Ben Ryves
@benryves.com
Croydon-based web developer, retro gaming and computing enthusiast and electronics hobbyist
I couldn't find any replacement ink rollers for this printing calculator but a few drops of endorsing ink seems to have got the old roller working again and the violet seems to be a good match. Now I just need to find a source of 37mm-wide plain paper rolls, else I'll have to get the scissors out!
November 13, 2025 at 7:10 AM
I couldn't find any replacement ink rollers for this printing calculator but a few drops of endorsing ink seems to have got the old roller working again and the violet seems to be a good match. Now I just need to find a source of 37mm-wide plain paper rolls, else I'll have to get the scissors out!
Richard Russell's "Z88 BASIC Patch" adds graphics support to BBC BASIC. It can also print out the graphics area, but this requires an Epson-compatible printer which the Serial 8056 isn't. I've developed a patch for a patch, in other words. benryves.com/bin/z88/8056...
November 11, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Richard Russell's "Z88 BASIC Patch" adds graphics support to BBC BASIC. It can also print out the graphics area, but this requires an Epson-compatible printer which the Serial 8056 isn't. I've developed a patch for a patch, in other words. benryves.com/bin/z88/8056...
Of all the components I'd expect to go bad, a quartz resonator is pretty far down the list. I bought this very cute printing calculator as faulty, expecting leaking Ni-Cd cells inside. A previous owner had removed them (hooray!) but the seller couldn't get the calculator to run on external power.
November 9, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Of all the components I'd expect to go bad, a quartz resonator is pretty far down the list. I bought this very cute printing calculator as faulty, expecting leaking Ni-Cd cells inside. A previous owner had removed them (hooray!) but the seller couldn't get the calculator to run on external power.
I was told to avoid smoking the RIFA, so not sure if I should pre-emptively remove these - at least they're on a separate board and have a plastic shield over them to contain any explosions!
November 5, 2025 at 8:55 PM
I was told to avoid smoking the RIFA, so not sure if I should pre-emptively remove these - at least they're on a separate board and have a plastic shield over them to contain any explosions!
I've been hearing an unnerving creaking when putting force into the pedals for the past 2-3 weeks. I guess that would explain it! Only had solid axles before where a snapped axle failure is rather more obvious and catastrophic, the quick release skewer has put up a good fight...
October 9, 2025 at 11:03 PM
I've been hearing an unnerving creaking when putting force into the pedals for the past 2-3 weeks. I guess that would explain it! Only had solid axles before where a snapped axle failure is rather more obvious and catastrophic, the quick release skewer has put up a good fight...
Another weekend, another CE-125 on the workbench... I don't intentionally buy them, but it seems most of the time you buy another Sharp pocket computer or accessory it comes attached to a CE-125 full of leaking Ni-CD batteries and gooey disintegrating belts.
October 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Another weekend, another CE-125 on the workbench... I don't intentionally buy them, but it seems most of the time you buy another Sharp pocket computer or accessory it comes attached to a CE-125 full of leaking Ni-CD batteries and gooey disintegrating belts.
I should have bought a decent solder sucker years ago. I suspected a bad RAM(1) in this PC-1211 and had replacements (and built a RAM tester) but couldn't get the old chip out with my regular solder sucker. The Engineer SS-03 made it an absolute doddle to remove, and another PC-1211 lives again.
October 1, 2025 at 12:40 PM
I should have bought a decent solder sucker years ago. I suspected a bad RAM(1) in this PC-1211 and had replacements (and built a RAM tester) but couldn't get the old chip out with my regular solder sucker. The Engineer SS-03 made it an absolute doddle to remove, and another PC-1211 lives again.
I did pick a couple of new Sharp devices in the month of #sharptember - a programmable scientific calculator, the surprisingly small EL-512, and a "faulty" PC-1251 for parts to replace the front cover on the one I damaged when replacing the LCD. Amazingly, the original LCD on the 1251 fully works!
September 25, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I did pick a couple of new Sharp devices in the month of #sharptember - a programmable scientific calculator, the surprisingly small EL-512, and a "faulty" PC-1251 for parts to replace the front cover on the one I damaged when replacing the LCD. Amazingly, the original LCD on the 1251 fully works!
Spent a lovely few days on the Isle of Wight last week.
September 6, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Spent a lovely few days on the Isle of Wight last week.
A 1983-vintage Ni-CD battery pack strikes again!
August 29, 2025 at 5:11 PM
A 1983-vintage Ni-CD battery pack strikes again!
I had been putting a little preferred resistor value program on the PC-1211. DEF S sets the series (e.g. E12), DEF L prints a list of values in the series, DEF F finds the closest match (here I asked for 500Ω resistor in the E12 series). benryves.com/bin/sharp-pc...
August 15, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I had been putting a little preferred resistor value program on the PC-1211. DEF S sets the series (e.g. E12), DEF L prints a list of values in the series, DEF F finds the closest match (here I asked for 500Ω resistor in the E12 series). benryves.com/bin/sharp-pc...
Two Sharp PC-1211 pocket computers that were increasingly hard to read due to failing LCDs back in service after installing modern LCD replacements. The new ones are green instead of that classic yellow but at least they're not going black around the edges.
