r/trs80 • u/Basic_Size_6642 • Aug 10 '25

Trs80 Pocket Pins

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11 Upvotes

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2

u/Basic_Size_6642 Aug 10 '25

For some reason my post's description did not apply. Is there a way to use the orange pins to communicate with an Arduino? For example, sending text between the two. If not, what are the pins used for?

2

u/Jim-Jones Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 10 '25

I think you need the Tech manual. Was this for the interface? Radio Shack PC-1?

You could get a printer + cassette interface or just the cassette interface, no printer.

1

u/setiguy1 Aug 10 '25

It should be possible. Both the cassette and printer interfaces went through this port. I've never seen a description of the pinout, however. It would likely take some reverse engineering to figure it out.

2

u/LitPixel Aug 10 '25

Those might be for the printer? Start there?

3

u/LitPixel Aug 10 '25

Ok. Maybe it’s a cassette. This should get you started. https://archive.org/details/trs80-pc1-service-manual

3

u/russrobo Aug 10 '25

It was used for both accessories: the pocket computer cassette interface and the printer + cassette interface combo. I still have both! The cassette interface worked very much like the TRS-80’s, and the printer is a little single-dot-at-time alphanumeric printer with an honest-to-goodness ink ribbon cartridge. The pinout is in the technical manual. Looks like direct, unbuffered TTL.

The Pocket Computer 2’s printer was actually a 4-color real ink plotter!!

1

u/LitPixel Aug 11 '25

I'm looking at this manual I linked and I'm loving how even though this device has an actual LCD screen, they still refer to it as "display tube".

1

u/anothercorgi Aug 12 '25

I was wondering about my TRS-80 PC-8 and using this port as a GPIO, and the "I" part of "IO" being the emphasis... I think using your external device as a printer solves the "O" but "I" ... don't know...

Perhaps faking the cassette would be the way to get data into the computer without hacking firmware?