Sharp PC-1500 & TRS-80 PC-2 restoration, expansion, mods & hacks thread

[Retroplayer]

Picked up a nice Sharp PC-1500 with the CE-150, power supply, and case.

Not much restoration required. The batteries had leaked, but thankfully didn't cause any damage. A little bit of cleaning up was all that was needed.

I removed the nicads from the CE-150 for now. I will be building a new pack in a few days.

I picked up the CE-163F Flash and RAM module from soigeneris. 8x16K of RAM and 8x16K of flash. I also picked up the CE-158X serial/parallel interface from there.

The plotter pens were of course dried out. I will be experimenting with replacing with some gel pen refills as others have already done.

To be honest, this pretty much completes it without much modding required. This is due to the strong community around this and its clone, the TRS-80 PC-2. The only thing I can think of left to desire would be some sort of TV interface or external LCD (maybe something like a 4" LCD module to keep it portable.) Maybe a more portable serial interface.

Now to learn how to program for it!

Any ideas for what types of cool stuff to store in all that ROM?

 

[MiaM]

If you want to use all features, I think you probably need replacement pens for the plotter in the CE150.

This is a cool setup. I've got a similar one, but I've only removed the NiCd batteries from my CE150 and CE158 but never tried them out. In general some devices with rechargeable batteries uses the batteries to handle power draw spikes (like when everything moves in the printer/plotter, perhaps?) and/or maybe even as a voltage limiter of sorts, so with batteries removed it seems like a good idea to rather power the devices by feeding a regulated DC source to the battery terminals than to use the factory mains adapter(s). (In my particular case those mains adapters are missing so it's an even simpler choice).

I wish that someone would make a replica or at least reverse engineer the Tramsoft interface to use Commodore 8-bit disk drives with the PC1500.
Their web page states that everything is sold out and the information is there for reference and nostalgia
https://www.tramsoft.ch/sharp_erweiterungen/index_en.html

I would think that if you can find dumps of their different toolkits they would probably fit in the CE163F, perhaps?

I wonder if anyone have tried writing to them asking kindly if they would consider releasing schematics, ROM dumps and/or whatnot for their peripherals?
Perhaps maybe ask someone "local" to Switzerland ask them? Like for example the Youtuber The Phintage Collector who afaik is from Switzerland?

 

[Retroplayer]

If you want to use all features, I think you probably need replacement pens for the plotter in the CE150.

This is a cool setup. I've got a similar one, but I've only removed the NiCd batteries from my CE150 and CE158 but never tried them out. In general some devices with rechargeable batteries uses the batteries to handle power draw spikes (like when everything moves in the printer/plotter, perhaps?) and/or maybe even as a voltage limiter of sorts, so with batteries removed it seems like a good idea to rather power the devices by feeding a regulated DC source to the battery terminals than to use the factory mains adapter(s). (In my particular case those mains adapters are missing so it's an even simpler choice).

I wish that someone would make a replica or at least reverse engineer the Tramsoft interface to use Commodore 8-bit disk drives with the PC1500.
Their web page states that everything is sold out and the information is there for reference and nostalgia
https://www.tramsoft.ch/sharp_erweiterungen/index_en.html

I would think that if you can find dumps of their different toolkits they would probably fit in the CE163F, perhaps?

I wonder if anyone have tried writing to them asking kindly if they would consider releasing schematics, ROM dumps and/or whatnot for their peripherals?
Perhaps maybe ask someone "local" to Switzerland ask them? Like for example the Youtuber The Phintage Collector who afaik is from Switzerland?

I sent them a message. A Commodore disk drive interface is an interesting idea. Quite impractical nowadays, but then again, nothing is really practical about this hobby anymore! We certainly have enough information and existing projects to leverage to make that. I don't know why yet, but I am not particular inspired by the PC-1500A yet. Probably because the mass storage and serial interfaces are usually the missing pieces and now I have them. The PC-1500 is also pretty large for a handheld. Maybe once I start getting some applications written, I will encounter some "needs" Birt is currently working on firmware for the Backpack Drives.

Most of my focus the past several days has been on the inferior PC-1250A (Radioshack PC-3) It is credit card sized, has a simple 11 pin expansion interface that involves bit-banged serial. It has mostly been ignored. I have some interesting ideas for that.

 

[Retroplayer]

I wish that someone would make a replica or at least reverse engineer the Tramsoft interface to use Commodore 8-bit disk drives with the PC1500.

One interesting thing to note is that the CE-158x includes a bi-directional parallel port. A zoomfloppy could potentially work with it with some ported software.

 

[Jeff_Birt]

With the CE-158X you can use the Backpack as a 'disk drive'. This makes quite a nice combo. In addition the CE-158X bumps the serial COM speed up to 19200 making saving and loading much faster (as fast as the PC-1500 can handle in fact.) Links below (my website).

As for the battery pack in the CE-150. You cannot simply remove it and try to power via the charging port. In series with the charging port is a reverse polarity protection diode and current limiting resistor. These components will not let enough current through to run the printer. The printer when in operation will a surprising amount of current (unevenly, i.e. in spikes) making the original power adapter inadequate (it was intended for charging only). You would need to replace the diode with one that can handle 5A or so, short across the resistor and use an adapter that can output about 2.5A.

I can build new battery packs to order. You can get new pens are Best Electronics in California (Atari branded). Their website is a mess.

CE-158X Serial Parallel Interface for Sharp PC-1500

A modern recreation of the Sharp CE-158X Serial / Parallel interface for the PC-1500, PC-1500A, PC-1600 pocket computers

www.soigeneris.com

Universal Backpack Drive

The Backpack is a small SD card ‘disk drive’ for vintage computers that runs from a single AA battery

www.soigeneris.com

 

[Retroplayer]

Hey Jeff!

When do you expect to have some more backpack drives in stock? I plan to grab a couple once they are in stock again.

Great info about the CE-150. I can make the battery pack myself in this case. Already have the batteries!

I didn't even think about the fact that Atari shares the plotter. I will check out Best Electronics. I *think* I may be able to make my own. This kit came with two packs of "new" pens (of course all dried out)

 

[Jeff_Birt]

Hey Jeff!

When do you expect to have some more backpack drives in stock? I plan to grab a couple once they are in stock again.

Great info about the CE-150. I can make the battery pack myself in this case. Already have the batteries!

I didn't even think about the fact that Atari shares the plotter. I will check out Best Electronics. I *think* I may be able to make my own. This kit came with two packs of "new" pens (of course all dried out)

Probably about 4 weeks until new Backpacks are ready.

 

[Retroplayer]

I got a response about the PC-1500 extensions. They mention that all of it exist only on paper and that much of it has faded over time. But they are interested in preserving it and will evaluate the effort required to do so.