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Strange 'Model I' on Instagram

At the end of the life of the Model 1, TEK started producing the M1 in Japan for Tandy. Ian Mavric wrote about it in trs8-bit but I can't find the article right now. IIRC Tandy was planning to switch all M1 production to Japan to make room for M3 production at Fort Worth. Then the whole FCC issue hit and Tandy discontinued the M1 instead. But TEK had already produce a batch. These sold in Australia at least (hence 220V) - I think TEK only produced 220V versions prior to cancellation.

However all the ones I know about used the standard M1 case. Not that thing in the photos.

PJH
 
I just really want to clean it. It Irks me how people take photos of these things without even wiping them down.
 
That thing has a completely different motherboard compared to a standard Model I; it looks like it has a printer port built in, an onboard power supply, etc. And what’s with the sidecar disk controller? It’s like a Model III from a parallel universe, where Tandy decided to stick to a separate monitor but fell in love with the TI99/4’s expansion form factor.

The Teac PS-80 was an authorized clone that had a few physical differences from a regular Model I but nothing like this. There is a picture out there of an ad for a “PS-85” that’s an all-in-one 4P-like form factor but there’s nothing more about it and maybe it was never actually sold? Perhaps this is some kind of prototype in an independent line of development.
 
How is it that the back of the board is so pristine-like clean whereas the front is . . . er . . . "less so"? I think the power supply might need some looking at :D And they thought running the video and cassette lines out at said power supply was a good idea?

So the TEK name on the board matches up with their production of the M1 at the end. It's not so much a M3 as a M1 + expansion interface merged into a single board.

PJH
 
How is it that the back of the board is so pristine-like clean whereas the front is . . . er . . . "less so"? I think the power supply might need some looking at :D And they thought running the video and cassette lines out at said power supply was a good idea?

So the TEK name on the board matches up with their production of the M1 at the end. It's not so much a M3 as a M1 + expansion interface merged into a single board.

PJH

Because the back faces down and wouldn't collect dust like the front, which faces up. Has anyone considered this might be some kind of elaborate fakery, given that nobody has ever heard of this configuration before? It's only still photos, not video showing it working. It might be some form of MSX computer dressed to look like a TRS80. MSX was sold in so many countries that it would be impossible to know the appearances of all of them. It could also be Photoshop.
 
According to radioshackcatalogs.com 26-7016A was a Japanese System TRS-80 Model 1

The service manual for the Japanese Model I is on archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/TRS80Ser...apaneseModel1/

There were three different catalog numbers for the system (including 26-7016A) and a couple different motherboard variations, but all of them looked basically the same externally as a standard US Model I, there's nothing like this in the manual.

Of particular interest, look on page 37 of the service manual, the section headed:

7: TWO TYPES OF TRS-80

In that section it explains how to distinguish between two motherboard variations by looking at the TEC part numbers on the board starting with "HE11E"; the example it shows bears the number "HE11E011520". The number on this board is "HE11E016530".

If this thing is real it has to be a prototype, there's no way no pictures of this wouldn't exist if it was ever a retail product, while if it is fake it's a really elaborate job. The emblem and bottom serial number sticker could well have been pulled off a regular TRS-80 (anyone happen to have one of the Japanese-manufactured TRS-80's they could flip over and take a picture of?) but that motherboard looks very much like a real deal. It's interesting the sticker says it was intended for 220v/50hz power. A domestic Japanese TRS-80 would be running off of 100v/60hz, so if this is a prototype it was apparently intended for export.
 
Whoever took the photos managed to cut off the date codes of both the Expansion Interface (6A_ = June of 198_) and the computer itself (12A_ = December of 198_).
 
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