Sharp CE-158 Parallel Port Adapter

Overview

 

Back in 1982 Sharp came out with a real powerhouse of a pocket computer, the PC-1500. It had a 1.3mhz 8bit Sharp lh5801 processor capable of addressing 128K of memory and 128K of address space. This was a computer as powerful as the average desktop of the day, and it would fit in a (large) pocket.

Sharp then came out with the CE-158 serial/parallel interface for the PC-1500 that offered greatly improved loading/saving speeds as well as the ability to use a wider range of printers, modems and other peripherals. The CE-158 did not exactly follow the IBM ‘standard’ pinout, Pins 10&11 are swapped (and the DB25 is the opposite gender). To make it easier to connect your CE-158 or CE-158X to a standard parallel printer we made the CE-158(X) LPT adapter.

The CE-158(X) LPT adapter corrects both the pinout and incorrect gender problems. You plug the end labeled ‘Sharp’ into the CE-158(X) and the other end marked ‘IBM’ can then be connected to a standard parallel printer with the appropriate printer cable. Theoretically you should be able to plug the ‘Sharp’ end into a Sharp printer with the whacky pinout and then connect a computer with a standard parallel port to it. We don’t have such a Sharp printer to confirm this though.

Downloads and Video

CE-158 Parallel Port Adapter Video