Sharp electronic organizers with the IC card slot (Wizard OZ/IQ/PA/PI series)

[badaze]

I don’t see the IQ 8400 in the list.

[rprosperi]

(03-07-2023 09:42 PM)badaze Wrote:  I don’t see the IQ 8400 in the list.

Very nice condition! (but change the batteries before they leak).

Most 8000 series machines have died by now due to a poor flex circuit design in the hinge area. Please treat this rare working IQ-8400 machine well. Lots of memories with these, especially my 8600. Thx!

[Akuji]

(03-07-2023 09:42 PM)badaze Wrote:  I don’t see the IQ 8400 in the list.

Thanks, I've updated the table in the original post. Too many different variants of the same model of western organizers to remember them all. And that's even after I decided to omit the 'S' variant of the 8000 series to make the table less cluttered.

[Stevew62]

Does anyone want this ?

I just found it in a drawer of stuff I was clearing out. TBH I can vaguely remember owning an IQ in the early 90‘s but it is long gone.

[Dave Britten]

I finally got a copy of Box Jockey in the mail today - I've kind of wanted this one ever since I saw it in some store back in the early '90s (might have been Service Merchandise). Didn't have a Wizard at that time though. Apparently this version of Sokoban has 130 stages, whereas the Gameboy version (called Boxxle in the US) only has 108.

On a related note, does anybody have any experience with card battery life? I'm wondering how long I can expect the batteries in my BASIC or spreadsheet cards to hold up without needing a change. So far my cards are all doing okay after 2-3 years. My Time Expense Manager card's battery is still reading 2.930 Volts with no load.

EDIT: Well, it's dropping to a couple hundred mV under a 100 Ohm load, so I reckon that "every 2 years" recommendation printed on the back is pretty accurate, and I should put in a new battery!

[rprosperi]

(03-27-2023 07:41 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  ...does anybody have any experience with card battery life? I'm wondering how long I can expect the batteries in my BASIC or spreadsheet cards to hold up without needing a change. So far my cards are all doing okay after 2-3 years. My Time Expense Manager card's battery is still reading 2.930 Volts with no load.

It depends on how much it's used (of course) but the battery in my BASIC Card lasted over 20 years, though most of which time it was just sitting in a storage box. Also, I believe the card battery is only actually 'used' when the main batteries are low/dead; while they are fresh, I think there is effectively no load on the card battery.

If you're actually using these cards daily, obviously the life will be affected, but you are certainly safe changing it ~ every 2 years.

Please read the manuals to be 100% sure, but IIRC, unlike the HP-48, you should change the card battery while the card is installed in the organizer, but with the device turned OFF (in a 48, the cards are only powered by the device when the device is turned-on).

Get ready for a fairly deep rabit hole with Box Jockey, and YES they are all solvable.

[Dave Britten]

(03-27-2023 10:18 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(03-27-2023 07:41 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  ...does anybody have any experience with card battery life? I'm wondering how long I can expect the batteries in my BASIC or spreadsheet cards to hold up without needing a change. So far my cards are all doing okay after 2-3 years. My Time Expense Manager card's battery is still reading 2.930 Volts with no load.

It depends on how much it's used (of course) but the battery in my BASIC Card lasted over 20 years, though most of which time it was just sitting in a storage box. Also, I believe the card battery is only actually 'used' when the main batteries are low/dead; while they are fresh, I think there is effectively no load on the card battery.

If you're actually using these cards daily, obviously the life will be affected, but you are certainly safe changing it ~ every 2 years.

Please read the manuals to be 100% sure, but IIRC, unlike the HP-48, you should change the card battery while the card is installed in the organizer, but with the device turned OFF (in a 48, the cards are only powered by the device when the device is turned-on).

Get ready for a fairly deep rabit hole with Box Jockey, and YES they are all solvable.

Yeah, I consulted the BASIC manual to make sure I was correctly removing the battery. As long as the card is in the Wizard and the switch is set to lock, the card is powered by the main system batteries. So yes, make sure it's inserted and the Wizard is turned off, then you can safely test or swap the battery.

I've played a fair amount of Boxxle on Gameboy (both that and Box Jockey are ports of Sokoban), so I do know what a time sink it can be.

[Akuji]

I can finally present you the complete set of IC cards from the PI-3Cx lineup for the Zaurus 'PI' organizers. As can be seen from the photo, only a few cards have been released, especially with application software. Since the release of PI-4500 onwards, which allowed installing applications (called 'add-ins') directly into the organizer's memory, the software distribution shifted from individual IC cards to floppies & online repositories as a much cheaper medium.



There are multiple variants of PI-3C95 and PI-3C9F with different amounts of memory. Here are two versions of the PI-3C95 card.



