Category Archives: Manuals and books

Pocket Computer Newsletter : Part I, issues 13 to 28

That’s crazy, i can’t find the “Pocket Computer Newsletter” magazines anywhere !
But i have some articles about the PC-1500 extracted from it.

Here is the first part with issues 13 to 28.
You’ll find issue number at the bottom of each page.

Couvertures_Page_1Download

If you own the original magazines, please, contact me.
Maybe would you accept to offer it, sell it or send high quality scans…

Hidden objects : the Sharp PC-1500A, CE-150 and manual

All of you know the famous games “Hidden objects”, isn’t it ?
I have special one for you !

Could you find the Sharp CE-150 ? The PC-1500A manual ? The Sharp PC-1500A ?
Hidden_objects_Sharp_PC-1500_1
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Hidden_objects_Sharp_PC-1500_3

Yes, our favorite pocket computer is 33 years old…
The whole article at Crystalradio.cn : http://www.crystalradio.cn/thread-245019-1-1.html

Alles für Sharp Computer : july to december 1986

AFSC_86-07
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AFSC_86-08
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AFSC_86-09
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AFSC_86-10
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AFSC_86-11
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AFSC_86-12
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All the book, manuals, magazines provided here are digitized from my personal collection and for information about the PC-1500’s story. They illustrate all the incredible enjoyment around this pocket computer and all the work of thousands of fans. Feel free to find your own original items.
If you are the copyright owner of some digitized documents and want them to be removed from my website please contact me.
And if you own some other items that could be interesting to be published here please contact me.
And if you are fans and have some story to tell us contact me too !

DIANZIBAO : Repairing the Sharp CE-150 printer

Lot of my technical informations come from USA and Europe.
And i’m always happy to discover informations from China specially this one !

DIANZIBAO is a kind of bible for repair shops.
Something like 400 pages of technical informations, schematics, matching table for ICs, components pinouts for all kind of items.
This cover from fridge, cameras, radios… to repair tools.
In the 1992 edition there are some pages about the Sharp CE-150 and it’s usual problems.
CE-150_CN_Repair_001

In this article you discover all the CE-150 problems you can encounter.
Battery ? Gear ? Pen ? Step-motor ?
CE-150_CN_Repair_005

And there is a paragraph for ROM replacement.
These pages were never published in EU and USA ! Why ?

It would be wiry nice if some Chinese reader can translate it for us.
I’m sure we would learn a lot more about the CE-150 !

Download the full chapter from DIANZIBAO 1992

Magazine : TRS-80 Microcomputer News

I have published lot about French, German and Swiss magazines or Club papers.
Now lets talk about one US magazine !

The TRS-80 Microcomputer News was published from January 1981 to June 1984.
A new pocket computer appear in the May 1982 edition : the TRS-80 PC2 !
TRS-80_Microcomputer_News

You can discover the whole collection at Color Computer Archive

If you own the Pocketcomputer Newsletter please contact me…

BMC : The MC-12 user manual and MC-12A supplement

Hello, we all have to thank AXEL for these documents !
I contacted him some days ago about his MC-12A picture on his website :
http://www.askrprojects.net/calcs/calcs.html

He searched everywhere in his hard-drives and found two scans of the manuals.
The pictures had black margins with text inside.
With my favorite image processing software (Aperture) i corrected it, sometimes with letters by letters words reconstructions.

Here are the manuals :

BMC_MC-12_User_manual
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BMC_MC-12A_Supplement
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Thanks you again Axel !

Added to the menu : “Help needed”

Building this website to remind the worldwide story of the Sharp PC-1500 is a crazy hobby. We are in 2015, 33 years after the first PC-1500, and lot of informations are going to disappear in the next years. All the people having worked on the PC-1500 projects, all the club members, all the resellers, all the users are from 50 to 80 years old. Some contacts told me “i have cleaned my house and don’t have anything left”, “all is gone to trash some years ago”… That’s very sad, isn’t it ?

