Sharp PC-3000

Everything about vintage DOS based Palmtops goes in here...
SpiroGiro
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Favorite Palmtop: PC3100

Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by SpiroGiro »

..no 3.3V - I am actually referenced in that Sven post by the way, as well as my original website! - I was an original adopter in 1995 and wrote a comprehensive case study on the wider usage of the PC3000 for Dip themselves. I used to go into their offices in Guildford and was the first person to be supplied with the Dip utility/prep software which most ppl now benefit from!

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Str ... c3000.html

is still alive but here:

http://home.freeuk.com/hieroglyph/pc3story.htm
Kyodai
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by Kyodai »

Confusing, since Sven posted the output from his linux machine which clearly claimed the working card "SDCFB-16-485" as 5.0 Volts. But yeah maybe it's a Linux bug or so? No idea how linux reads out the voltage anyways. Could also be a flag that is just configured in a wrong way? But let's just say I am surprised that Linux output is wrong. I'm not that deep into pcmcia specs, so I can't say much helpful stuff besides what I read on the web.

On an interesting side note - I found a website about the "poqet". Not that closely related to the PC-3000, but what I found odd was that the author mentioned it can utilize 3.3V Flash cards and 5.0 Volt SRAM cards. Having no clue about the pcmcia specs that baffled me, too. As a novice reading that you'd assume like "Well yeah that pcmcia slot just supports both voltages", but I guess there's some science behind it that I will never understand.

BTW: I tried to complete the list a bit - the canon 32MB (rebranded sandisk) and Kodak are from my own collection of CF cards, so only these 2 were added to the "good" cards to the original Sven list. Well better than nothing. I was once close to buying a huge lot of 200 old CF cards on ebay, but let's just say my wife kinda kept me from buying it.

http://www.tankraider.com/DOSPALMTOP/pc3000extras.html
SpiroGiro
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by SpiroGiro »

Yes, from what I remember in the days of struggling to get affordable PCMCIA cards for the PC3000 I remember that SRAM work at 5v because they already have a battery charging their circuit. In 5v Flash cards, there is not enough voltage coming from the PC3000 to WRITE to the card in continuous streams, The writing also equates to initial formatting. ONLY the Sundisk branded cards of the time worked. Later SANDISKs also became patchy (some were earlier spec Sundisks rebranded).

Is amazing how only a few years ago you couldn't sell these old cards, now they are close to the prices I paid in the day! Also even old LOW capacity CF cards ~16mb are being toted as VINTAGE and COLLECTABLE/RARE!!

https://www.cbronline.com/news/dip_laun ... nd_drives/

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Kyodai
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by Kyodai »

Hmmm, I never thought the battery in the SRAM cards would make such a difference, but now that you explain it it kinda sounds logical.

I wonder if the poqet used the same or at least very similar PCMCIA controller since it had the same problem.

Actually I have pretty much the same invoice from DIP - but not to me, I got it from some ebay aquired PC-3100 which came with the box, cards and the invoice.

Funny how you got from 128 KB to 2x2 MB to 10 MB in less than a year. You were really data hungry back in the days. ;)
SpiroGiro
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by SpiroGiro »

Yes - I resented paying £40 for just 128Kb (!) at the time especially as I had forked out £38 for the user manual a bit earlier from them! BUT the problem with the PC3k was that finicky Laplinking and a realistic connection success rate of around 10% ONLY. This was exasperated by the fact where I worked and who I knew then only Amstrad 1512 5.25" only machines. So I had to find a further cable to go from serial to LPT cross over female - not easy pre Internet days! In addition I forked out for a Backpack 3.5" parallel floppy drive but still had to get that 12kb driver onto a dumb PC3k... The Sharp FDDs were around £480 if you could find one then. Dip only sold them WITH a PC3000 at around £980 a package.

BUT - I bought my PC3100 used (unused) for only £100 and it came with pocket modem and laplink cables because the company workforce couldn't live with the shortcommings out the box. The Backpack floppy was £179. I sold the 128Kb when I got the 2xSRAM and again sold one of the 2Mb SRAM when I got the 10MB Flash, so was some payback.

The guy that sold me the PC3100 also donated a dead PC3000 for nothing a little later and I have that as a spares unit if I need it. It actually just needs the EPROM reballing as is a dry joint. Potentially, this could be upgraded to a PC3100 if I could find the chip.

