Radio shack TRS-80 PC-1 and PC-2 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

13 Oct 2001

On Saturday, October 13, 2001 3:06 PM, Tony Duell
[SMTP:ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk] wrote:
...
  I have the Sharp PC1500  (very similar to the TRS-80
PC2) technical
 manual.... (well, I would, right :-)).
 It doesn't say that much about the cassette format, but it does say
 something. If there are any details you're not sure about, feel free to
 ask me in case I can find them...

 I *WILL* IRC from one of these, goddamnit.. 

The PC-1500 is the same calc. The only differences are in the badge and the
keyboard. You can plug Sharp modules, printer, etc into the RS (and vice versa)
I have the RS equivalent technical manual. It gives specifications on the
frequency
encoding and rate. I also managed to scrounge a break down of the raw hex to
Basic operand (two digit hex code to each operator/char, a small amount of
padding)
...
  Err, add a CE158 RS232 interface (to the PC2/Sharp
PC1500)? It contains a
 1-line terminal emulator in the ROM :-) Yes this device does exist...
 Radio Shack sold a similar unit for a time. The ROM and RS232 interface
 was indentical, but the Centronics port (present on the CE158) was not
 fitted. The commands to talk to it were still in the ROM, but undocumented...
 I have one of each type. With the latter one, I could have added the
 Centronics port (it's only a couple of buffer chips, and I have all the
 schematics), but instead I packed an ADC chip in there, using the 'spare'
 port lines on the I/O chip to talk to it (I/O lines that would have been
 used for the centronics port, etc). Made a nice pocket data logger :-)
 -tony 
The problem is finding one. I've had *no* luck, and even if I could find one,
it
wouldn't help me with the PC-1 (Sharp PC-1211) anyway.
Jim