Sharp MZ-80B
Autopsy:
from Wikipedia:
The Sharp MZ is a series of personal computers sold in Japan and Europe (particularly Germany and Great Britain) by Sharp beginning in 1978.
Although commonly believed to stand for “Microcomputer Z80″, the term MZ actually has its roots in the MZ-40K, a home computer kit produced by Sharp in 1978 which was based on Fujitsu’s 4-bit MB8843 processor and provided a simple hexadecimal keypad for input. This was soon followed by the MZ-80K, K2, C, and K2E, all of which were based on 8-bit LH0080A Sharp CPU (compatible to Zilog Z80A) with an alphanumeric keyboard.
From the first Z80 processor-based model to the MZ-2200 in 1983, the MZ computers included the PC, monitor, keyboard, and tape-based recorder in a single unit, similar to Commodore’s PET series. It was also notable for not including a programming language or operating system in ROM, like the IBM PC. This allowed a host of third-party companies, starting with Hudson Soft, to produce many languages and OSes for the system. In an era when floppy disk drives were too expensive for most home users, the MZ’s built-in tape drive was considered faster and more reliable than the drive on competing computers; however, this meant that the MZ series was relatively slow to adopt floppy drives as a standard accessory.
The MZ series is divided into several lines, including the text-based MZ-80K series, the graphics-based MZ-80B series, and the MZ-3500/5500 series, based on a completely different architecture. In 1982, Sharp’s television division released the X1, a completely new computer. The X series proved to outsell Sharp’s own MZ series, and in response, Sharp released the MZ-1500/2500 machines, which featured powered-up graphics and sound capabilities. However, this series saw little marketplace success, and eventually the company abandoned the line in favor of the X68000 series.
The MZ name lives on as the initials of two of Sharp’s most well-known products: the Mebius line of PCs, and the Zaurus line of personal digital assistants.
Sharp MZ-80B Loading Basic from Disk Drive CE 510:
source: wikipedia
Ciao Xad,
Complimenti per l’MZ-80B.
Ma dove lo hai trovato?
Queste macchine di solito sono solo
per il mercato interno Giapponese.
Grazie,
Libra
Dear sir,
Can I purchse 80B diskBasic( Sp6520) from you?
Best regards,
PS.
Or any kind 80-B floppy base OS is fine.
I possible I like have Floppy run on MZ80BF
Hi
Help please !
What is the geometry of the 5.25″ discs used on the A and B models please ?
Is one of them 280k (35 tracks x 2 sides x 16 sectors of 256 bytes) ?
Are both A & B the same ?
Thanks in advance
Malc
Dear Nightfallcrew,
I am following your work since a while. I am also collecting old computers and trying to repair them, but I am not so advanced as you. Now I found a nice Sharp MZ-80B. The power supply capacitors are blown, so I removed them as you have described. Now the computer powers up properly, but shows only one green line at the center of the display (http://www.pocon.at/MZ80b.jpg). When I insert a disc into the floppy disc drive, the computer tries to boot from the disc. Hence the system itself seems to work. I assume that either the line transformer or some other capacitors are defective. Unfortunately I have no access to an oscilloscope, I am working only with a simple multimeter. Do you maybe have a hint how to debug the display or how to connect an external display for testing (e.g. a Commodore 1084S)?
Thanks in advance and best regards,
Günther
@Günther
Hi Günther,
Seems to close the vertical, try to adjust the internal potentiometers/trimmers of the monitor (for example: V-SIZE)
D.
@xAD / nIGHTFALL
Hi,
well unfortunately the problem is now pretty obvious as I opened the monitor cover. Basically all capacitors have leaked (as you can easily see in the image http://www.pocon.at/MZ80_mon.jpg). So I might give it a try with hooking up a TV set (SCART connector) to the internal monitor connector. The second pin of the connector is supposed to be SYNC and the third pin should be (composite) VIDEO. The 15.75 kHz horizontal sync should be quite ok. However I am not sure about signal levels and vertical sync. Overall I believe an NTSC TV set or scan converter might work, so I guess I will give it a try…
@Günther
No LEAKED! absolutrly NOT it’s only a GLUE which has turned yellowed with age.
The MZ80 use: Sync H,Syc V, Video.
Try adjusting the VERTICAL and HORIZONTAL trimmers slightly, take care high voltages in the monitor.
@xAD / nIGHTFALL
I played around with the trimmers, but the image is unchanged (still just a horizontal line in the center of the screen). However I connected my GBS8300 CGA2VGA converter to the video pins on the MZ80B mainboard (#2=Csync/#3=Video/#4=GND) and immediately got a perfect image on my VGA screen. Unlike the MZ700 and MZ800 (having separate Hsync and Vsync signals on their external video connectors), the MZ80B mainboard just provides combined sync. The GBS8300 handles this very well, so I am satisfied with the result for the time being (http://www.pocon.at/MZ80_mon.jpg) ;-)
where can i find tape images of games for this? like space invaders and such. software seems impossible to find.
@Chris Hill
Only this one:
https://www.sharpmz.no/dl/search.php?machines%5B%5D=MZ-80B&categories%5B%5D=Games&searchtext=&submit_form=Search&search_rows_per_page=50#search_result