Brendan's Classic Microcomputer Trainer Kit
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Radio Shack Microcomputer Trainer Kit
The Radio Shack Microcomputer Trainer was one of those old-style
"spring-terminal" type kits (such as the 50-in-1 or 250-in-1, both of which
I also own), but with a twist. This kit really had only one purpose - to
wire up a little microprocessor that had a tiny bit of RAM and a very small
instruction set built-in to a clock, LED displays, a keypad, speaker, and, of
course, power, which was supplied by six AA batteries.
I have some very fond memories of this little computer,
especially while road-tripping in Dad and Mom's big class-A motorhome in the
80s - hey, it was the most powerful portable I had at the time! I
would spend hours writing little programs for it while looking out the window
of my "room", my top bunk bed at the back of the motorhome.
Learning how to use it went hand-in-hand with my limited knowledge of
assembly language programming on the Tandy Color
Computer 2 (a little Motorola
6809-based machine) at the time.
I soon hope
to include some more of my older programs. Until then, the entire 180-page
manual, containing info regarding the built-in games and other capabilities
and specs is available here.
Michael Merrick, of Hermleigh, Texas, contacted me about the repackaging he's
done with his kit for use as test equipment. Click on the images
below to view the large versions.
This is the original repackage.
New repackage, but with original repackage keypad.
New repackage, with new keypad.
He explained to me that the set of 4 green LEDs at address $5E also
run through buffers and control 4 relays inside the box. The terminal bus
on the back of the latest repackages are, in turn, controlled by these relays.
The jack with the red and white wires on the left of the unit is the 5V power
supply to the relay coils.
The label on the front of the box is an old TI calculator label, since
the microprocessor in the Microcomputer Trainer is from Texas Instruments.
Under the label is a small speaker.
To the right of the speaker is a
switch which allows manual disable of all of the relays.
The red LEDs are
at address $5F. Note, also, the original 7-segment LED display to the right.
The perfboard on the top is for further connectivity via addresses $5E and
$5F, and Michael explained that he plans to attach a small breadboard to the
top for further customization and experimentation.
As you may have noted, he has used 2 different TI calculators as a keypad,
one with a 4x5 matrix, and the other with a 4x6 matrix.
I think it's great that this old equipment is still being put to work in this
way. (Thanks, Michael, for sharing!)
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