Hi!

For over a year now I've had a TRS-80 MC-10, my wife bought for me for a present.

I had plugged it in a while ago and had some issues with it resetting,
and put it away.

I got it out today to have a play, and I'm not so sure it was resetting,
but rather the video cable might be a bit flakey. I plugged it in, it's
got an rca style plug on the machine, and the other end plugs into the
antenna. It works, but the screen is very fuzzy and if you wobble the
cable it gets fuzzier / clearer.

Do you think a new video cable could work with this? The one it came with
is very long and very old.

The other thing I was wondering about is a cassette deck. The one it came
with I'm not sure it works, and has seen better days, the lid is missing
etc.

The cassette plug has three plugs on the cassette deck end, what looks
like a headphones plug a microphone plug and I believe the other is a
"remote" plug.

I'm sure I could find a cassette deck with a microphone plug and a
headphones plug, i'm not so sure about a "remote" plug. Do you think it
is essential to have this plugged in?

I remember back in the day when using other computers it would tell you
to press play, and press stop and so on, but I've never owned a TRS-80 in
the past.. I assume the remote plug is to do that from the computer?

Finally, the power supply is 8V AC (Not DC!) and from what I can tell
rather hard to come by. The one it came with seems to work fine, but I'd
like to know if anyone knows where to get a replacement incase it stops working. (Plus I read somewhere older commodores their powersupplies were pretty bad, I don't know if this is true of the TRS-80 MC-10)

Andrew

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Re: TRS-80 MC-10
By: apam to All on Thu May 06 2021 04:14 pm

Howdy,

I'm sure I could find a cassette deck with a microphone plug and a headphones plug, i'm not so sure about a "remote" plug. Do you think it
is essential to have this plugged in?

So I have my TRS80 Model 1 Level II from when I was a kid - its in a box here (hasnt been turned on for 30+ years, so I'll get around to it one day.)

I have the cassette player/recorder - and yes the third cable was for the computer to turn on/off the player. So you could press play and then type in CLOAD (or whatever the command was) and it would start the cassette and stop it when it had read everything it needed to read.

Finally, the power supply is 8V AC (Not DC!) and from what I can tell rather hard to come by. The one it came with seems to work fine, but I'd like to know if anyone knows where to get a replacement incase it stops working. (Plus I read somewhere older commodores their powersupplies were pretty bad, I don't know if this is true of the TRS-80 MC-10)

Jump on to facebook and look for a guy name Ian Mavric (or something like that). He is the "Tandy TRS80 repair guy" and he in Australia! (I think Victoria too.)

His knowledge seems impressive - and he has some stuff, so he may have the parts or be able to tell you where to get them.

I think this was his old website:
http://ianmav.customer.netspace.net.au/trs80/

...ëîåï

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On 06 May 2021 at 05:12p, deon pondered and said...

So I have my TRS80 Model 1 Level II from when I was a kid - its in a box

I'm having TRS80 envy now reading about all of this stuff with you guys :)

I recall using one at high school in the 80s and at that stage it was a very new thing indeed. It was before the Apple IIe arrived and I think may have
been before the Dick Smith system 80 (I think it was called)

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new thing indeed. It was before the Apple IIe arrived and I think may
have
been before the Dick Smith system 80 (I think it was called)

The first computer that was actually all mine was a Dick Smith VZ300
given to me by a friend of my Dad's

Used a cassette recorder to record games and an old black and white tv :)

So disappointing when it eventually stopped working, I think I must have
tossed it.. shame, might have been able to fix it now lol

Andrew

--
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|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!|07


--- Talisman v0.20-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happylandbbs.com:11892/ (21:1/182)

Jump on to facebook and look for a guy name Ian Mavric (or something
like that). He is the "Tandy TRS80 repair guy" and he in Australia! (I
think Victoria too.)

Thanks deon, I'll look into it.

Andrew

--
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|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!|07


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apam wrote (2021-05-06):

For over a year now I've had a TRS-80 MC-10, my wife bought for me for a present.

:)

I got it out today to have a play, and I'm not so sure it was resetting, but rather the video cable might be a bit flakey. I plugged it in, it's
got an rca style plug on the machine, and the other end plugs into the antenna. It works, but the screen is very fuzzy and if you wobble the
cable it gets fuzzier / clearer.

Do you think a new video cable could work with this? The one it came with is very long and very old.

If it's not a connection problem of the computer's RCA jack, most likely the is a lose contact on one of the plugs or the wire is (half) broken before the plug. Replace the whole cable or if possible open the plugs and see if resoldering would fix it.

Or: you haven't set the channel on the TV to the right frequency and wobbling does something (not sure if that is possible, just a guess).

But these are just suggestions. Recently I found an older LTE router and tried to fix the power issues. I was sure it was a problem with cable of the power supply just before the plug (which usually is). Unfortunately I cut the cable before I figured out that it was a defective on/off switch.

Finally, the power supply is 8V AC (Not DC!) and from what I can tell rather hard to come by. The one it came with seems to work fine, but I'd like to know if anyone knows where to get a replacement incase it stops working. (Plus I read somewhere older commodores their powersupplies were pretty bad, I don't know if this is true of the TRS-80 MC-10)

Good luck with that weird combination.

On some devices DC and/or higher (or slightly lower) voltage works too. But sometimes you would fry the device or some parts don't work. I wouldn't get think about a replacement proactively. You power supply might last another 40 years.

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* Origin: . (21:3/102)

For over a year now I've had a TRS-80 MC-10, my wife bought for me for a present.

If I recall right, and I may well have this backwards... the MC10 is the small footprint thing essentially a coco, the video was inherently fuzzier than the coco? Sheesh its been over 30 years... Regards the lead, the shorter the better always, less line loss, an noise induction. Used to be a 16k RAM expansion for it too...

