Joe Pasqua's Faux TRS-80 Is a 3D-Printable Raspberry Pi-Powered Homage to Tandy's Iconic Systems
Designed to mimic a cross between a TRS-80 Model III and Model 4, this 40%-scale creation runs a fully-functional TRS-80 emulator.
Joe Pasqua has designed a 40%-scale version of the famous Tandy-Radio Shack TRS-80 microcomputer, 3D-printable and built to house a Raspberry Pi running an emulator — and with a cut-out for an off-the-shelf working keyboard and trackpad at the front.
"The model is meant to evoke the feel of a TRS-80 Model 3 or Model 4 computer," Pasqua explains of the Faux TRS-80 project, "but is not an exact replica of either. It has mounting spots for a Raspberry Pi, display, and associated hardware that allow you to run a TRS-80 emulator and get the true Tandy experience."
The TRS-80 Micro Computer System was launched by Tandy in 1977 for sale through its Radio Shack stores — hence the "Tandy-Radio Shack" that make up the name. Based on the popular Zilog Z80 eight-bit microprocessor, the TRS-80 was followed by an incompatible successor confusingly dubbed the TRS-80 Model II before the launch of the largely-compatible TRS-80 Model III. The Model 4 joined the range in 1983, switching to a faster Zilog Z80A CPU and with a larger integrated display — while the TRS-80 Model 100, launched that same year, brought the company's technology to the notebook market.
As Pasqua says, the Faux TRS-80, brought to our attention by Adafruit, isn't a direct copy of any one model in the range, though it bears the most resemblance to the TRS-80 Model 4. A 5" 640×480 display sits to the left, next to two decorative floppy drives — non-functional, though with LEDs that can flash at random for aesthetic appeal. Where the TRS-80's original keyboard would live is a cut-out, designed to hold a low-cost off-the-shelf wireless keyboard — connecting to the Raspberry Pi inside the case over Bluetooth.
That Raspberry Pi, Pasqua says, can be anything from a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B upwards. "I use a [Raspberry Pi] 4 and find the performance completely acceptable," he writes, using the single-board computer to run the trs80gp emulator — capable of acting as a TRS-80 Model I through to the later Color Computer.
The 3D print files for a Faux TRS-80 are available on Printables under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license, while the Python source code for the project is published on GitHub under the MIT license alongside full build instructions.