Has anyone ever duplicated the mainboard of the
TRS80 Model 102?

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On Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 11:00:56 PM UTC-4, low...@gmail.com wrote:

Has anyone ever duplicated the mainboard of the
TRS80 Model 102?

Not to my knowledge, although the though has occurred to me a time or two. It would be nice to have a drop-in replacement board with modern power-supply features and one that takes JEDEC-standard ROMs.

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I ask because I have a T102 where the mainboard
looks a little fried and corroded. Assembly of a new
Board would be a nice backup should my repair
attempts fail.

If I knew how, I'd build a new board with a Z80
on board. I know there's Pi based retrofits out there,
but, no thanks.

OTOH, if this 102 board is fried, maybe a tear down
and scan would be better than parting out the rest
of the chassis and case.

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On 8/22/19 8:00 PM, lowrezz@gmail.com wrote:

Has anyone ever duplicated the mainboard of the
TRS80 Model 102?

If any engineers out there were to create a modern one with the same
form factor and with off-the-shelf components running basic, has wifi capability, and a (ideally backlit) display capable of >300 baud, I'd contribute to a kickstarter.

Are all you members of the bitchin100 listserv?

--
Daniel

Visit me at: gopher://gcpp.world

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Yes I am.

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lowrezz@gmail.com writes:

Yes I am.

I started this very conversation about doing a fresh board project and
got almost no support for it. birt and others agreed that there are
copious systems out there that can be used for parts.

Another user I am communicating with is actually building hardware.
We've discussed it at length because he has a few 102's that have
absolutely wrecked motherboards and need a replacement.

He's been using them for chip replacements.

I have a 100 currently needing a replacement 44102 to fix the display output.

--
Daniel

Visit me at: gopher://gcpp.world

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lowrezz@gmail.com writes:

I ask because I have a T102 where the mainboard
looks a little fried and corroded. Assembly of a new
Board would be a nice backup should my repair
attempts fail.

If I knew how, I'd build a new board with a Z80
on board. I know there's Pi based retrofits out there,
but, no thanks.

OTOH, if this 102 board is fried, maybe a tear down
and scan would be better than parting out the rest
of the chassis and case.

Somebody did this for the C64 and all the board variants. It is possible
to do. But changing teh CPU to a Z80 sounds like it would no longer be a 102.

--
Daniel
Visit me at: gopher://gcpp.world

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lowrezz@gmail.com writes:

I ask because I have a T102 where the mainboard
looks a little fried and corroded. Assembly of a new
Board would be a nice backup should my repair
attempts fail.

If I knew how, I'd build a new board with a Z80
on board. I know there's Pi based retrofits out there,
but, no thanks.

OTOH, if this 102 board is fried, maybe a tear down
and scan would be better than parting out the rest
of the chassis and case.

I may just do it. I have a working 102 and one that works sans some bad
lines on display due to a bad display driver chip. It is fixable if I
can find a spare chip for sale as a drop-in replacement. I don't want to sacrifice it if it is largely fixable.

I've been looking for a dead one on ebay for less than $20 but people
want crazy money for even a dead one. If I can get my hands on a dead
100, 102 then I'll get started reverse engineering the board in CAD and
see how it goes.

I may ask the bitchin crew if someone has a dead 100 they're willing to
donate.

Daniel

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