Spec


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So I have my TRS80 Model 1 Level II from when I was a kid - its in a box here (hasnt been turned on for 30+ years, so I'll get around to it one day.)

Raaka-Tu!

Jump on to facebook and look for a guy name Ian Mavric (or something like

Thats correct..

Spec


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I'm having TRS80 envy now reading about all of this stuff with you guys :)

Never had one myself. Friend from primary school had got one about the time we shifted on to high school. After that I used play around with the demo models out the front o' the Tandy store on my way home from skool. Had to get two busses, one which stopped at a local shopping centre. (Chadstone)

Spec


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On 06 May 2021 at 06:52p, Spectre pondered and said...

Never had one myself. Friend from primary school had got one about the time we shifted on to high school. After that I used play around with
the demo models out the front o' the Tandy store on my way home from skool. Had to get two busses, one which stopped at a local shopping centre. (Chadstone)

I started with a ZX81 and wobbly RAM pack then onto a BBC B Micro... the
TRS80 was in my maths classroom at High School. I used to go in there during lunch and sometimes after school to play/use it.

The lonely flashing astrix on the screen I recall as the tape would load stuff... better than the wobbly black and white chaos on the screen when I
did the same with the ZX81.

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apam wrote (2021-05-06):

Hi!

For over a year now I've had a TRS-80 MC-10, my wife bought for me for a present.

I had plugged it in a while ago and had some issues with it resetting,
and put it away.

I got it out today to have a play, and I'm not so sure it was resetting, but rather the video cable might be a bit flakey. I plugged it in, it's
got an rca style plug on the machine, and the other end plugs into the antenna. It works, but the screen is very fuzzy and if you wobble the
cable it gets fuzzier / clearer.

Do you think a new video cable could work with this? The one it came with is very long and very old.

I think you get better quality with a direct composite output. Something like this:
https://thezippsterzone.com/2018/05/08/mc-10-composite/

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* Origin: . (21:3/102)

On 06 May 2021 at 04:14p, apam pondered and said...

I had plugged it in a while ago and had some issues with it resetting,
and put it away.

I got it out today to have a play, and I'm not so sure it was resetting, but rather the video cable might be a bit flakey. I plugged it in, it's got an rca style plug on the machine, and the other end plugs into the antenna. It works, but the screen is very fuzzy and if you wobble the cable it gets fuzzier / clearer.

Do you think a new video cable could work with this? The one it came with is very long and very old.

A new cable may well help, if that one is fraying internally. It
sounds like you might be seeing the effect of stray capacitance,
though. For a machine that old, it may be worth looking at the
electrolytic caps inside; there might be a filter on the video
output that's going marginal.

The other thing I was wondering about is a cassette deck. The one it came with I'm not sure it works, and has seen better days, the lid is missing etc.

The cassette plug has three plugs on the cassette deck end, what looks like a headphones plug a microphone plug and I believe the other is a "remote" plug.

I'm sure I could find a cassette deck with a microphone plug and a headphones plug, i'm not so sure about a "remote" plug. Do you think it
is essential to have this plugged in?

Cassettes were always a poor format for data storage. You may
be better off with one of the intelligent I/O emulator boards
floating around; those can interface to some more reasonable media.

I remember back in the day when using other computers it would tell you
to press play, and press stop and so on, but I've never owned a TRS-80 in the past.. I assume the remote plug is to do that from the computer?

Finally, the power supply is 8V AC (Not DC!) and from what I can tell rather hard to come by. The one it came with seems to work fine, but I'd like to know if anyone knows where to get a replacement incase it stops working. (Plus I read somewhere older commodores their powersupplies were pretty bad, I don't know if this is true of the TRS-80 MC-10)

The main board internally almost certainly runs DC. There's almost
certainly a rectifier circuit internally and filtering; why they chose
to accept AC into the chassis is...wow. Anyway, it does look like
some replacement power supplies are available relatively inexpensively (https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/trs-80-mc-10-ac-adapter/), but
in a pinch, you could probably bypass the AC stuff and feed it directly
from a bench supply.

The Coleco Adam was the machine I remember that had the really sketchy
power supplies; they were built into the printer, and known to go bad.

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On 07 May 2021 at 12:00a, tenser pondered and said...

The main board internally almost certainly runs DC. There's almost certainly a rectifier circuit internally and filtering; why they chose
to accept AC into the chassis is...wow. Anyway, it does look like
some replacement power supplies are available relatively inexpensively (https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/trs-80-mc-10-ac-adapter/), but
in a pinch, you could probably bypass the AC stuff and feed it directly from a bench supply.

This may also help. The schematic appears to be the internal
rectifier; looks like they wanted multiple output voltages to
drive RS-232 directly. https://kevinbecker.org/blog/2018/4/11/trs-80-micro-color-computer-mc-10

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I started with a ZX81 and wobbly RAM pack then onto a BBC B Micro... the TRS80 was in my maths classroom at High School. I used to go in there during lunch and sometimes after school to play/use it.

Hmm I did 3 years at a private school, when I got there they were running some kind of antique mainframe with a punch card reader. I never did find out exactly what it was... But I never had to deal with it either. The end of the last year I was there, they put in a lab of ~20 x C64's networked with 2 x 1541 floppy drives. So never got to use those either... Reckon it would've been slow as all get out, and probably flogged those floppies to death.

The public school after that had a small network of Microbees until someone snarfed the network module out of the server, after that it was pretty much all over for them. And just trying to think... maybe a dozen or so IIe's kicking around various parts of the skool.

I didn't have any computer until I could afford a II+ after I started working.

Spec


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