One additional card doesn’t belong to the PI-3Cx series but is related to the PI-8000 organizer. The card 'CE-PA1' is part of the 'PHS Adapter,’ peripheral accessory, which connects a supported organizer to mobile phones of the then-new PHS standard. Early batches of PI-8000 didn't have built-in support for this new standard. The IC card contained the corresponding firmware update.

[fy789]

Doeos anybody know if the Sharp PA-9500/9550 organizers will work with PA-3xxx and PA-7xxx IC cards. These organizers were designed with the ESR-L CPUs, which is different from the previous organizers.


I am pretty sure that the PA-9xxx IC cards only work with the PA-9500/9550 organizers only, but correct me if you know otherwise.

[Akuji]

(03-14-2024 03:01 AM)fy789 Wrote:  Doeos anybody know if the Sharp PA-9500/9550 organizers will work with PA-3xxx and PA-7xxx IC cards. These organizers were designed with the ESR-L CPUs, which is different from the previous organizers.


I am pretty sure that the PA-9xxx IC cards only work with the PA-9500/9550 organizers only, but correct me if you know otherwise.

PA-9XX0 is generally compatible with all cards from the PA-3Cxx and PA-7Cxx series. Some cards from the PA-9Cxx series (i.e., 9C30, 9C60) are also compatible with the PA-7000/8000 series of organizers.

[fy789]

Hi,

I just wonder if there exist any US/Europe Sharp Wizard model conversion table?
I only know that :
IQ-8900/8920 = OZ-9500/9520
IQ-9000 = OZ-9600 (?)
IQ-9200 = OZ-9600II (?)

In addition, is it hard to change the language in these organizers?
eg. from German/French to English.....etc

BTW, are the US and Europe IC cards universal to both US and Europe organizers?
If they are not universal, are they locked to each region by software/hardware/form-factors?


Thanks!

[Akuji]

(04-09-2024 11:50 PM)fy789 Wrote:  Hi,

I just wonder if there exist any US/Europe Sharp Wizard model conversion table?
I only know that :
IQ-8900/8920 = OZ-9500/9520
IQ-9000 = OZ-9600 (?)
IQ-9200 = OZ-9600II (?)

OZ-8600 (US) = IQ-8400/8500M

(04-09-2024 11:50 PM)fy789 Wrote:  In addition, is it hard to change the language in these organizers?
eg. from German/French to English.....etc

Only the non-US models with 'M' in their model number have this feature, i.e., IQ-7100M (multi-lingual version of OZ/IQ-7000), IQ-8300M (OZ/IQ-8200), etc.

(04-09-2024 11:50 PM)fy789 Wrote:  BTW, are the US and Europe IC cards universal to both US and Europe organizers?
If they are not universal, are they locked to each region by software/hardware/form-factors?

IC cards don't have regional locks and can be used in both the OZ & IQ models. Some cards, however, may not be compatible with certain organizers, i.e., IQ-721 'Organizer Golf' supports only 7000 series of devices.

[rprosperi]

(04-09-2024 11:50 PM)fy789 Wrote:  I just wonder if there exist any US/Europe Sharp Wizard model conversion table?
I only know that :
IQ-8900/8920 = OZ-9500/9520
IQ-9000 = OZ-9600 (?)
IQ-9200 = OZ-9600II (?)

I ran across this webpage (about 80% to the bottom) today looking for other info. Not sure if this is exhaustive and can't vouch for it, but it's the most complete one I've seen. There's also some useful info there about the various cables used by the Sharp organizer/PDA models.

http://www.imslsoft.com/xlinkwin.htm#Cables

[Akuji]

Here are all the spreadsheet cards released in the West. Previously, I already covered the 706 and 8B01/8B04M, but this time, I want to concentrate on the much more interesting OZ/IQ-9B01 “PenCell Spreadsheet.”



One of the last retail IC cards released for the platform, it reached the stores in 1994 and had a pretty limited print run, which makes it quite rare nowadays.

Unlike the previous spreadsheet cards by PCSG/Lucid, OZ/IQ-9B01 was developed by PenWare specifically for the OZ-9000 and IQ-8900/9000 series of organizers.





Both the cards have identical front; the back specifies the model number and the amount of RAM



Interestingly, OZ-9B01 contains twice the RAM compared to IQ-9B01 and provides more storage available to a user. Initially, I assumed that the smaller memory size was due to the need to store multiple localizations like in IQ-8B04M. However, this is not true - IQ-9B01's interface is available only in English.



OZ-9B01 (left), IQ-9B01 (right)

Since OZ-95x0/IQ-89x0 have a smaller screen resolution than OZ-9600 (II)/IQ-9x00, the amount of information displayed is also limited.



