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Tandy Trs
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Panasonic Toughbook 27 Military/police Ruggedized Notebook Computer
I lately had the chance and priviledge of buying more than 400 from the Panasonic CF-27 Pentium II "TouchScreen" ToughBook Notebooks from the nearby supplier. They had been area units and I was a small scared from the offer because they had observed alot of "Wear & Tear".
I was especially worried about the TouchScreen because there was significant "Scratches" on the Plastic TouchScreen Interface which protects the LCD Screen. It seems that the end-users had been using the writing end of a conventional pen instead of using a stylus. Well my worries had been unfounded and everything turned out OK.
This unit was originally worth $7500 Canadian Dollars and I can see why. The quality from the construction, the casing and handle as well as the brightness from the LCD are astounding. It was as if I had purchased 400 used "Hummers" and the reaction of my clients was amazing.
Many people told me that they had dreamed of buying such a unit but never thought they could afford one, until now. I was fortunate that all my units had been complete and not missing any from the key parts, including the Hard Drive Caddy, the hard disks themselves and a working battery pack in more than 97% from the units received. The RAM had been maxed-out to the maximum of 192Mb and the Hard Drive was a standard 6Gb, although many of my clients replaced the HDD with a 20Gb or even 30Gb.
Some from the units had been downright filthy, and normal scrubbing did not help. I found an amazing product called Sol-U-Mel, containing the active ingredient Melaleuca Oil, which did the trick and reduced the time, energy and elbow grease required. Using paper towel, especially on the top from the magnesium alloy cover left tremendous lint, and I had better results with a soft cloth or old bath towel.
The LCD screens cleaned up very nicely with straight Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol and the scratches
I mentioned earlier, although a cosmetic defect, are virtually unnoticable when the Super-Bright LCD is activated and the unit is turned on and operating. Panasonic originally installed the best Video Card available at the time in this unit, and believe it or not, this unit supports streaming video quite nicely with only minor "Skipping" when connected to Youtube or MSN and watching weird or Funny Stupid Videos.
The original operating system in my P2 units was Windows'98SE and I was lucky enough to get an original Panasonic Factory Image installed with all the correct drivers including the TouchScreen driver with "Calibration". The calibration was necessary so that when you play Solitaire and you want to drag the cards to the right position, they go where they are told. It was also important to load the proper TouchPad driver so the mouse did not behave erratically.
The original keyboards gave me the biggest problem because many of them had been used outdoors and as a consequence had been "Sun-Stained" and "Yellowed". Any units with the original beige or white keyboards cleaned-up nicely after a careful scrubbing with standard soap, water and a toothbrush. Minor amounts of water had been necessary, although the Panasonic is resistant to moisture and humidity. But the units with the yellow keyboards I chose to replace with a brand-new black keyboard, which not only completely changes the look from the unit, but at the same time makes it appear both modern and cool. This was originally a keyboard from the Panasonic CF-29 but fits both the CF-27 and CF-28 models.
Unfortunately like most Panasonic Military-Grade Toughbooks, my units did not come with an optical drive (CD-ROM). They did come with a 3.5" floppy disk drive which is internal, removeable and modular. And when you close the drive door compartment, like all covers on the left, right and back sides (see photo above), it is hermetically sealed against moisture and dust.
The Panasonic CF-27 does come with a USB Port and you can use an older USB key of either 256Mb or 512Mb capacity with no problems. Under Win98SE, a 2Gb or 4Gb U3 standard USB stick will NOT work, as there are no 98 drivers available, and I personally never managed to get a 1Gb working either. I did have good luck with the Memorex, Verbatim, Fuji and Kingston brand of sticks, but I had a bad experience getting the Sandisk Cruzer brand working at all with Win'98SE.
