Sharp PC-G850VS

[toml_12953]

(09-14-2018 04:22 PM)jwhsu Wrote:  I wasn't aware there was a STAT mode in the PC-G850VS. There was no mention of it in the German Manual. I have a pdf of the Japanese manual, however, a quick look didn't mention anything about a STAT mode.

Could you tell us where to get the Japanese PDF? It would be good to have a copy of the original manual as I learn Japanese.

[Zaphod]

Whilst looking for that manual (above - couldn’t find it right now) I found these pages which should be of interest to ‘850 owners:

https://translate.google.com/translate?s...rlist.html

[jwhsu]

(09-21-2018 05:18 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  

(09-14-2018 04:22 PM)jwhsu Wrote:  I wasn't aware there was a STAT mode in the PC-G850VS. There was no mention of it in the German Manual. I have a pdf of the Japanese manual, however, a quick look didn't mention anything about a STAT mode.

Could you tell us where to get the Japanese PDF? It would be good to have a copy of the original manual as I learn Japanese.

Tom L

I found it on foroplus’ website under manuals The link is here.

[toml_12953]

(09-22-2018 02:00 AM)jwhsu Wrote:  

(09-21-2018 05:18 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  Could you tell us where to get the Japanese PDF? It would be good to have a copy of the original manual as I learn Japanese.

Tom L

I found it on foroplus’ website under manuals The link is here.

Great! Thanks.

[Zaphod]

Known bug in Basic: LCOPY

One to add to the book perhaps to page 205 where LCOPY is explained.

It's not a statement/something you'd normally have in a program, but you can ... and it does crash the system completely, you'll need a hard reset to get out of this one.

Moral of the bug is: don't add it to a program line

Source:
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/...P7h19goBkQ

[megarat]

I'm interested in learning more about the Turbo mode that has been mentioned here. I've done some searching to see how to accomplish this, but so far I haven't found anything, perhaps because my searches have been in English.

I've been playing around with my PC-G850VS, thanks to Jack's excellent manual, and it's been a lot of fun. In a way, it feels like this device was designed for the purposes of education, with the simplified way that only one compiled C program can be held in memory, the implementation of the CASL/COMET system, etc. Does anyone know more about the target demographic for this device?

[Zaphod]

(10-01-2018 02:25 AM)megarat Wrote:  Does anyone know more about the target demographic for this device?

Unsurprisingly: japan (computing) education market

[xerxes]

(10-01-2018 02:25 AM)megarat Wrote:  I'm interested in learning more about the Turbo mode that has been mentioned here. I've done some searching to see how to accomplish this, but so far I haven't found anything, perhaps because my searches have been in English.

You need to replace the 8 MHz resonator to a higher value. To have no complications with data transfer, it would be practical to use 16 or 32 MHz and setting the baud rate to the half or quarter.

[Jlouis]

Because of this thread and the englsh manual, i just grab an almost new VS specimen from Japan.

I'm playing with it and so far, a really pleasure to use.

One thing I notice is that you can choose to use postfix or prefix for sqr, cur, etc.

Thanks folks!

Cheers

JL

[koikoi]

(09-18-2018 10:58 PM)jwhsu Wrote:  New version of the manual has been posted.

Thanks for all your work on this English manual! It's actually how I came to find this forum. I figured I'd register to say thanks.

(10-24-2018 07:40 PM)Jlouis Wrote:  Because of this thread and the englsh manual, i just grab an almost new VS specimen from Japan.

Do you mind me asking what was the price of your VS?

(04-16-2018 06:39 PM)mfleming Wrote:  There is a link to the source for an emulator called g800 below. It emulates the G850, G815 and E200. Who knows what a perusal of the source might reveal?

http://ver0.sakura.ne.jp/

This site also includes a lot of sample programs each of which have their own source code. Of particular interest to me is an implementation of Koi-Koi.

cheers!

[Jlouis]

(08-21-2019 11:38 PM)koikoi Wrote:  

(10-24-2018 07:40 PM)Jlouis Wrote:  Because of this thread and the englsh manual, i just grab an almost new VS specimen from Japan.

Do you mind me asking what was the price of your VS?

US$ 100

[koikoi]

Why thanks!

[david16965]

I've recently acquired a working example of the Sharp PC G850 from Japan.

It answers my desire for a portable C / ASM device with a calculator-like interface and battery life.

I'm very grateful for the English language translation of the original Japanese language manual.

One thing that is not clear to me is how to delete lines of C code in the text editor, and how to renumber the remainder.

I can see that insertion of new lines between existing lines is easy because the editor sorts by line number; it's simply a matter of picking an intermediate value for the line number of the inserted line.

Likewise, replacement of an existing line is easy; I just use the existing line number for the new line.

I would be very grateful for any guidance on deletion / renumbering of C code.

[david16965]

(12-23-2019 12:52 PM)david16965 Wrote:  I've recently acquired a working example of the Sharp PC G850 from Japan.

It answers my desire for a portable C / ASM device with a calculator-like interface and battery life.

I'm very grateful for the English language translation of the original Japanese language manual.

One thing that is not clear to me is how to delete lines of C code in the text editor, and how to renumber the remainder.

I can see that insertion of new lines between existing lines is easy because the editor sorts by line number; it's simply a matter of picking an intermediate value for the line number of the inserted line.

Likewise, replacement of an existing line is easy; I just use the existing line number for the new line.

I would be very grateful for any guidance on deletion / renumbering of C code.

I figured it out. The text editor commands like "A", "R" and "D" are case sensitive and are executed as soon as they are entered, without a line number, at any point when editing C code. Very neat. I think I'm going to enjoy using this little machine!

