Sharp PC-1475

[Dave Britten]

I took a gamble on an "untested" PC-1475 (Japanese version), and it paid off - it looks and works great. Was there ever an English-language manual for this model? I found one that's in German, and I think I can get enough information from that combined with experience with numerous other similar Sharps to figure out most of it, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything cool.

Also, mine makes some very faint clicks from the speaker when running a program or switching between BASIC and CAL modes. Is this typical? I have a PC-E500 that makes some similar clicks, though slightly louder.

I hadn't even noticed until I started playing around with it that it has DEL, BS, and INS as primary keys - that alone is worth the upgrade!

[robve]

Congrats Dave on your rare vintage find! The Sharp PC-1475 (1987) is easily my favorite "old style metallic" Sharp with great functionality all contained in a nice landscape-style package. It appears to be the last in this long line of "old style metallic" Sharp PC. It has an extended version of BASIC, 20 digit precision, takes 2x32KB RAM cards, has matrix/vector functions, 2var statistics, and a RAM file system. It works forever it seems on two cell batteries.

Later machines like the Sharp PC-E500 and PC-G850 are great too. The E500 is faster and has a bigger screen, but the plastic dark monotone casing is not my thing, but the PC-E500(S) runs Forth!

The PC-1475 is a classic BASIC programmable. It has no symbolic operations (it has strings in BASIC) or anything resembling a CAS, for which the HP-28C/S (1986-1992) and later model HP or TI are better in that respect. But we should remember that the HP-28C came on the market after Sharp's long run of "old style metallic" pocket computers.

I don't believe there is an English manual in existence. I heard that it was not sold in the UK or US. The German manual is my primary source of information. Some technical data is posted here.

- Rob

[Dave Britten]

Oh that family tree is nice, maybe I should print it out and use it as a collection checklist.

I think this one combines the most features I like about Sharps so far:

• DEF key
• AREAD
• RENUM
• Step-by-step debugging
• Last-expression replay
• RSV mode (very handy on this model for defining shortcuts to SAVE"F:, LOAD"F:, FILES"F:, DSKF(3), etc.)
• INPUT command that lets you hit ENTER to skip the rest of the line and keep the original variable value
• Multi-line screen, and the font isn't quite as horizontally compressed as on the PC-1403/EL-5500III
• RAM "floppy" disk via interchangeable memory cards (and I have approximately one gallon of 8 KB cards to use!)
• CE-126P compatibility (doesn't quite fit in the CE-129P unfortunately)
• Double-precision math
  

The PC-1360 and Sharp Wizard BASIC card both offer larger screens, but both are lacking a number of these other important features. The Wizard definitely wins for typing with its keyboard buffer and two-key rollover, but the PC-1475 is on par with any other Sharp pocket.

[robve]

add to the list:

• connects to the CE-140F which is unobtainium, but there are projects like this funded project
• DEFDBL and DEFSNG
• VAR# to use double precision VAR and PI#
• ON ERROR GOTO (very useful when implementing integration, limits of functions, etc)
• ERASE of DIM'ed arrays and variables (e.g. to re-DIM arrays)
  

Alas, no EVAL or VAL of expressions like the PC-E500 has. It is possible to POKE an expression into BASIC to evaluate it, though, like the Tandy math software packs did on the PC-1500, for example.

- Rob

[Dave Britten]

Oh cool, I hadn't noticed the ERASE/re-DIM functionality. That's a big one. I did notice that stat data can contain multiple columns, and it's preserved when exiting and re-entering CAL/STAT mode, unlike the PC-1403. (Is there a way to access the stat data from BASIC here?)

And I would definitely buy a CE-140F emulator!

[rprosperi]

The 1475 was indeed not sold in USA, though an old-timer when I was there said some were brought in for a specific VAR, for selling some custom s/w. As such, there is no English manual, at least I've never found one. I did find the attached short mini-reference which covers several interesting models, don't recall where.