The short time-framed increased demand in memory was to be able to use the PC3100 in anger. I wanted to run WP5.1 so could exchange files with the company XENIX version of WP.5.1. I could run vs 4.2 off the floppy, but it had less graphic file ability and in the day, sexy WP was the preserve of Windows mainly, if you believed the press that is. Even the early Windows version of Worperfect wasn't as comprehensive of the DOS version, just looked nicer.

So when the PC3k was equipped with 2x2mB SRAM, I had the chance to stacker one drive to 4Mb and with integrated extended memory managers and all sorts of space saving file utils came the chance to try and load other extensive DOS apps and of course Windows 3.0. Windows however, in its lean fighting fit form takes up 11Mb on disk, so the 10Mb FLASH stacked to 20mb was the only way to go. Strangely, you'd never know the driver is stack'd as the speed for 10Mhz is perfectly acceptable and pain free.

So, my working setup in the day was: Windows 3.0/Word/Excel. WP5.1, Compuserve CIS, Bitfax, IRC/Telnet/FTP clients, masses of utilities, PKzips etc, memory setups for different apps when needed, couple of games, graphics exchange /converter/viewers. With stacker I could also stacker E:\ to 2Mb and the SRAM to 4Mb so had in effect 26Mb of storage. Should this all fall over due to failed batteries (Achilles heel), then there are setup files on floppies to just copy over and reboot for auto configuration. Luckily, all the files on the stacker'd FLASH are still there as are the SRAM (if good battery) so was very quick to get it all back.

So all this work came off being a simple ATARI ST Midi user who saw that technology superior to DOS and on a par with the MACs of the day. Thus, all my DOS and PC experience came from working with the PC3000 and a short while after, this experience got me working with the technology within the company setting up websites for Mitsubishi, Mannesman Tally et al, THEN - I then got headhunted for the post of UK PR Manager for Lotus (Notes)/IBM - (Mitsubishi were an early adopter of Lotus Notes so you can see the lineage). So thank you PC3k - you ultimately paid me back in spades!

I do remember sitting in a BA Executive lounge one day around 1999/2000 working away on it and all the Vaio users (THE first SEXY laptops of the day) coming over to ask what it was...

I miss those pioneering days when every day was a potential new way to work with it and every PC magazine was read cover to cover every month and all the Ads scanned for memory card deals! But the biggest buzz must have been having an email address in 1995, but then finding there was no-one in my world to email!
Kyodai
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by Kyodai »

You were for sure a power user of the Sharp back in the days. I got my first Laptop in 1998 - A small Toshiba satellite. I'm pretty sure it was stolen as the seller was that kind of dodgy drug dealer type and someone teared off the sticker with the serial number. But back then for 800 Deutschmarks it was the best I could afford since I was an apprentice and never really had huge savings.
Cello
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by Cello »

Cello wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2016 7:28 pm On building your own RS232 connector for the PC-3000
...continued
(see also previous posts in this thread)

In my never ending search for some common piece of PCB that fits the proprietary thickness and pin spacing of the serial connector of the PC-3000, I had a Eureka moment and started to check flash memory cards.
And yes, a micro SD card has exact the correct thickness and copper line spacing to fit the PC-3000 connector!
It is one sided though. But if only pin 2 (Receive Data), pin 3 (Transmit Data) and pin 5 (Signal Ground) are needed for a null modem cable, one side should be enough! Can any one confirm?

Would be nice...

Establishing RS232-connection with Sharp PC-3000

Summarizing the issue: the Sharp PC-3000/3100 can not read ordinary PCMCIA memory cards without a special driver. This driver is available but is not included by Sharp on the machine so it has to be transferred to the Sharp via an RS232 connection. But the RS232 connector and cable on the Sahrp is proprietary and that cable can not be found anymore. What to do?

Hence, I tried to make my own connector. After searching for 3(!) years I finally found a connector (from an Apple G5!) that has the correct thickness, number of pins and pin spacing as the Sharp connection. This connector is one side only though but that should be all right since the RXD, TXD and Ground pins are all on the upper side.

Test:
Gear at disposal:
1. PC-3000 with Sharp custom builtin Laplink 3 software and RXD, TXD and Ground pins hand wired to RS232 female connector
2. RS232 cable
3. RS232 null modem cable
4. 2x MSDOS laptop with default Laplink3 software + terminal emulation software (Term90 from Norton Commander)
5. Arduino board wired to RS232 male connector (MAX3232 RS232 to TTL Serial Port Converter Module) and connected to PC. Characters sent and received can be read by Arduino Serial monitor software on PC.

