Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!neoucom!wtm
From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Radio Shark model 1400LT hard disk; external floppy
Keywords: experiences?
Message-ID: <1675@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jul 89 04:09:59 GMT
Sender: wfd@neoucom.UUCP
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 32


I would be interested in experinces that anybody has had installing
a hard disk in the Tandy 1400LT portable computer.  At the current
blow-out price less our 15% educational discount makes the price a
nearly irresistable $850US plus tax.  I finally broke down and
bought one.

So far, I've been pleased with the 1400.  It isn't the last word in
laptop technology, but it certainly delivers what it promises.  I
do, however, desire to have a hard disk, as the 330 meg Priam drive
in our model 80 has a tendency to spoil a person to floppy.  Now, I
don't expedt the likes a that 330 meg drive in a laptop but
something better than 720Kbytes would be nice.  :-)  Radio Shaft
sells a 20 meg drive that has a list price of of $1095 (~$930 with
discount); that seems like a kinda lofty price, if ya know what I
mean.  I'd like to know if anybody has some experience with 3rd
party disks for the 1400LT.  I suspect that they use something like
one of the little Connor Peripherals drives with an embedded SCSI
controller, as do Toshiba et al.  I haven't disassembled teh
machine yet to see what is in there.  There is a ~15 second
pregnant pause at boot-up which would seem to belie the fact that
the BIOS is checking to see if a hard disk is there.

Also, has anybody determined the pin-out for the external floppy
connector?  I thought I'd make a cable for a spare Teac 55 that I
have sitting around.  I suppose an enterprising person might even
be able to write a device driver to do something like access an
external SCSI device, but htat seems like more bother than its
worth.

Thanks for any hints,
Bill  wtm@impulse.UUCP   or   wtm@neoucom.UUCP