tandy200

A place to the information and files I create and collect for the Tandy Model 200 portable computer. Most of this will also apply to the Model 100 and Model 102.

Tandy 200 Manuals

Tandy Software

Xibalba Software Archive for the Model 102, circa 2005.

Star Trek

I've fixed up Wayne Winters's version of Star Trek so that (a) it actually runs at all and (b) runs on the Tandy 200. I assume Wayne will update his version soon, so I should note that my version was created May 24, 2007.

• • trek.do Plain text (.DO) listing of TREK

  • trek.ba Tokenized BASIC (.BA) program of TREK

Portable Disk Drive

The Tandy Portable Disk Drive is controlled by RS-232 serial commands. The documentation for the protocol is spotty, however, so here's a Python suite which runs on a host GNU/Linux machine and demonstrates how to talk to a TPDD plugged into a serial port (or USB serial adapter). The code would probably work on Mac OS X without much trouble. It might even work under Windows, but who uses that? ;-)

• • Download pdd2.py

Host Software

Programs that run on a PC to connect with a Model 200

dlplus

To get binary files (.CO) onto your Tandy 200, you'll need to boostrap TEENY onto it. It's easy to do, using dlplus (DeskLink+). Just do the following:

git clone https://github.com/bkw777/dlplus

cd dlplus/

make

sudo make install

sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyS0 # Option, if you are using ttyS0 instead of ttyUSB0

sudo systemctl stop serial-getty@ttyS0.service # Option, if you have a login service running on ttyS0

./dl /dev/ttyS0 -b=TEENY.200

After that, follow the TEENY instructions for transferring files.

Host Software

To transfer binary files (.CO) to your Tandy 200, you'll need both a host program on your PC and a client program on the Tandy 200. Note that, by default, client programs require a serial cable with full hardware handshaking, containing both RTS/CTS and DSR/DTR lines. Without that, they will simply freeze up.

dlplus

My favorite host software is bkw777's dlplus which runs natively on UNIX systems. Presuming you have git and a C compiler installed, all you need to do is:

git clone https://github.com/bkw777/dlplus

cd dlplus/

make

sudo make install

Optionally, you may want to do this:

sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyS0 # Option, if you are using ttyS0 instead of ttyUSB0

sudo systemctl stop serial-getty@ttyS0.service # Option, if you have a login service running on ttyS0

After it is installed, you can run dl to start a server on your UNIX box. Since I use a serial card in my PC (ttyS0) instead of a USB dongle (ttyUSB0), I run dl like so:

dl /dev/ttyS0

Client Software

One of the nice things about dlplus: is that it makes it easy to "bootstrap" the client software from BASIC.

On the PC run:

dl /dev/ttyS0 -b=TEENY.200

On the Tandy 200 run this in BASIC:

RUN "COM:98N1ENN"

After that, you'll have TEENY.CO available in your Tandy 200's menu. It is a difficult program to use, but you can follow the TEENY instructions for transferring files.

dskmgr

Disk Manager is a nicer front end than Teeny. Fortunately, it comes included with dlplus, so you can install it like so:

On the PC run:

dl /dev/ttyS0 -b=DSKMGR.200

On the Tandy 200 run this in BASIC:

RUN "COM:98N1ENN"