[Luca Puntin]

Hi,

I'm new on this forum, so I present myself.

First of all... excuse me in advance for my poor English, I'm italian and I don't like translators...
I'm a 56 yo teacher of Mechanics (practice teacher) and electonics hobbyst.

I've recently acquired a Sharp PC-G850VS directly from Japan (around 110 Euro) with the main target of PIC programming. I know that a very poor PC with PICKIT2 or 3 is more flexible, but the Sharp ultra-portable solution is somewhat fascinating...

I've downloaded the english manual (thanks to who did a so good work, translating it from Japanese and/or German), but I've got two questions about programming a PIC:

1) how can I enter the "_" character (for the __CONFIG directive to assembler) into text editor ?
2) where is the file "p16f84a.inc" located ?

About the first question, I don't see the underscore on G850 keyboard, but I don't know if there is a function like the "alt+nnn" keystroke on a PC numeric pad: what is sure is that "_" does exist into the G850: going into BASIC run mode, typing PRINT CHR$ 95 + (Enter) results in "_" visualization. But there is no "Copy and Past" to the Text editor.
I'm tempted to run a BASIC program to save a couple of "_" into Text editor working ram area, but I suppose that area is protected when reserved to editor, so a machine code (Z80 assembler) routine may be the solution.... But if someone has just programmed a PIC there must be a simpler way.

About second question, I suppose that "p16f84a.inc" is located into G850 firmware, so a bit hard to modify for change PIC model. PIC16F627 (that is declared usable) is a pin-to-pin substitute of the 16F84A, but I suppose to be difficult use internal oscillator, analog inputs an comparators that are not present into 16F84a. But it is obviously still possible do all "EQU's" into program, without use "include" assembler directive.

Bye.

Luca

[mfleming]

The underscore character "_" is SHIFT-K which is not too obvious! As to the .inc file location, it is likely in ROM and thus not editable. You could incluude the header anyway, then override or add to the defines to get what you need.

Congratulations to member jwhsu for the translation and others for their contributions. The 850 is an interesting handheld!

[Luca Puntin]

Thanks Mfleming, now I can go on buildind the ICSP programming interface for PIC's!

I've just to order the DC/DC converter, all other stuff needed is somewhere in my repository (read: somewhere in drawers, boxes, garage, bedroom...).

Looking at page 241 of the manual (Appendix A: 11 pin interface) I see that pin #1 isn't used by any interface configuration, so I'm thinking to place a small piece of plastic into it (like polarization key in IDC flat female cable connectors) to avoid reversing insertion of an home-made connector to the port.

I think that overriding "p16F627.inc" definitions consists of include that file at the top of the assembler listate and then re-define what is needed ( I usually edit the .inc itself, but on a real PC it is all SO easy...).
I don't know if load from a PC a modified "pxxxx.inc" (waste of memory on the G850 apart) can works, but this need, first of all, to interface the two devices each to the other.
Have anyone do this with the USB adaptor cable shown here : http://basic.hopto.org/basic/g850v.php
It works ?
An other question: when I program PIC's, I usually download the proper ".inc" file and then edit it before use, modifing the BADRAM declarations, in order to avoid the BADRAM warnings of MPASMWIN compiler. I usually don't use the BANKSEL directive, switching BANK0 / BANK1 by setting or resetting RP0 bit into STATUS file register (or even RP1 if that PIC has memory BANK2 and/or BANK3 too); the built-in G850 compiler, with a modified ".inc" filke, will works in this way ?
I own the G850 in VS version, so the p16fxxx.inc files are probably into a flashable device, but I thing it is not a good idea to try flashing the firmware with new PIC's .inc files without known exactly what to do (or, better, NOT to do).
In Appendix F: system bus of the manual, he connections of the system bus are illustrated; years ago (first '90s) I've made a new dashboard for my car, converting it from analog to digital, implementing a Z80 CPU, CTC, one ADC0804 and some strange VFD (vacum fluorescent displays) with strange drivers (National MM58342N, serial input / parallel output cascadable register drivers with voltage output shiftable levels to drive VFD displays) and I programmed Z80 in Assembler.
As I remember, referring to 850VS system bus pinout, pins #6 (IORESET), #11(BNK1), #12(BNK0), #13 (CEROM2) and # 14 (CERAM2) are not part of the Z80 bus, but are probably used by 850VS firmware to switch external memory (see Appendix I: memory map), probably ROM banks #2 and #3), but signals names seems not corresponding exactly to this function.
I'm obviously thinking to a memory expansion cartridge full of ".inc" files.....

One last thing: SHIFT-U is the " ' " charachter, that is not to obvious too.....

I'll keep this forum updated about PIC programming with the PC 850VS.

Bye.

Luca

[mfleming]

Good luck with your PIC programming. Regarding a usb connection to the Sharp's serial port - I have done it with an FTDI-based cable. The Sharp serial signal logic is inverted and FTDI provides a configuration utility to alter its own signal logic to match. Works great for moving files to/from the PC.

[Luca Puntin]

Well...
First of all (you've just confirmed it) the spanish way to interface the G850 to a PC via FTDI cable works, so this is the first accessory to build.
Then I must order a bunch (10 pcs.) of PIC 16F627A from China (waiting around one month to receive them, but price is SO MUCH competitive...).
Last thing: I've found a Canon S70 electronic typewriter and it has a serial port to use it like a printer: I'm very tempted to buy it and use like a printer for the G850...

Thanks for the tips !

Bye.

Luca

[thenozone]

Android calculator, pocket computer emulator "PockEmul" has an emulation of the sharp
"PC-G850V" and downloadable english manual. the batch of newer sharp computers cost £1.79 on their store via android play store; and lots of other devices to play with too.