August 15, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Two Sharp PC-1211 pocket computers that were increasingly hard to read due to failing LCDs back in service after installing modern LCD replacements. The new ones are green instead of that classic yellow but at least they're not going black around the edges.
I feel the English translation they've gone for here lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.
August 9, 2025 at 6:46 AM
I feel the English translation they've gone for here lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.
Wondering if it's worth the hassle of keeping old (and unvisited) forums online these days. I'd been doing it for archival reasons but over the past few months the amount of bot scraping has gone through the roof and brings the DB server to its knees (my guess is training data for AI LLM)? PITA!
August 4, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Wondering if it's worth the hassle of keeping old (and unvisited) forums online these days. I'd been doing it for archival reasons but over the past few months the amount of bot scraping has gone through the roof and brings the DB server to its knees (my guess is training data for AI LLM)? PITA!
Tonight I'm attending a cat's tenth birthday party. An ABBA tribute band are putting on a great performance in his honour. Happy birthday, Cosimo!
July 26, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Tonight I'm attending a cat's tenth birthday party. An ABBA tribute band are putting on a great performance in his honour. Happy birthday, Cosimo!
I much prefer a paper manual for reference but didn't have one for my PC-1248. Here's my first attempt at some DIY book-binding using stuff around the home, think it turned out OK and it certainly beats scrolling around the PDF!
July 18, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I much prefer a paper manual for reference but didn't have one for my PC-1248. Here's my first attempt at some DIY book-binding using stuff around the home, think it turned out OK and it certainly beats scrolling around the PDF!
I think it's fair to say Guitar Wolf have been the most fun band I've gone to see live - highly recommended if they're playing near you. So so sweaty... but all very worth it!
July 11, 2025 at 9:56 PM
I think it's fair to say Guitar Wolf have been the most fun band I've gone to see live - highly recommended if they're playing near you. So so sweaty... but all very worth it!
July 10, 2025 at 5:39 AM
The Secret Life of the Home was one of my favourite parts of the Science Museum so it was sad to see it close last year. Here's a nice guided tour from Tim Hunkin recorded just before its closure: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqpv...
The Secret Life of the Home
YouTube video by tim hunkin
www.youtube.com
July 5, 2025 at 2:12 PM
The Secret Life of the Home was one of my favourite parts of the Science Museum so it was sad to see it close last year. Here's a nice guided tour from Tim Hunkin recorded just before its closure: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqpv...
I'd like to order some small LCD panels from a US supplier who refuses to post to the UK. Has anyone had any good experience with cheap parcel forwarding services from the US to the UK they could recommend? As the panels are $20 each I don't really want to end up paying more than that in postage!
July 3, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I'd like to order some small LCD panels from a US supplier who refuses to post to the UK. Has anyone had any good experience with cheap parcel forwarding services from the US to the UK they could recommend? As the panels are $20 each I don't really want to end up paying more than that in postage!
It's not entirely perfect, but I've found a way to access the whole screen on an IQ-8000 when using the 16-column-only IQ-707 BASIC card. Only requires a couple of POKEs, but figuring those out was a bit of a faff. www.benryves.com/journal/3763...
July 2, 2025 at 1:20 AM
It's not entirely perfect, but I've found a way to access the whole screen on an IQ-8000 when using the 16-column-only IQ-707 BASIC card. Only requires a couple of POKEs, but figuring those out was a bit of a faff. www.benryves.com/journal/3763...
I guess that silver conductive "glue"/paint for PCB repair has a shelf life. I had a sealed new syringe of it in the fridge (I bought a three pack in 2023 and kept them all in there), it seemed to flow OK and I painted on a replacement pad. A couple of days drying later it still measures >2MΩ.
June 25, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I guess that silver conductive "glue"/paint for PCB repair has a shelf life. I had a sealed new syringe of it in the fridge (I bought a three pack in 2023 and kept them all in there), it seemed to flow OK and I painted on a replacement pad. A couple of days drying later it still measures >2MΩ.
The postie just brought me my £20 job lot of assorted "vintage calculators" from eBay. There were two items in this listing that made me think it was worth it, which do you think they were? Everything's a bit grubby and will need a good clean!
June 23, 2025 at 1:26 PM
The postie just brought me my £20 job lot of assorted "vintage calculators" from eBay. There were two items in this listing that made me think it was worth it, which do you think they were? Everything's a bit grubby and will need a good clean!
Lovely ride up to Richmond to watch the sunset (and enjoy a pint) last night.
June 19, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Lovely ride up to Richmond to watch the sunset (and enjoy a pint) last night.
I used to think that ugly silver paint that shows all the scratches on early/mid-2000s electronics was my least favourite enclosure style choice, but I'm learning to dislike disintegrating rubberised coatings even more. At least it prints, and can solve the P↔NP problem by pressing Shift+Enter.
June 13, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I used to think that ugly silver paint that shows all the scratches on early/mid-2000s electronics was my least favourite enclosure style choice, but I'm learning to dislike disintegrating rubberised coatings even more. At least it prints, and can solve the P↔NP problem by pressing Shift+Enter.