A few months ago i have installed a statistic tool and each month i can see the really nice result of 3000 unique visitors and 7000 visits ! Do we need better proof that the PC-1500 is still popular in 2015 ? NO ! Thank you to all my readers ! Some comments on the articles or guestbook are welcome 😉

But some help is needed to save PC-1500 related items and papers before they go trash !
This is the role of my “Help needed” menu. It tell how you can help me and what i’m currently looking for.

Thank you all !
Eric.

Sharp clubs : AREAD/SHACC from the Netherlands

As the french “Le Sharpentier” we can find other Sharp clubs in many countries.
Today a friend presents the SHACC (Sharp HAndComputer Club) club from Holland and it’s club magazine AREAD.

EMI_2100

SHACC: the SHARP Handheld-Computer Club in the Netherlands

Long before the world’s first real pocket computer – SHARP’s PC-1211 – was introduced, I had established a regular cooperation with the brand’s representative in the seventies. The focus then was on their calculators. When the revolutionary EL-5100 appeared, it seemed obvious, that SHARP would/had become the leader in this field (in fact overtaking HP and TI, still caught-up in their RPN vs. AOS war).

But it was not until the PC-1500 in the early ’80s featured all the functionality and connectivity required for a real computer-system, that professional interest arose for the pocket computer – eventually the model was rightfully crowned “King”.

The SHARP brand in the meantime had got its own official importer, SHARP Benelux (i.e. for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg). Shortly after the introduction of the PC-1500A, a few independent pros met with the SHARP management, and decided to start SHACC. Our goal was to exchange ideas for applications that could lift the ‘pockets’ from the almost insulting level of the “BASIC-programmable calculator” as they were called in those days. We endeavoured to learn from each others experiences shared tips & tricks, etc. SHARP supported us in many ways, not least bymaking available to us most of the info from the Service Dept. in  Hamburg (the head office for the European Continent, in those days).

It wasn’t long before we had more than 200 members: professional application designers, student programmers, and corporate users. We had a number of members in Belgium and Germany, and one of our members who had frequent business contacts in France, brought back these wonderful French magazines from his journeys.

One German member, living in The Hague, and I brought a whole range of products from the rich German ‘scene’ to our country/members, varying from programs and add-ons/add-ins, to books. There were very few ‘clashes’ between these 3rd-party commercial activities on one side, and the interests of SHARP, or other companies involved.

The most outstanding product probably was the navigation software, Navipack. It came in three EPROM-modules, and made the PC-1500(A) the world’s most accurate navigation tool, at the same time providing the tidal data of 800 ports around the world ! Developped by a Dutch math professor, it is still in use today.

The most intricate application award for the PC-1500A must go to the Nestle production plant for milk-powder, where one (1) PC-1500A (via a multiplexer) monitored and controlled 5 weighing-doseing units plus a printer. For this task, the Swiss manufacturer of the weighing-doseing units had specified 5 full-fledged PCs. The MC-6800x microprocessors in the Swiss units fired their data at a rate of several MHz to the poor PC-1500A. Not being fluent in machine-language programming I had to overcome this huge speed gap in BASIC ! (Knowing something about the probability in information theory does come in handy in a situation like that …).

These are just a few examples of the many projects that came about through SHACC. So why did SHACC stop, you might ask. More than one reason: first, SHARP discontinuing production of the PC-1500A, and later the organizers taking over from the ‘pockets’ (i.e. the models that could accomodate a BASIC Card). And then there was the problem every club gets to deal with sooner or later: diminishing ‘input’ for the club magazine, which, in effect, is the binding factor. The hardcore members kept in touch for a few years afterwards and than it was over.

R.B.

AREAD_1983-N1
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AREAD_1983-N2
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AREAD_1983-N3
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AREAD_1984-N1
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AREAD_1984-N2
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AREAD_1984-N3
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AREAD_1985-N1
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AREAD_1985-N2
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AREAD_1985-N3
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AREAD_CORK
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Contact me if you are looking for the Navipack package. I will ask my friend for details.

And he offers us this cartoon by world-famous Dutch cartoonist CORK (Cor Hoekstra), who was a personal friend of R.B.
AREAD_CORK