I acquired a 1475 last year from a very nice collector from Spain, and recently added a 1421 (the Business machine of this family); I'm still on the hunt for a 1425 (the Stats version) to complete the family.

I agree the E500 is better in several ways, but these classic models are still rather 'Sharp' to my eye... (sorry).

[Dave Britten]

Yeah, the E500 is certainly the more powerful of the two, but without DEF and AREAD, I still prefer the older models that have them. If I need something as big and powerful as the E500, I'll usually just grab my TI-92 Plus (I know, heresy).

That short manual combined with the BASIC comparison sheet goes a long way toward understanding the features that are somewhat unique to the 1475.

I can't say I've ever run across the 1425, but I did recently get a 1421. It's a great financial calculator, though I can't decide whether I prefer it or the Casio fc-200. Both have their advantages!

[Valentin Albillo]

.
Hi, Bob,

(04-01-2023 12:52 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  I acquired a 1475 last year from a very nice collector from Spain, and recently added a 1421 (the Business machine of this family); I'm still on the hunt for a 1425 (the Stats version) to complete the family.

I recently acquired three magnificent SHARP models from him (my long-life friend Jose Luis Chinchilla, who's selling machines from his magnificent HP & SHARP collection), namely the SHARP PC-1250A, PC-1251 and PC-1260, all absolutely mint, as-new (not the ones in the pics, which I got many years ago in TAS,) and I also own two SHARP PC-1475 (ditto), two PC-1421/EL-5510 (Financial Pocket Computer, not calculator) and one SHARP PC-1425 (Statistics, ditto).

I've got English manuals for most of them, including the financial model, but not for the 1475 (just in German, I don't think an English version exists) nor for the statistics model, which might exist.

Quote:I agree the E500 is better in several ways, but these classic models are still rather 'Sharp' to my eye...

Same here. I also own one but the classic models mentioned above are much more aesthetically appealing, and possibly more durable as well.

Best regards.
V.

[Nigel (UK)]

I too have recently acquired a Sharp PC-1475, advertised as "untested" but working perfectly once new batteries were fitted. Since my knowledge of German is limited to the libretti of JS Bach's sacred cantatas, and the overlap between these and the German manual is limited, I thought an English manual would be nice.

My strategy: start with a scan of the German manual (downloaded from the Sharp website); split this into 428 jpeg images; feed these to Google Translate; deskew and despeckle the translated images; and reassemble them into a new pdf. The tedious part was feeding the images, one at a time, to Google Translate. In the end this took no more than two hours, so it wasn't too bad. (I am certain there is a way of doing this programmatically, perhaps using Google Cloud Platform, but in the end it seemed quicker to just do it by hand.)

You can download the result from here: PC-1475_Owners_Manual_EN.pdf (a 70MB pdf file).

It's far from perfect: Google Translate has produced strange variations in font size and some odd wording, and the bleed-through of text from the other side of the scanned pages remains. But given the minimal effort required I'm pleased with the result.

Nigel Dowrick

Edit: see later post for improved version of this translation, along with a tidied version of the original German scan.

[vaklaff]

(06-23-2024 10:48 PM)Nigel (UK) Wrote:  You can download the result from here: PC-1475_Owners_Manual_EN.pdf (a 70MB pdf file).

Thank you so much!

[Helix]

(06-23-2024 10:48 PM)Nigel (UK) Wrote:  You can download the result from here: PC-1475_Owners_Manual_EN.pdf (a 70MB pdf file).

The availability of the English manual encouraged me to purchase this model.
This is a great help.
Here and there, a line is missing or the translation is unclear, but it’s easy to make a screen capture of the relevant paragraph from the German manual, and get the correct translation with Google Tranlsate.
Obviously this tool can be confused by the complex formatting of the PDF, but makes a better job on small paragraphs.

[Helix]

My first work with this beautiful Sharp was to see if matrix functions could be accessed from BASIC programs, as described here for the PC-1403 and PC-E500.

