Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!sun!imagen!geof From: geof@imagen.UUCP (Geoffrey Cooper) Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy Subject: TRS-80 III Help Needed for wayward soul Message-ID: <722@imagen.UUCP> Date: Mon, 15-Dec-86 12:54:09 EST Article-I.D.: imagen.722 Posted: Mon Dec 15 12:54:09 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Dec-86 05:01:32 EST Distribution: na Organization: IMAGEN Corporation, Santa Clara, CA 95052-8101 Lines: 49 I am now the proud (?) owner of a TRS-80 Model III computer. I know nothing about this machine, other than the obvious external characteristics that show when you use it: - two 5.25" floppy drives - 64-column screen - no control key on the keyboard (sigh) - serial interface (?) on the bottom of the computer (DB-25 female connector) - alleged 48K ram (says so on the machine) - two printed circuit card edges protrude from the bottom of the printer, implying that an edge connector might attach to them. I also got a "Line Printer VII" matrix(?) printer. I got a Scripsit word processing program with documentation. * I have no documentation on TRSDOS * I have no documentation on the machine itself (what's in there, a Z-80?) * I have a DB-25 to DB-25 connector that doesn't plug into the printer. The printer has two connectors on it, one for what looks like centronics parallel, the other a round connector with some number of slanted slits in it. A switch that selects "par", "8bit" or "7bit" leads me to believe that the latter is a serial connector. There is no indication of baud rate. Help! Can anyone a) give me a description of the machine? b) give me a list of trsdos commands? c) give me the pinout of the printer's serial connector, and a hint or two about the baud rate? d) allow me to photocopy a manual or two, or give me an address to order them from? Also, some other questions that I'd like to understand: 1) Are there other operating systems sold for this beast that I should consider (OS9, CP/M)? 2) Can I run any useful languages on it? 3) Is it a dead end machine, or does tandy still support it (I'll probably answer that one myself when I go down to radio shack tomorrow night). 4) Is there a hint of compatibility with more recent tandy computers. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated! - Geof Cooper {decwrl,sun,saber}!imagen!geof ^ n.b.: one 'f'