Because there is only one USB port, I chose to add a Wireless PCMCIA Card instead of a USB type and the Panasonic CF-27 has a hidden peculiarity: You must use the Top slot instead from the Bottom slot when adding a Wireless PCMCIA Card. The bottom slot works fine with a dial-up Modem but seems to be a no-go for the Wireless Card. That is OK with me, and you should not try to break your head to figure out why, that is just the way things are. I had VERY Good success with the SMC brand of Wireless Cards and very poor success with either D-Link or LinkSys Brand Cards. Maybe this was due to poor compatibility with Win'98SE.
If you stick with Win'98SE, I would also suggest upgrading Internet Explorer to Version 6, Windows Media Player to Version 9 and DirectX also to Version 9. This is how I configure all my units and they work great on the Internet with the Wireless Card. Don't forget upgrading your FlashPlayer as well.
I mentioned the CF-27 Battery Packs earlier had a 97% rate of good units. This compares to less than
5% to used ThinkPads or Dell Latitudes from the same generation and age. All my batteries had been the originals from 2000-2001 and today still cost close to $163 retail for a brand-new Panasonic Canada battery Part Number CFVZSU04W, which is insane by the way because the unit with a Wireless Card should not exceed $100 Canadian Dollars as described in this article.
Another "quirk" you should be aware of is that when the CF-27 battery is actually charged to 100%,
the Power Management feature under Win'98SE only shows 70%. This is somehow also considered normal for the CF-27 and has something to do with not "over-charging" the battery pack, which is probably WHY most from the batteries still work anywhere between 45 minutes to 1.5 hous on average on the units that I have tested. Please do not let that mislead you into believing that all Panasonic batteries will last this long, but I have been extremely lucky with this particular batch of 400 units.
Let me also state for the record that I am an authorized Panasonic Dealer because 1989 and what you might conservatively call a Panasonic ToughBook enthusiast and maybe even a fanatic about these units. I have sold these units all more than the world to countries in Africa, Asia, South America, etc. The reason people still are willing to pay $100 for a P2 Notebook with Wireless is that this unit is unique, the touchscreen feature is cool and the unit is remarkably dependable, reliable but disposable at the same time. Nobody is going to cry if it gets lost, stolen or broken. It is also somewhat of an Ugly Ducking and not a pretty Barbie Laptop and maybe nobody wants to steal it to begin with. As far as breaking it, good luck! It is pretty solid and I include a small "Info-Mercial" originally produced by Panasonic on each of my units as a way to test the video capabilities from the unit and the MIL-SPEC tests that they perform are both unreal and astounding.
Just so that you don't think that the Panasonic CF-27 is perfect, my one criticism about the units besides the that fact that it is not only built like a tank but at 7.5lbs is as heavy as a tank, is that the sound capabilities with the single built-in speaker at 0.4W really SUCKS! Now in all fairness, you can hookup external amplified speakers or headphones to the standard connector located on the back from the unit and then the sound is GREAT!!! But the small speaker is located on the underside from the unit and often gets muffled unless you raise the unit even 1/4" so that the sound can get out.
This is my first eBay Guide and I hope is was helpful. I have more than 22 years experience selling, upgrading, fixing-up Laptops and Notebooks and my first Portable Computer was the original Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 from 1983 which ran more than 20 hours on 4xAA Batteries and was probably almost as tough as the Panasonic CF-27 Notebook.
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Is there any market/interest in a Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80 with lots of documentation? (i.e ref man first ed)?
I've been helping my 70 year old Father (electrical engineer) clean up his house. He has a working TRS-80, with all sorts of documentation. Is there any market for this antique?
I see some going on ebay, but i was wondering if there was a better forum for selling this stuff...
I myself would keep it , years from now museums will be wanting stuff like that. But already alot of people collect old computers like that and eBay would be a great place to find them. Great find though , makes you realize exactly how far we've come in not to long of a time.
COLUMNIST: Computer upgrades
The last two weeks I’ve been focusing on things that will help get your computer running faster via software means, and next week I’ll continue. Sometimes no matter what you do, however, your computer is just too old to handle modern software.
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January 19, 2007 at 7:22 pm, filed under
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