYgWET05Jhjj1SxKNzB4= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Lines: 70 X-Complaints-To: abuse(at)newshosting.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 09 Nov 2025 05:44:35 UTC Organization: Newshosting.com - Highest quality at a great price! www.newshosting.com Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2025 21:44:32 -0800 X-Received-Bytes: 4419 Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.tandy:782 Josh Malone writes: > On Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 3:25:54 AM UTC-5, Daniel wrote: > >> I'm planning a replica, one-for-one drop in of the board and all traces, >> stencils, etc. Some dead devices are due to battery leakage and traces >> will be destroyed in many areas - but many components will be okay. In >> these cases the device is usually salvaged for parts only and that means >> one device removed from circulation. Like the commodore, I'd like a >> board replacement and there's been very little interest in the project. > > I have a couple of "parts boards" from dead 100s, but I specifically > want the unique parts on them, so I would have to depopulate them > before I send you the board (for which I have no use). I'm not sure > how quickly you want to get these boards, but, given a bit of time, I > could provide one. > > >> I need to get a dead device so I can depopulate the board, remove all >> solder/flux, and do a high definition scan of both sides for all three >> boards. >> >> Later, I'd like to redesign the power supply and convert it to USB-C >> input and rechargable batteries, but that's way down the road. > > I would REALLY love to see that happen. There's lots of "improvements" > that I think need to be made to these machines to make a modern > replica board useful. Use modern RAMs instead of the Tandy > modules. Maybe make the optrom socket JEDEC standard. Definitely the > power supply, as you say. > > -Josh Life sidetracked my plans. The project I started is in the box still in my den closet. The idea of creating a drop-in replacement for the model 100 pcb has fallen by the wayside. If there were interest in it, the community would've done it already like the C64 community did for theirs. You can get a fresh new PCB for every revision of that computer and build a new one from scratch with off-the-shelf components. Can't do that with a M100 in any respect. At this point, I know the Model 1 has a drop in replica of the pcb for that machine. So there is a bit of interest in the product family to create replicas. But anyway.. My original plan was a bit short sighted. Initially, the thought was to replica PCB's to transfer M100 components to a new board in an effort to revive an existing unit. The boards would be made with modern manufacturing standards vs the cheap pcb's of the original. And this would've served as a learning opportunity regarding PCB creation, design, etc. I woujldn't have designed anything, but replicating an existing design would've helped. but, the original plan was to bring a dead product and restore it to factory fresh, if not better. Naive. The last few years have seen a dramatic increase of homebrew projects that expand the features of our beloved model T. And since I am in love with system-in-the-keyboard builds, my attention is sort of pulling toward a homebrew project. there are loads of system-in-keyboard builds out there. The feonix is a recent addition to the world. Though I hope it doesn't end up a commercial failure for the dev. Commodore was revived and they're building yet another C64 by the thousands. The zx spectrum has been rebuilt. Then there are others that aren't built into keyboards like the color maximite. All these systems load basic from rom. None of those systems appeal to me. Their keyboards are simply too custom for my liking. Not saying they suck or anything, I just have a habit in the way I type. The M100/102/200 keyboards were close enough. I may start a new thread on the topic as I conduct research.