Tandy WP-3 Word Processor

The Tandy WP-3 is a portable Word Processor from the lates 1980s, early 1990s, a successor to the Tandy WP-2 but with a British English dictionary. Based on the Z-80 compatible NEC 70008A-6 it had a 6 line LCD display and a very usable full-size keyboard. Powered by 6V main supply and/or 4 x AA battries with backup from a CR2340 cell.

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Psion Series 3mx SSD door microswitch repair

I recently bought a Psion Series 3mx on eBay but found it didn’t recognise SSDs inserted in either A or B slots and suspected a motherboard fault. Having found a cheap 3mx to test this, and checking that it did indeed read SSDs OK, after swapping the motherboard it didn’t help. Not only that but it also failed in the same back in the original machine.

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Sharp PC 3000

Sharp PC-3000 DOS Handheld

The PC-3000 was a DOS-based computer, the predecessor to the PC-3100, launched in 1991 following the release of the Atari Portfolio, the world’s first palmtop computer.

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Texas Instruments TI Programmable 57

Texas Instruments TI Programmable 57

The TI-57 was a programmable calculator made by Texas Instruments from 1977 to 1982, which was followed by the more powerful TI-58 and TI-59. It had 50 program steps and 8 memory registers. I owned a Texas Instruments TI-57 while at university, used very occasionally for ‘real’ problems but mainly just played with the examples…

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A BBC Master 128 Bargain?

BBC MAster with peripherals

Having been looking out for a BBC Micro to add to my growing collection of retro computers from the 1980s and 1990s I came across a BBC Master being sold as spare/repairs on eBay. It was complete with monitor and dual disk drives but was for collection only from Somerset, 300 miles away. As it…

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