#TRS80 EMULATOR MAC SERIAL#
#TRS80 EMULATOR MAC PC#
#TRS80 EMULATOR MAC PLUS#

The DB-25 plug, covered, didn't fit into the narrow recess where the Model 100's serial output is concealed. As it turned out, that wasn't a great idea.

#TRS80 EMULATOR MAC PC#

The cable worked in a serial test with an old PC laptop, so I went and put covers on the ends to make them look pretty.

So I ventured to the local electronics store to get a length of cable, male DB-25 and female DB-9 plugs, and the assorted odds and ends required to crimp the pins I needed. While there are some pretty elaborate serial cables used to connect the Model 100 to PCs for file transfers using souped up ROMs and PC software, it looked like my best option (given my current lack of a soldering iron) was a three-wire connection that mirrored the one used for direct serial connections to the Raspberry Pi's pins. All I needed was a null modem cable and a USB-to-Serial converter, thenВ I could turn it into a serial terminal and run an Internet-connected shell session.Д«ased on the research I had done, it seemed like I would need to make my own null modem cable. The RS-232 connection can do up to 19,200 bits per second-a much more Internet-friendly speed, if the buffer and data bus on the Model 100 could keep up. While the modem was tempting (a return to dial-up!), it can manage only 300 bits per second. The Model 100's built-in serial port is shared by a 25-pin DB-25 RS-232 jack and an internal modem. I wasn't going to let a little thing like 'no possible way of loading a TCP/IP stack' get in my way. To date,В I have a well-documented history of trying to drag 1980s technology into the 21st Century. And while many current Model 100 enthusiasts have upgraded the ROM of their systems to extend their capabilities, this one came with the stock ROM from 1984. The documentation was a photocopied, ring-bound duplicate for NEC's version of the same system, so there were a few minor but significant differences. My current Model 100 came with a bit of a handicap it didn't include the AC power supply, the original cables, or the cassette drive used to store and retrieveВ programs. Literally any modern device surpasses that figure. It was easy to overlook the fact that even the top-end Model 100 only had 24 kilobytes of RAM.

#TRS80 EMULATOR MAC PLUS#

At the time, the machine was a reporter's dream: 20 hours or more of life on four AA batteries plus built-in text editing, address book, calendar, and communications applications burned into an onboard ROM chip. The machine has some nostalgic significance to me as well-I filed one of my first assignments as a technology journalist with a Model 100, connecting to MCI Mail over dial-up in a phone booth using acoustic couplers. (Sadly, Gates was unavailable to take this trip with us down memory lane.) As we reported in ourВ initial hands-on tour of the Model 100, he considered it his favorite machine ever. It was the last system for which Bill Gates wrote a significant amount of code. In case you're not familiar with it or perhaps have confused it in some way with the slightly more famous TRS-80 desktop, the TRS-80 Model 100 (affectionately known among retro-computing buffs as the 'T100') is theВ Radio Shack-branded version of an early 'laptop' computer developed byВ Kyocera and Microsoft. And seeing as this machine first saw the market in 1983, it took a substantial amount of help: a Raspberry Pi, a little bit of BASIC code, and a hidden file from the website of a certain Eric S. Only aВ week later, I successfully logged in to Ars' editorial IRC channel from the Model 100. Thankfully,В I underestimated my patience/techno-masochism/insanity.

And at this moment,В I crawled on the floor looking for a DB-25 connector's little gold pin that I had dropped for the sixth-or maybe sixteenth-time. On a recentВ day, I set out to turn my recently acquired vintage Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 computerВ into a working Internet terminal. So as I searched under my desk, using my phone for a flashlight, I wondered whether I had finally found the IT project that would send me over the edge. The true test of a man's patience is crimping pins onto the end of a cable that leads to building a custom serial cable-especially if it's the first time you've even handled a serial cable in a decade.

Trs80 emulator mac