(Editor’s Note: The following article was written by Larry Desch for the newsletter of his local KAYPRO user group in Iowa City, and is reprinted here with the gracious permission of the author.)
AN INEXPENSIVE (really!!) and PORTABLE (truly!!) COMPUTER
What computer has 16K, expandable to 64K, weighs in at less than 5 pounds and has a small “footprint”? Am I talking about the Radio Shack Model 100? No, even though I would like to have one. How about the Gavilan? (What a weird name for a computer — sounds like a name of a comedian.)
How about some more information — the total cost is less than $200 and the major component of the equipment is no longer available unless you can get one used or from England or Canada. The United State dealer decided to bail out despite selling 140,000 units of a newer model only since November 1983.
Give up?? Well, you may question my sanity, but, besides my Kaypro II, I also have a Timex/Sinclair 1000 I have added some components to make it a very useful system and one that I don’t mind carrying with me when I travel.
Bear with me now, I realize that this is a newsletter for Osborne and Kaypro owners, but I thought that possibly I could inspire some people to also look at their computers as what a computer truly is — an electronic device and one that could be altered to do things that they may have been thought impossible to do. You may not believe this but your computer could be hooked up to other electronic devices to control lights and your furnace in your home while at the same time predicting what your next gas and electric bill will be.
Now back to my “version” of the RS Model 100. What I started out with was the basic TS 1000 computer which at Christmas was being sold at K-Mart for $30. (Now you have to write off to a mail-order house to get one of the few remaining units.) The TS 1500 is more readily available now for $75. Next purchase was a keyboard kit for $70, actually “kit” is a misnomer since all I had to do was take out the printed circuit board from the TS 1000 and plug it into the connector in the keyboard assembly. This took about a half-hour or so. I also bought an assembled 16k RAM module rather than a kit since the kit was only $7 cheaper. The most important part of my components other than the computer itself was a RS-232 module that I made from a kit. The cost of this was $60 and it was relatively easy to build but not for someone who has never soldered printed circuits before. The assembled version costs about $20 more. I already had a modem that I could use with this RS 232 module (since that is what my Kaypro uses).
LET’S COMPARE WITH THE RS MODEL 100 —
Timex-Sinclair System Radio Shack Model 100
2K up to 64K 8K to 24K
24 line by 32 Char 6 line by 40 Char
RS 232 added RS 232 built in
modem added modem built in
full keyboard added full keyboard
AC needed(more or less) Battery power (for
5-6 hrs)
Cost -- $250 for 16K Cost -- $500 for 8K
(including modem)
So what is the catch? Actually there are two catches. To use the TS 1000 system you need to be near a TV (which is hard not to do in our society) — any TV will do just fine. The other is that the TS 1000 is not quite as portable. If you are handy with electronics it is easy to build a portable battery pack that will run the TS 1000 and a small black and white TV (3″ to 5″ screen) — there are several articles that give easy to follow plans. Or you could do like I have and make a simple adapter so that both the TV and the TS 1000 can be run on a 12 volt car battery for a long, long time or indefinitely if you run it in your car and periodically start the engine to charge the battery. This last use is something that I have tried with great success. I don’t think the “ultimate” portability of the RS Model 100 is that big of an issue — how many people will really feel like using the Model 100 while they are in a crowded airplane or in a taxicab?? Most likely they would use it in a private area, such as their hotel room, with a TV several feet away. Get my point?
I have found my concoction to be a useful and versatile system (I can still play games like Frogger!). Most importantly, it meets my needs for something on which I can type my notes from a meeting, save the text on a cassette tape and then when I get home, download it to another computer for editing and improving the format.
One of these days the price on a Model 100 will be reduced to less than $300 and I will probably buy one and retire my TS 1000. Unfortunately, I will probable miss playing games while I’m “on the road” and occasionally long for my “toy” computer.