TJBChris

Coming home to the CoCo! What's not to like? An 8-bit computer with a real OS (OS-9 with processes, security, redirection, pipes, and more) was the perfect system to cut my teeth on in the '80s.

My two Tandy 4800-series are together for the first time…the 4825 SX on the left and the towering(!) 4833 LX/T Multimedia on the right. Doesn’t get much better than this!

My Super Mushroom clock clearly doesn’t know how the calendar works. Happy September 54th, everyone!

@slofunk I use external power supplies for my FreHDs.

@slofunk Normally mine come up on the first try. But the FreHD does take some time to initialize, so if you’re powering it with your III, you’ll see this behavior. If you power it with an ext. supply and let it sit 4-5 secs before you turn on the III, it shouldn’t need the reboot.

Got the FreHD working on the TRS-80 Model 3. I was going in circles until I realized the FreHD isn't quite booted up and ready when the machine is from complete power off state. If it's powered on and I do a reset it works just fine. #septandy

I decided to add a little old-school music to my evening in the computer room. I don’t know about you, but I just LOVE these really verbose VFDs. To me, the busier the display, the better.

@BollingHHoltIV Yeah toward the end, they had a few towers and what they called mid-towers (though I’ve never seen the latter). I have always wanted one. They were available as standalone models and as part of Tandy’s short-lived build-to-order program in 92-93.

@TJBChris That's a Tandy?? They made a tower form factor?

Name…that…(Tandy)…Heap! I just got it, and its a bit of a Frankenstein.

@8BitBoyzRetro I’m still holding for an intact 4820, 4833, or 4866. I’m hopeful. I’m in Unicorn-only mode for my collection, but this would count!

My first response to your reading it is a 4833 was "F--- YEAH!!!!!!!" I am happy it's in your hands. These are very hard to find, I have been looking for any 4xxx at a reasonable price and still have most of its bit and bytes. Looking forward to your YT on it and also seeing it on a future TJBChris Shopping Network deal. I will call and buy it!!! 😆 yeah I'm excited over your find.

@8BitBoyzRetro Bingo! It’s a 4833 LX/T. Or at least, it WAS. What it really is turned out to be is, uh, weird. It’ll be a YouTube adventure for sure.

@TJBChris Looks like a Tandy 4800 series 486 server. (4820 or 4833?)

I can’t think of a better use of a Saturday evening.

We’ve got diskless OS/2 Warp RPL’d on the Tandy 2500 SX/25 from a Warp Server! Client and server both on Tandy computers, of course.

Finally got to work on my Tandy disk cartridge system for the TRS-80 Model 16. We have signs of life!

@MMcCalvin Believe it or not, it’s actually SCO XENIX. 😁

@TJBChris Awe DOS 3.11 lmao!

It’s a Friday night install party on the Tandy 2500 SX/25.

For those of you following along with the Tandy 1500 HD serial boot project, it turns out 115.2k baud works if you tell SerDrive to use named pipe mode (-p). That makes it MUCH more responsive.

@90s_00s_culture It’s no IBM Model F, but it’s good to type on and comes with many great Tandy memories. 😁

@TJBChris I had that Tandy keyboard 😭😭

@8BitBoyzRetro It’s my own little bit of organized chaos. But it looks pretty! 😂

@TJBChris Nice! ...and your drawers of organization is a true inspiration! 😉

This Tandy 1500 HD has a dead hard drive, a floppy drive with the (notoriously) rotten belt, and no option ROM socket. But the stars aligned and I was able to hack in the XTIDE Universal BIOS in anyway…and boot over serial.

@pieearthRnld Yes it is! In fact, it’s the only EGA-based machine that I own.

@TJBChris Wow. An EGA laptop! That's pretty rare. 😮

Did a dump of the ROM BIOS on the Tandy 2800 HD laptop this morning. In the first few bytes is the phrase: “No one confuses us with IBM”. 🤣