New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

I won't be bidding as I already have a Model 4, but this is a nice collectors item for someone.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/vint ... 150144.htm

temping, not sure yet see how it goes

Wow.. I almost never see TRS-80's of any vintage for sale here...

It was almost like they never got any market penetration in NZ.

It's my auction - if anyone has any questions about the machine, feel free to ask, though asking a question on TradeMe itself might be more appropriate. I'm not all that happy about selling the machine, but I'm at the stage where I'm trying to be a bit ruthless about what I keep. I'm selling my Mini 1275GT as well, which is also a bit of a wrench, but honestly, I haven't used either the TRS-80 or the Mini since about 2008, so really they should go somewhere they'll be better appreciated.

Mike

falco wrote:It's my auction - if anyone has any questions about the machine, feel free to ask, though asking a question on TradeMe itself might be more appropriate. I'm not all that happy about selling the machine, but I'm at the stage where I'm trying to be a bit ruthless about what I keep. I'm selling my Mini 1275GT as well, which is also a bit of a wrench, but honestly, I haven't used either the TRS-80 or the Mini since about 2008, so really they should go somewhere they'll be better appreciated.

I feel for you. I had a friend who had a 1275GT with a number of Cooper upgrades. It was an amazing little car and great fun to drive, even with 4 hulking great blokes in it. The only problem I had was my left foot kept getting stuck under the heater when I was trying to release the clutch

my left foot kept getting stuck under the heater when I was trying to release the clutch

Heh, it's not too rare - Minis tend to suffer from locked-up clutches due to the hydraulics getting stuck or blocked, and the pedal is not designed to take any real pressure, so tends to bend so it's almost stuck under the heater. So even when the clutch is fixed, the pedal ends up in the wrong place, making it pretty tricky to drive! I've had that happen on a couple of Minis of mine.

Ah well, might find some other things to list on TradeMe. I have a ridiculously powerful electric bicycle and a Sega CD-X that I've been intending to shift off for a while. And a washing machine. In fact, this place is overrun with things I don't really need to hang on to, if I'm being properly ruthless.

Mike

falco wrote:Ah well, might find some other things to list on TradeMe. I have a ridiculously powerful electric bicycle and a Sega CD-X that I've been intending to shift off for a while. And a washing machine. In fact, this place is overrun with things I don't really need to hang on to, if I'm being properly ruthless.

Mike

Just to give us all a heads-up Mike, are there any more classic computers you are considering putting on Trade Me?

It's possible - I keep encountering things I'd forgotten about. I have a large box of VIC-20s and accessories that I may list, but for now I'm thinking I'll hang onto those. There's a very early Bondwell laptop (guessing about 1985, XT-compatible) that probably will be listed. I still have a lot of Atari 2600 gear too. I have a pile of random classic computer stuff I'll probably list as a lot of leftovers - things like Atari ST manuals, Microbee software, various other software items etc. Oh, and a large amount of Commodore 64 gear, which would include a working SX-64, a working 64 used for the development of an alternate custom ROM (has a switch to switch it between the enhanced ROM and the stock 64 one, the alternate one isn't finished and isn't very stable). What else... probably stacks of things I'm forgetting. I have been pondering moving on the GSes, but haven't come to a conclusion on that one yet.

Mike

tezza wrote:I won't be bidding as I already have a Model 4, but this is a nice collectors item for someone.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/vint ... 150144.htm

...And that someone is Matt Dawson!

Arghh! It doesn't work!

Opened it up, turns out the plug on the back of the tube was loose, now I have a nice TRS80-4P... I did notice the filter caps are all about to go though.
Par for the course I guess.

Really glad to hear it arrived safely - I guess it's likely the tube socket didn't like the bouncing and vibrations of being sent so far. Being a portable I would hope that it was built to take a bit of bouncing though. Re the filter caps, not surprising at all; even when they look OK I'm never surprised at that familiar hiss-smoke-pop behaviour. I thought that machine might have been immune a little; I've never opened it up, but it's been powered up fairly regularly, rather than being left sitting for long periods (i.e. decades), but I don't know whether occasional use staves off filter cap failure or not, really.

It's definitely in good condition, the filter cap thing is to be expected.
I was impressed the drives didn't eat disks, and the disks worked fine.
The construction internally is very good, you can get at what you need to without swearing, unlike the model 3.
Most of all I like the magazines, I love getting old magazines and travelling back to yester-century, reading those very important dot matrix printer reviews.

I'm really glad to hear it, about the magazines - I was pretty sure that whoever bought the machine wouldn't want them and I wouldn't be able to sell or perhaps even give them away, so I was thinking they'd end up sitting on my storage shelves forever. Having them stay with the machine as part of its history was a good thing. I find history like that is a large part of what makes the machines interesting; reading about the things people used to do with the machines, what was available for them, what the issues of the time were.

falco wrote:I find history like that is a large part of what makes the machines interesting; reading about the things people used to do with the machines, what was available for them, what the issues of the time were.

I totally agree.

Good to hear the machine is up and running Matt. Those AC filter caps...yes, on many of my old machines these have blown. We are lucky they are easy to identify and easy to replace.

My classic computer hobby has been on the backburner recently due to theatre interests. I have now got a TRS-80 Model 1 monitor I need to clean up and fix though, so that will be the next project.

The monitor from TradeMe? That was a great-looking monitor, if no-one else had been interested I would have bought it myself and used it with a random vintage machine until I found someone with an suitable TRS80 for it to go with. I like nicely-designed branded vintage monitors, I can't help thinking that they'll become more rare than the machines they were sold with, for various reasons. Printers will probably become even scarcer, of course.