TRS-80 Model lll: _Something Something Cool Name_

I got my hands on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model lll with an intact CRT. I still need to test the monitor but more on that down the road. For now the important thing is I am going to bring life back into this relic with modern hardware and making the case even sexier. I'm going to make an attempt to save the original keys and put them on the keyboard I am replacing the original with, obviously they aren't exactly standard MX keycaps but I think I can do surgery on them.

http://oldcomputers.net/trs80iii.html

Inside it I'll be shoving:
AMD 7850k
Asrock FM2+ m-itx board
Rx 480
16GB Adata something (it's RAM wtf ever)
some SSD idk
probably an HDD or two
something to power it
other

If anyone (@wendell) wants the intact original internals to include the CRT if I'm too dumb to make it work or decide it won't accomplish what I want lemme know and we'll work out shipping

17 Likes

My first computer was a TRS80 color computer. I spent half a day typing a program into it from a rainbow magazine only to turn it off and lose everything.....

6 Likes

You're a fucking relic of the past too, old man.

5 Likes

Without us grumpy old men you would not get born :)

4 Likes

That is sexy as f***

That will be a fun build, I'm jealous.

Keep us updated

1 Like

that looks like fun

I'll get in some more work tomorrow but Friday is my last final, then I'm going to basically do nothing but work on this.

Also I might replace the CPU and board with Zen stuff when it's released.

3 Likes

Nice. Looking forward to this :)
One day I will finally get back to my NES build . . .

1 Like

looks awesome, what are you gona do to the floppy drives? hotswap bay?? hahaha

1 Like

btw - what is your plan with the crt? Keeping it or swapping in a panel and mounting inside the chassis enclosure?

Edit: woops missed the note at the bottom. Sounds like your initial plan is to make use of the crt.

That keyboard looks divine.

1 Like

May the adapter gods be with you. Gonna be a lot of soldered ribbon cables.

1 Like

It feels like a particularly mushy rubber dome. Zero clack.

Radio Shack not giving a clack.

1 Like

What are the underside of the caps like. Never stem modded caps but I have seen a few guides. You are gonna need some sacrificial switch stems.

I did some things!
Gutted



Guts.

Keys might fit a new keyboard!

Motherboard tray mocked up (lazily) in a possible mounting location. PSU will go to the left. I'm opting to mount a modern monitor instead of the crt. As cool as the crt would be it seems like it'll be more trouble than it's worth. Additionally since this will make for a decent LAN rig I can get away with a built in 1080p display and not need an external monitor (you know how practical I like to be when packing for a LAN).

Next step is planning front panel and airflow then keyboard and monitor selection and finally, surgery then paint and finish.

3 Likes

Just be careful of the crt capacitors, I read they can hold on to allot of juice for a while.
Back in the day they no one would even write a book on fixing crt monitors, they just said don't mess with em.
Awesome build idea! Was it me or were all TRS keyboards hell incarnate?

My dad used to fix televisions. You know, the ones with tubes? He was once knocked across the room when he touched a cap by mistake. I can still smell the aroma of sizzled steak.....

2 Likes

Ordered a 10 inch retina panel and an hdmi adapter/controller. Doing some cutting and mounting the mb tray today. Pics to follow.

3 Likes