Connecting Sharp PC-G850VS to PC

[robve]

(01-15-2023 02:07 PM)polbit Wrote:  I've been really interested in getting this machine connected after seeing the awesome Forth development. Unfortunately all I could find for connectivity is building you own device, which is well beyond my skills.

Is there any way to easily connect this machine? I can't imagine that it being so popular in Japan there wouldn't be something off-the-shelf...

There are two ways to "connect" to a PC with Sharp Pocket computer like the PC-G850:

1. use a CE-126P or CE-124 cassette interface, which works quite well to load programs from a PC such as Forth, C and assembly. I use that a lot. But saving programs to a PC is a bit of a pain to record and convert wav files, not to mention that the PC-G850VS Text to Basic converts to upper case!

2. serial interface. The problem is that the old Sharp RS232 serial interfaces, such as CE-T800, CE-135T etc, don't work with voltages below 7V to 8V, which means that USB RS232 adapters almost never work (5V or boosted to 6V is still too low). Also, the PC-G850 has no 15 pin serial interface for SIO, unlike most other Sharp pocket computers have (so you can only use the 11 pin PC-G850(V)(S) with a CE-T800 which I have not tried). There are DIY solutions and there are sites where you can purchase USB interfaces for the PC-G850, PC-E500 and other machines.

The Sharp CE-126P is a handy interface with a thermal printer. You can still find them on auction sites for $50 or less.

Hope this helps.

- Rob

Edit: mention CE-T800