Welcome back to part 11 of my fourth SepTandy Spectacular. In the last post we ended our look at the Pocket Computer line by looking at the various miscellaneous peripherals for it In this Entry we move on to the Model 100 by looking at its early peripherals and add ons.
First up is an external AC adapter (Catalog number 26-3804), Released in 1984, at a retail price of $5.95 dollars.
A listing for the Model 100's AC Adapter in the 1984 Radio Shack catalog
For that you got a basic 6v brick adapter with a barrel jack for hooking into the 100, pretty standard. One unusual feature about the adapter is that it's center negative as opposed to the more standard center positive. This is a very rare type of connector so keep in mind if you use a third party one!
The Model 100's AC Adapter
Next up is an 8K RAM upgrade (Catalog numbers 26-3816), also introduced in 1983, for $199.95.
A listing for the Model 100's 8K RAM upgrade in the 1984 Radio Shack catalog
This was esetually just the RAM chips that were in the 24K version of the 100, and by adding them onto the option sockets on the motherboard, you could upgrade it to 8K, 16K, or 24K.
The Model 100's RAM expansion slots
Next up is System Briefcase (Catalog numbers 26-3809), also introduced in 1983, for $49.95.
A listing for the System Briefcase in the 1985 Radio Shack catalog
This was exactly what you would think it would be: A briefcase to hold your Model 100 in. But it isn't limited to that as you could also fit an accompanying CCR-81 cassette recorder, and the required cables. Its very similar to the ones sold for the Pocket Computers, only its just bigger to fit the 100. Tandy mainly aimed this at the Model 100 users in the business market, people like accountants, salesmen, business representatives, basically anyone in a large business that needed a Model 100 to get work done on the go. The big appeal was that it could hold and protect your Model 100, and it wouldnt look out of place alongside say luggage in an airplane for example.
The Model 100's System Briefcase
Next up is Acoustic Modem Cups (Catalog numbers 26-3805), also introduced in 1983, for $39.95.
A listing for the Acoustic Modem Cups in the 1985 Radio Shack catalog
Now while the 100 does have a built in modem, it was a digital modem. Now if you were using it at home, it wouldnt be an issue since you would more than likely have an exposed phone jack to connect it to, But the problem was if you were in a public setting, than a digital phone jack would be a lot less common. With the Acoustic Modem Cups, you could just simply take the telephone handset and send and recive info to the modem that way. This was especially useful if you were using a Payphone, sice they werent designed to have any jacks exposed for security reasons.
The Model 100's RAM Acoustic Modem Cups
And finally the most interesting early periferal, The Bacode Reader (Catalog numbers 26-1183), Introdeced in 1983, retailing for $99.95.
A listing for the Model 100 Bacode Reader in the 1985 Radio Shack catalog
The Barcode reader was mainly targeted at people who needed to keep track of items like data collection, security verifacation, and of course inventory management. The reader came with a few demo inventory control programs, with the most notable being INVCRE.BA, and INVENT.BA which allow you to make Barcodes by printing them and adding them to an inventory database respectively.
The Model 100's Bacode Reader
But once again, were only scratching the surface as there were many more peripherals released in the rest of Model 100's lifetime. This concludes Part 11 of the fourth Septandy Spectacular, join me next time as we take a closer look at the Model 100's disk drives.
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