Today I had a little time to fire up the TRS-80 to see if it was alive or not. Turns out it's in great condition. I opened the main unit to check the capacitors and they are very close to spec still. To check the capacitors I desoldered the ground lead (so they were out of circuit) and checked them with the ESR meter. I bodged together a DIN->RCA lead for the video, then realised that my DIN connector was 7 pin not 5 pin. So I ended up further bodging by removing the pins from the plug and sticking them directly in the back of the TRS-80.

Today I was fortunate to score a Tandy TRS-80 from a friend along with a collection of tubes and old transformers suitable for tube equipment. I look forward to firing the TRS-80 up, I have never actually played with one. The key I think is going to be to clean it (obviously) and check all of the capacitors and connections before I fire it up. I don't want to let out the blue smoke!