In an effort to complete my TRS-80 Model 200 rig, I ordered a cassette recorder off ebay for a good price. Said it was needing new belts. No problemo, I'm a tapehead.

The device didn't power up when I placed the batteries in the device.

I got the service manual and all my tools and got to town tearing apart the tape player. I have a few objectives.

*Replace the belts
*Retrobrite the very yellow shell
*Demagnetize the head
*Do a thorough cleaning of all pcb's and check for any rust. Resolder anything needing to be resolderedededed.

Here's my takeaway as I freeze this effort for, at least, a few days. I have two weeks to go before my replacement belt bundle arrives. Right now it's still in China awaiting shipment. I assume they're doing a cost saving container shipment. So, they project two weeks to two months for delivery.

I cracked open the service manual. It states which screws to remove to disassemble the unit. What it missed was the need to desoldered all the wires to remove the board(s) from the unit.

There's evidence someone attempted to repair this device at some point:

1. One of the screw's head for the main pcb was stripped. Luckily my mini flathead was able to get enough traction to remove it. I have a million little screws I'll likely match it with.

2. Someone mistook a solder as the screw for the mini pcb below the volume knob and did some real damage to it. The screw, to the left, was completely untouched. It was also excessively hard to locate until I zoomed in with my high def tablet camera and spotted it. The service manual did a decent job pointing to its location though.

3. The black wire connecting the two battery terminals to series the batteries was disconnected, and that explains why there was no power supplying the device.

I took a load of pictures of this project so far and will post a phlog entry on my progress.

Since this is the first time ordering tape deck belts not from a prepackaged set, I learned the proper way to measure one. I'll know which belt in my stack I'll need to use when replacing it.

If someone on here doesn't know how to do it, here's the URL:

http://www.wjoe.com/beltdims.htm

Anyhow, I'm done fiddling with this device for the evening. It's been fun so far. It is a light bummer though. I had hoped to get the shell completely free of electronics this evening. Tomorrow will be a full backyard day and was hoping to retrobrite the shell while I'm outside. First world problems, I know.

Daniel Traechin

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Daniel wrote to All <=-

In an effort to complete my TRS-80 Model 200 rig, I ordered a cassette recorder off ebay for a good price. Said it was needing new belts. No problemo, I'm a tapehead.

Good luck with that. Those are a lot of fun; I had a model 102 for a while, but the = key broke and wasn't much use after that -- and I wasn't up to fixing the key back then.

There's a new device that's roughly the same form factor called a FreeWrite
- it's got mechanical keys and a tiny screen, and just does word processing. Apparently writers who want a distration-free tool can use it to write
without the distractions of the internet.

I'd like to go to a coffee shop (when they open again) and whip out my m100 onto the table and start writing my novel with it.

Personally, I'd like an old DOS laptop with VDE, if I could find one with a decent screen and a good battery.





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On 02/05/2020 10:44 a.m., Kurt Weiske : Daniel wrote:

I'd like to go to a coffee shop (when they open again) and whip out my m100 onto the table and start writing my novel with it.

How long does that thing run on battery?

Personally, I'd like an old DOS laptop with VDE, if I could find one with a decent screen and a good battery.

I find that 3rd-party batteries for vintage laptops don't last very long. I tried one for a Thinkpad T40 many years ago, and the darn thing only ran 2 hrs max. But when I found a supplier of genuine IBM batteries, the replacement ran 4.5 hrs. Same size (cells). Big difference.



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Kurt Weiske wrote to Daniel <=-

Daniel wrote to All <=-

In an effort to complete my TRS-80 Model 200 rig, I ordered a cassette recorder off ebay for a good price. Said it was needing new belts. No problemo, I'm a tapehead.

Good luck with that. Those are a lot of fun; I had a model 102 for a while, but the = key broke and wasn't much use after that -- and I
wasn't up to fixing the key back then.

Cool yeah

There's a new device that's roughly the same form factor called a FreeWrite - it's got mechanical keys and a tiny screen, and just does
word processing. Apparently writers who want a distration-free tool can use it to write without the distractions of the internet.

Never heard of it, will look it up.

I'd like to go to a coffee shop (when they open again) and whip out my m100 onto the table and start writing my novel with it.

I like taking my 200 to a bench on my green belt with a cigar and compose my phlog entries.

Personally, I'd like an old DOS laptop with VDE, if I could find one
with a decent screen and a good battery.

Anything older than a pentium is expensive. 486's are going for crazy stacks right now. You can typically find them in pretty good condition but be warned the batteries would need to be replaced. You can usually find vendors who'll make batteries for old laptops if you look hard enough. Just be sure you have a battery lined up before buying an old laptop.

I have a pentium 90 laptop that I got for coding purposes, I was going to slap a headless linux distro and code in emacs. They tried to fix the laptop before I got it. It's in a drawer in a file cabinet in pieces waiting until I get replacement parts for it. I'm glad it wasn't expensive.

Be careful what you get.


... Daniel Traechin
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Re: m100 /DOS /VDE /batteries
By: August Abolins to Kurt Weiske on Sat May 02 2020 08:42 pm

I'd like to go to a coffee shop (when they open again) and whip out my
m100 onto the table and start writing my novel with it.

How long does that thing run on battery?

20 hours on 4 AA batteries.

I find that 3rd-party batteries for vintage laptops don't last very long. I tried one for a Thinkpad T40 many years ago, and the darn thing only ran 2 hrs max. But when I found a supplier of genuine IBM batteries, the replacement ran 4.5 hrs. Same size (cells). Big difference.

I have a T42, and battery quality was hit and miss for me too. You definitely get what you pay for; I could pay $20 for a battery that would last a year or $40 for one that lasted 3-4 years.
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