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Floppy for Sharp Pocket computers

F

framer

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I believe the part number was ce-140f. It was suppose to fit several different pocket computers. Has anyone ever seen one in real life. I've been looking for years. Any info about it would be welcome.

I've owned a Sharp PC-e500 w/64MB card since the mid90's. They never sold that many in the states so few folk even know about them.

framer
 
I don't have a floppy drive, but I do have an interface and disks for data transfer between a Sharp pocket computer and a IBM PC.. I just happened to pick this up at Goodwill for no apparent reason, in the hope that I'd come across one of these computers some day.

It has a 5.25" and 3.5" disk (I believe, definitely has the 5.25 at least) of software, a cable (PS/2 like to PC serial de9) and says it is for use with ZQ-5000 series, YO-600 series, OZ-7000 series, or OZ-8000 series.

The part number of the adapter (on the box, yeah, it's in the box, heh) is OZ-892 by Sharp.
 
Well, it is "Sharp" pocket organizers of a sort, but from the box I gathered that they were a bit more powerful, and could be called a computer of sorts. I figured this wasn't what he was looking for, just thought I'd offer in case.
 
Thanks for the post, I already have that pc-link made for for the unit I have. I know if I ever get rid of the computer I'll then see the floppy on ebay.

framer
 
I just consulted the manual for my Sharp PC3000. Sometimes called the Atari Portfolio 2, since it was contracted for by Sam Tramiel and then dropped. Sharp picked it up and issued it under this name. As was his wont, make money off the peripherels, Tramiel likely dictated the non-standard 10-pin serial and 20-pin paralell ports. The FDD was named according to the Sharp manual CE-301F and even in the original manual offers a serial and parallel conversion cable to convert the serial port 10-pin connector to a 9-pinM, CE-302CB and the paralell 20-pin connector to a 25pin F. CE-301CB.

I don't know the P/O of you handheld but it's rare fdd could have been predicated on this same aftermarket scam by Sharp, since it worked before for Tramiel. Possibly a custom cable-adapter could solve your problems and connect to a standard floppy, or perhaps a low-power fdd like the Dauphin DTR model. End-run the greedy bastards.

Lawrence
 
Floppy for Sharp Pocket computers

Its not the reason I wanted a touch but its a perk. I was looking at a Netbook for something small to be able to web surf on but the touch has the perk of fitting in my pocket.
 
ce-140f_3.gif


It's been a couple years from my original post. I'm still looking for a ce-140f for my Sharp PC-e500.


ce-1650f.gif


This is a 2 1/2 inch drive 64K ~ per side?

framer
 
Last edited:
CE-301F Floppy for Sharp Pocket computers
Hi there, just to let you know that I will be auctioning in the next few hours a CE-301F Floppy for Sharp Pocket computers complete with interface lead which I have just found during a clear out. The item is working and in mint condition. I will post the auction number when I have listed it.
 
It been years since I've been here but am still looking for this floppy.

Just bumping it and hoping...

I check my E500 every few and replace the battery every couple of years.

framer
 
vwestlife said:
Here is a Sharp PC-3000 with the floppy drive:

Click to expand...

That is the wrong type of Sharp system. This topic is not about a MSDOS laptop with bog standard 3.5" drives; this topic is for the calculator style pocket PC with their unique flippy 2.5" disks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slLnwNWoWzM&nohtml5=False shows off the drive with a different model of Pocket PC.

A different Youtube video covers the ce1600 alternate casing for the same basic drive system. That one is poorly shot and had sound removed by Youtube so I won't link to it.
 
The PC-3000 was discussed earlier in this thread, and despite using standard 3.5" disks, its floppy drive is supposedly very rare as well.
 
vwestlife said:
The PC-3000 was discussed earlier in this thread, and despite using standard 3.5" disks, its floppy drive is supposedly very rare as well.
Click to expand...

Someone just bought a broken CE-301F for $50. I hope for that person's sake that the drive works the way it appears to and undoing several screws will allow the standard 3.5" HD drive to slide out of the enclosure to replaced by another one.
The PC-3000 could instead use a Backpack or RangerDisk 3 as an external 3.5" floppy drive.
 
Just a note that I do check this thread every few months. I had on contact from a person in Europe that wanted to sell me one but all he would say was it would cost me a lot. He had zero posts here so I never contacted him. Personally I considered it a scammer.

I did like the youtube of the CF140f working.

framer
 
Ah the 2.5 inch floppy disc drive for the old Sharp pocket computers... I am sure i still have one on the attic somewhere. Costed me an arm and a leg back in the days. I think i paid like 40,000 Yen for it which was nearly 400 USD back in the days. I just liked it because of the cute little floppies. And oh boy it was pretty useless - at least for me. If you store or load a 3KB program it doesn't make much difference if you load it from tape or from floppy. Maybe you were saving a few seconds, but nothing i would have noticed. Only advantage is that you never need to rewind.
 
So you bought it from Jeffrey Dahmer. Sorry to hear that.

Google the name if you don't know it.

Anyways, I never knew that were that slow. Thanks for the tip. I've used a serial interface to a PC for years to backup and load programs into it. It loads at 9600baud which for small programs is fast enough.

framer
 
Ah yeah, got the joke... Well for very small programs the floppy wasn't much of an advantage. Maybe if you wrote a 50KB program or so - but honestly for these Sharp pocket computers i lack the phantasy to imagine some huge program that would be useful. If you load and save really a lot the floppy is nice, but i usually only loaded and saved like one small program a day, so the floppy was mostly good for bragging. Oh well the discs look so cute. When i got time i should clean up the attic and see if i can find it.
 
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