9B01 card on the IQ-8900 screen



9B01 card on the OZ-9600 II screen

The versions of IQ-9B01 released in the UK (?) and continental Europe have different user manuals, the latter of which is additionally translated into German and French.



When Sharp released the Zaurus ZR-5000 PDA, it promised to make the native version of “PenCell Spreadsheet” available for the new platform. However, the promise never materialized, which upset many ZR-5000 owners. Eventually, Sharp incorporated the application into the firmware of the newer models—ZR-5700, 5800, and 3500X (seen in the photo below).

[Dave Britten]

Neat! I have a couple copies of the 16/40-column version. That one is pretty easy to find, so if you need more storage space, just get a few extras. It's a pretty good spreadsheet too - it's even got very basic macro abilities.

[rprosperi]

I'm glad this PenCell application card is getting some much-deserved love. I managed the development of this card for Sharp, developed by PenWare, at the time the dominant Pen-based application developer. I was an Excel user at the time, and struggled to get as much of it's core functions included, which was really pushing the envelope at the time. I missed almost 20 weeks of my first son's first year traveling to the Bay Area for this project, and though it definitely did come out well, it has long felt like poor prioritizing on my part. My wife agreed well before I did...

Impressive that you have all 3 versions, as none of them were for sale for long, the Zaurus coming not long after the card's release, and eventually becoming a core part of the 5700/5800.

Keep these interesting posts coming!!

[Akuji]

I finally managed to collect all the IC cards from the western 8-series:



Most of these cards were released in both the US & rest of the Western countries (and, thus, are available as both OZ and IQ variants). However, there are some exclusions:
- IQ-870 skipped the US release. According to rprosperi, due to the small amount of RAM
- IQ-8B04M was a multi-lingual (European) release of OZ/IQ-8B01, but I already covered this card before
- I’ve never seen the OZ version of the 8C02 card, neither in the catalogs nor in the wild. Therefore, I assume it was never released in the US
- The IQ-version of the 8D01 card is called “English Dictionary,” and its contents may differ from the OZ-8D01 “American English Dictionary” (I don’t have the IQ variant to compare them)
- (OZ)/IQ-8B05 ”Form Manager (128Kb)” was in development for some time, but apparently, its release was canceled. The card is only mentioned in the 1993/1994 catalog (see the screenshot below), but it’s not reflected in the 1994/1995 catalog.
- The sequence of the 8C0(n) has missing 8C03. I assume the planned release of another card was ultimately scrapped here

[rprosperi]

(07-19-2024 12:38 PM)Akuji Wrote:  I finally managed to collect all the IC cards from the western 8-series:

and

- I’ve never seen the OZ version of the 8C02 card, neither in the catalogs nor in the wild. Therefore, I assume it was never released in the US
- (OZ)/IQ-8B05 ”Form Manager (128Kb)” was in development for some time, but apparently, its release was canceled. The card is only mentioned in the 1993/1994 catalog (see the screenshot below), but it’s not reflected in the 1994/1995 catalog.
- The sequence of the 8C0(n) has missing 8C03. I assume the planned release of another card was ultimately scrapped here

Congratulations on completing a significant (and hard) objective.

Some comments on the questions:

I believe the 8CO2 card was sold in the US (as the OZ-8CO2) however it was not a popular card and not many were sold, hence few seen today.

I don't recall what the 8C03 was, and it is indeed possible this was cancelled, there were several that were.

The 8B05 shown may have been a (very, well too...) preliminary hint at database card project that was underway but ultimately shelved. Development began with Borland (dBase, not Paradox) but technology and the market were moving so fast at this time, that it was concluded that the small subset of functionality available on a Wizard would not be satisfying. A similar project was underway with Oracle at the same time, internally managed at Oracle by someone who would ultimately go on to much bigger things, Marc Benioff.

It's also possible that the 8B05 project Sharp UK published in that catalog was some other homegrown project we (in the US) were unaware of, but that seems unlikely.

And yet another possibility is an aborted attempt to make an organizer companion product for Apple's Hypercard application, but the Apple market at the time was too small to justify completing the project. Note that Apple was not directly involved in the development, but the discussions ultimately led to closer ties, and eventually in-turn to Sharp manufacturing the early Newtons (and it's own Newton clone).

[Akuji]

(07-19-2024 04:26 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  The 8B05 shown may have been a (very, well too...) preliminary hint at database card project that was underway but ultimately shelved.

Thanks again for the historical insights!

During my research, I identified a mention of another card that was in development but never released — IQ-9PP "Pen-based relational database." Maybe it's the one?

[stagbar]

I buy a sharp IQ-8400 on internet,but it can't work.
I found that the 8400 is missing 2 chips.
Who can tell me the names of these two chips