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Xerox 1810 Sunrise

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Michele31415

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2022
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25
Location
New York
I just got a Xerox 1810 Sunrise portable computer from 1983.
Sunrise.png
It's in really excellent shape. The LCD works, the micro cassette drive works, the speaker works, even the NiCd battery works. I set the current date yesterday and it remembered it today.

SunriseLCD.jpg

Only problem is I can't figure out *how* it works :) I've searched the Internet for documentation and came up with zero. Does anyone have a user's guide or a schematic for this thing? The tape drive has a tape in it labeled "XEROX Instructional Tape" but I can't figure out how to make it do anything interesting. This is of particular interest to me since I was on the ad-hoc team that worked on the specs for this thing. I wish I could remember more about it but that was 40 years ago.
 
I think the problem with the Sunrise is that (1) Xerox didn't make them--they were coordinated through an outfit called "Sunrise Systems, Inc." of Carrollton, TX--and (2) Xerox had issues with them:

www.nytimes.com

COMPUTER IS CANCELED BY XEROX (Published 1984)

www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

AFAIK, the 1800s that escaped Xerox were mostly the result of a liquidation. Getting an 1840 disk drive would probably be valuable, as there was a version of CP/M that ran on the 1800.
 
Yeah, Sunrise Systems was formed as a spin-off when Xerox decided they didn't want to pursue the project. There were some made at Xerox's Dallas plant. The 1850 would be cool (if I could find one) but knowing the protocol of the DB-9 external interface might let me connect an outboard floppy of my own. Or what the trap-door ROM Pack port is supposed to do. The whole story of the demise of the Sunrise is sad but what I'm hoping for is some technical documentation.. I see that there's a few people on VCF who have one of these. It's an interesting little backwater in the history of portable computers.
 
I also have an 1810 Sunrise but I never had a power supply. @Michele31415 can you tell me the power specs and if it's a normal barrel connector to power up the 1810? I also have an 1845 (dual floppy with plotter) but don't have any software and the power cord has been cut :( Luckily, that is a straight 120v plug, it looks like. I am not sure how they connect as I do not have a cable but need to look into that as well.

Xerox Sunrise (Medium).JPG
 
snuci said:
I also have an 1810 Sunrise but I never had a power supply. @Michele31415 can you tell me the power specs and if it's a normal barrel connector to power up the 1810?
Click to expand...
Mine came with an Atari power cube part no. C018187, model no. DV9319A marked "Use only with model CX-5200". It's rated at 11.5 VDC, 1.95A. It looks like an ordinary 5 mm. barrel connector. The polarity is center-positive.
 
Thank you. Looks like a normal barrel inner diameter is a little small. I will have to look into getting one of those adapters. Thanks again and let me know how you make out.
 
Actually, this thing had some very cool features that surprisingly still stand up even today. Compared to my smartphone (Motorola Moto G Stylus):

Moto runs on battery or plugged in. Sunrise runs on battery or plugged in.
Moto has built-in microphone and speaker. So does Sunrise.
Moto can do voice recording and playback. So can Sunrise.
Moto can display on an external monitor. So can Sunrise.
Moto can do external I/O via USB. USB didn't even exist back in 1984 but the Sunrise can do I/O via a serial port.
Moto can connect to a printer via a complex app. Sunrise can connect to a printer directly via a cable.
Moto has SD card slot for expanded RAM. SD cards didn't even exist in 1984 but the Sunrise also has a slot for extra RAM.

Moto has a tiny little on-screen virtual keyboard for typing. The Sunrise has a beautiful full-size mechanical keyboard that compares favorably to any keyboard around today. Its touch is like a Cherry MX Red but with a satisfying little click at the end of the key travel. The caps lock key has a little red LED to show when it's active. I like this keyboard more than any PC keyboard I've ever used.

Boot time: Moto - 2 min. 22 sec. Sunrise - half a second.

The only thing missing on the Sunrise is Ethernet. It's a bit surprising since Ethernet was everywhere within Xerox in 1984. But it still wasn't a thing most everywhere else. The web didn't exist yet. Twisted pair RJ-45 Ethernet didn't exist yet so I guess this omission is understandable.
 
Thanks again @Michele31415 I got my Sunrise working. Now to find some software. Looks like @falter has a couple of diskettes. I wonder if he's archived them? I would imagine @falter is following this thread. If not, I will reach out to him.

My tape drive is not working. I will take a look when I can make some room to take the 1810 apart. I do have a cassette but it's not labelled so who knows what's on it.Xerox 1810 Sunrise (Medium).jpg
 
Not surprising, I guess. Your cassette could have either voice or data on it. I said my tape drive was working after I was able to see it FF, rewind, and play. It wasn't until I tried doing a voice recording and playing it back that I discovered it's not so healthy. The playback sounds like the Daleks from Doctor Who, all wavery and off-pitch. Given that, my guess is that it's not going to be able to successfully save or restore any data, I haven't looked at it yet but if there's a drive belt involved, that' s no doubt in need of replacing.
 
On hard or soft booting, my cassette tries to engage. It tries a coupe of times then gives up. I think the drive mech is sticky. I also don't see any activity when trying to fast forward or rewind. I figure there is probably a belt but I have some other issue as well, I think.
 
@Michele31415, I was able to fix my tape drive. It needed a coupe of drops of oil as there are two spindles that turn, one being the motor. I think you can do this without taking out the tape unit. Be warned, if you do, there is the eject spring you have to deal with. There definitely is a belt but mine was okay.

Audio recording does sound garbled. I was able to "csave" and "cload" in BASIC with no issues, however. My cassette did have some data on it but it wasn't a BASIC program. It might be data from one of the programs like "Text" or something. I wasn't able to figure it out but it didn't really matter.

I did change the cut cord on my 1845 expansion unit and the floppy drive lite did come on and stay on so I think this is normal. I will still need to find some diskettes to see if the drives work. They are Tek FB501s (I think) so they might need some servicing (caps) but I haven't checked them thoroughly.

Hope this helps.
 
Good progress. My tape drive tries to play for a second when I power up, regardless of the tape. I tried the "Instructional Tape" and a blank tape. I'm wondering if there's a table of contents on some block at the beginning of the tape that it's checking. I haven't tried saving any data yet. But today I found the lid no longer pops up when I pull thr release tab. I can still open it by getting a finger nail under the edge but it looks like the spring is tired.
 
Michele31415 said:
My tape drive tries to play for a second when I power up
Click to expand...

For the record, mine did the same thing as well. It would raise the read head a couple of times and then lower them. It would do this if the cassette drive was fully working or not so it appears to be normal behavior. As for the cassette popping up, that spring will lift the entire top cover if it was allowed to. It is pretty strong and was really a pain to get back in place. It may be slightly out of alignment if it stopped working.
 
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