What works:
Laplink3 to Laplink3 between the two MSDOS computers
Term90 to Term90 between the two MSDOS computers
Term90 on a MDOS machine to Arduino and vice versa

What does not work:
Laplink3 on Sharp to Laplink3 on MSDOS computer

Note:
Laplink3 on Sharp to Arduino sends characters one by one but not to be interpreted. These characters differ from those send by Laplink3 on MSDOS computer to Arduino.

So I did a simpler test: see whether I can send some character(s) using DOS piping to COM1 with one of the following commands and read them in Term90 on the receiving machine:
echo hello > com1 ("hello" or any other string of course)
copy t.txt com1
typ t.txt > com1
print t.txt > com1
This worked using any of the two MSDOS machines as sender or receiver, but NOT with the Sharp PC-3000 as sender. That was a great disappointment and I had to give up my research.
Note: using "ctty com1" on the receiving machine neither worked, which was a pity because the Sharp does not have a Terminal program but does have the "ctty com1" command.

If anyone has a hint how to solve this, I'd be grateful.

PS: the proper MODE commands and communication settings in the terminal software were used.
Kyodai
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by Kyodai »

Hmmm I remember the laplink 3 on the sharp to be a bit quirky. Silly question - but the MS-DOS machines you use - they also use MS-DOS 3.3? Because I think Sharp with laplink 3 on MS-DOS 3.3 was never friends with higher DOS versions using laplink 3...

Actually I think it's not even the laplink software itself, but how mode.com works on dos 3.3 and how it works on later versions. They somehow changed mode.com - whch was probably a great ide, but it broke compatibility to older DOS versions.

For a null modem cable without handshake 3 lines should be fine 2,3,5 to 3,2,5.

I'd be curious to hear more about that Apple G5 part you used. Can you tell more about it?


You did read the sharp service manual about the wiring, right?

https://archive.org/details/sharp-pc3000-service-manual
azureal
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by azureal »

Kyodai wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:00 pm I'd be curious to hear more about that Apple G5 part you used. Can you tell more about it?
I am also interested in the details about this connector.


I picked up a few flash cards which I think should work in my PC-3000, I will get them out take some pictures and share details for the community.
I need to work on testing with drivers to get the system to see and use them.

I also found an old version of Borland Turbo C++ which I used 30 years ago to code for PC, it should certainly run on the PC-3000.

Kyodai, it is very nice to see the forum, database, lists and blog back up and in action! :D
Cheers!
Andrello
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Re: Sharp PC-3000

Post by Andrello »

Dear All, I am quite new on this forum since I started my experiences with PC-3000 just last summer and I would be happy to share with everyone what I have (hardly) discovered about this masterpiece of 90s.

1. RS.232 connector. I found out the serial connector required is manufactured by DHF and the precise model is DHF-PDA10. I found and Italian company which sells it (not even RS, Farnell, DigiKey, Mouser ever have DHF among their suppliers), R.E.C. connectors sited in Milan at 15 euros/each. It also sells the parallel connector DHF-PDA20. I bought some of them, since the minimum order quantity is 200 euros. Ask me in case someone needs just one or two. As soon as I will receive them, I will make experiments with Laplink, which seems very challenging. I will use a MS-DOS 3.3 PC to keep the things as easy as possible.

2. Main memory. I own a PC-3000 unit, 1 MB PSRAM. It is quite easy to upgrade it to 2 MB (PC-3100), just solder the 2 missing RAM ICs 658512ALTT in U21 and U22. I attached some pictures of my upgrade, It worked at first trial. BTW, the unit also accept 1.5 MB, in this case just solder U22. I still have 6 spare ICs (not very easy to find) so ask if interested. While the unit was opened, I also completely recapped all capacitors with new Panasonic ones.

3. PCMCIA slot, this is the real hell bout this PC. I made a lot of trials with W95/W98/XP but always unsuccessful. I think I hardily need the 2MB SRAM card image (http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1479409597.zip) formatted on a Poqet prime PQ-0181. Unfortunately the file is no longer available. Does someone has it and can share with me?

I would be very happy to discuss with someone. Andrea
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