HrastProgrammer found the addresses in the 1403 ROM. Since the 1475 has the same processor, my idea was to search for a similar pattern in its ROM.
I found the relevant portion in bank #7, between addresses &4124 and &413E.
Unfortunately, contrary to the 1403, this portion resides in another bank than the CALL command, so a direct call from BASIC is not possible.

A short machine language program must be used to switch to bank 7, then to call the matrix subroutine, and then to return to bank 0.
The number of the ROM bank in use is stored at &3400.

The best place to put this ML program is just before the beginning of BASIC programs.
This address is stored in location &FFD7 / D8.
For an 8 KB RAM, its content is &E030.

So here is the procedure:
1) Backup all the programs, since the memory will be cleared.

2) Enter:
POKE &FFD7, &40
POKE &E030, 2, 7, &10, &34, 0, &52, &78, &41
POKE &E038, &24, 2, 0, &10, &34, 0, &52, &37

3) In PROgram mode, type NEW

Then, to call a matrix routine, the BASIC instructions are:
POKE &E038, n : CALL &E030

with n taking the following values:
&24 X + Y → X
&2C X - Y → X
&34 X * Y → X
&3C X * invY → X
&44 invX → X
&4B (x) + X → X
&52 (x) – X → X
&59 (x) * X → X
&60 (x) * invX → X
&67 X ↔ Y
&6F trnX → X
&76 detX → (x)
&7D -X → X
&84 X * X → X
&8B X → M
&93 M → X
&9B X + M → M
&E3 M * X – Y → X

I think there should be another address corresponding to the EQU command (performing X → M and invX * Y → X), but I have not found it.

For a 16 KB RAM, the addresses &E030 and &E038 must be replaced with &C030 and &C038.
For a 32 KB RAM, these addresses must be replaced with &8030 and &8038.


In case of no backup solution is available (which is not recommended when playing with POKEs and CALLs), the ML program can be POKEd inside a REM instruction.

In PROgram mode, insert the following line:
1: REM 0123456789ABCDEF

Then for an 8 KB RAM, enter the ML program:
POKE &E036, 2, 7, &10, &34, 0, &52, &78, &41
POKE &E03E, &24, 2, 0, &10, &34, 0, &52, &37

Call the matrix routines with:
POKE &E03E, n : CALL &E036

If the RAM size is different from 8 KB, change E0 in these addresses accordingly.


I’ve tested each address, so I have no doubt about them. But I can’t be 100 % sure of my machine language program. I hope there is no unwanted side effect.

Here are some links that I found useful.
The ROMs of various calculators:
https://github.com/matsumo/PockEmul/tree.../resources
An on-line Hex editor:
https://hexed.it
A page on the PC-1475, and especially the "Memory Organisation" tab:
https://www.simon-lehmayr.de/e_pc.htm
A page on the SC61860 machine language:
https://www.aldweb.com/articles.php?lng=en&pg=53

[Nigel (UK)]

Since producing the English "translation" of the manual I've been playing with ImageMagick commands to clean up the scanned pages a little. I've also spent some time looking for places where the translation is unclear, or downright wrong, and "editing" them. The final result is not perfect but I think it's an improvement.

Here's a link to the new version:
PC1475_Owners_Manual_EN_v2_improved.pdf (a 59 MB pdf file).
Getting rid of the noise (primarily on the even-numbered pages) affects the clarity of small details of the images; where this has been a problem, I've kept the original scanned images including the noise.

As a by-product of this, here is a tidied German version of the original scan:
PC1475_OM_DE_tidied.pdf.

Nigel (UK)

[vaklaff]

(07-23-2024 08:18 PM)Nigel (UK) Wrote:  Since producing the English "translation" of the manual I've been playing with ImageMagick commands to clean up the scanned pages a little. I've also spent some time looking for places where the translation is unclear, or downright wrong, and "editing" them. The final result is not perfect but I think it's an improvement.

Thank you very much!