By Joel Dare - Written Decemeber 13, 2020
I’ve got an old TRS-80 Color Computer. It was build in 1982. The machine still works but the keyboard is so bad that I don’t use it very often. The machine is important to me and I’ve been looking for a way to display it in my home.
I decided to design and build a display stand for the machine and hang it on the wall.
The TRS-80 CoCo was my very first computer. My Mom bought it second-hand and gave it to my brother and I. Over the next couple of years we spent hundreds of hours using the machine. We would type code from books and magazines, learned to fix bugs that always existed, and eventually write our very own programs. I’ve now been a professional computer programmer for over 25 years. It’s safe to say that this machine has shaped my entire life.
This is not the original machine I used as a kid. I’m not sure what happened to that one. But I found one on eBay about 10 years ago and was able to purchase it. I paid less than $2, and that including shipping. I felt bad about winning the auction at that price so I contacted the seller. They said that they were happy it was going to someone who valued it. I’m sure they have no idea how much I appreciate that.
I used the free TinkerCAD website to design and build my shelf brackets.
Originally I made a measurement error and made the brackets a little too small. They still worked, but they weren’t as secure as I had hoped. Because of the time investment I decided to use them anyway. Shortly after I put the machine up I came down sick. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to self quarantine in my office until I had recovered. Having the machine be a little insecure and then confining me to that room for 72 hours resulted in disaster.
I found all the pieces and repaired the machine, the best I could, with simple superglue.
Now I’ve updated the bracket design, re-printed, and re-hung the computer.
You can get the STL files from my store.
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