Re: [Sharp-pc3k] Serial/Parallel Converter

[Sven Utcke <utcke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Songtao,

> I have desperately combed google and the web in attempt to find a
> serial cable for the pc3k, and have so far ended up completely
> fruitless.

Yes. I remember someone (James Deakins?) contacting the company who
manufactured the connector once (DDK), but the connector itself was
already some AU$20, plus a special tool for a couple of thousand bucks
was needed, so that wasn't an option :-)

> I recently purchased a pc3k without any accessories, but it operates
> fine. I originally planned to get the pc3k to tweak with 16bit
> MS-DOS programming, but on a portable machine :), but it sort of
> defeats the purpose if I can't transfer files from my computer. I
> was wondering if there was any feasible way for me to get transfer
> working, could I possibly find/buy the serial converter somewhere?

Sometimes a broken unit with cables shows up on ebay.  you could buy
it for the cables and sell on the unit for parts (or keep it, if you
are so inclined --- just don't throw it away, please).

> Is there any other way (perhaps external peripherals like floppies?
> I don't know. ).

There is (was) an external floppy, but that is even harder to find and
eats up batteries even quicker than the pc3k, which is _very_ quick
:-)

I believe someone put a real db9 connector into his pc3k, and
Christian Pelzer, Leo Arendsen (and probably a few others) build their
own connectors from old PCBs (circuit boards).

But even though you probably would want a serial and parallel
connector eventually, if only to connect to a mobile phone, modem,
whatever, I would recommend getting an SRAM card first.  True, these
are sillily expensive, especially in $/KB, but even a 64KB card would
already allow you to get the CF-drivers onto the Sharp, they are
readily available from ebay --- and from then on you can use 32MB
CF-cards, see
http://kogs.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~utcke/Private/Palmtop/sharp-pc3100.html#cf

The main Problem with sram cards is that they are not supported by
modern Windows anymore, at least not out of the box...

> I don't know much about electronics, so I'm not so sure i could make
> my own

As long as you're reasonably handy then making your own serial cable
should be possible.  Note that for data connections you probably would
want a parallel too.

> or tweak the serial port to a standard one (described in the FAQ),

That's http://midtoad.homelinux.org/PC3k/pc-3k.faq?  Ok, that one
might be harder to do. 

> do you guys have any suggestions? Maybe someone has spare cables
> they could put up for sale (that would be nice :)?

Well, not me :-)

Sven
-- 
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