Pocket Computers

Hardware
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Mention here Shelfies: bookshelves with a retrocomputing angle - #15 by rlauzon of pocket computers with some “shelfie” images, so thought I’d share a few I have here:

The Sharp PC1211 was well-used by me in the early 80’s - more for fun, but I did have a few programs in it - along with the cassette adapter (now lost, sadly). Very limited, slow, 1500 bytes (count them!) of RAM but fun. The one I had back then was the Tandy TRS80 pocket computer which was more or less a re-badged version of the PC1211 - and I subsequently got an original 1211 recently, although the display is suffering slighty…

pc1
pc11920×1440 411 KB

The other one was the big brother - the PC1500 - more RAM, a bit faster and a colour plotter! (Which I have, but need pens for - which I know are still being made today)

pc2
pc21920×1440 364 KB

There were many others in that era too - programmable calculators (I have a Casio fx501p) then little address-book computers in the days before smart phones. It all seemed quite novel back then…

-Gordon

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My constant companion through college was my TRS-80 PC-4. Only 1.5K (I had the memory expansion), but it did what I needed it to do. My collection now includes some PC-2s and a PC-3.

0420181733
0420181733.jpg5312×2988 2.69 MB

FYI: I recall someone having new PC-1/1211 screens manufactured to replace the ones going bad in working units.

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Here’s the picture I was looking for: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TRLLDA2eTwutPtSv6

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Nice collection!

-Gordon

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Really nice collection!

About the Sharp PC-1211, I have the same problem. A guy is trying to make new LCDs Designing Custom LCDs To Repair Retrocomputers | Hackaday, perhaps could be helpful to you in case that you want to replace the display.

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That’s fairly amazing, really. I’ll follow his progress… I’m not that fussed about the display although I didn’t know it was due to air/moisture getting in. The display on my original one is still fine, it’s just the one I bought via ebay recently (for next to nothing) that’s damaged.

Cheers,

-Gordon