Aaron Christopher Finney <A_Finney_at_wfi-inc.com> wrote:
> I've read the HP3000-L FAQ and searched most of the day for info, but
> there isn't much geared toward the Classic HP3000 home-hobbyist.
Yeah, and some of us 3000 fans view this as a problem.
> 9144 tape drive - I've already deduced that it's a low-density, 16-track
> capable of 67/134 megs and the tapes have to be purchased pre-formatted.
The HP part numbers for the tapes are 88140SC (150m) and 88140LC (600m).
It may be that you can get tapes from 3M with an "HC" suffix and those
can be made to work too.
I thought the 134MB version was the 9145 (32-track) drive.
> 2563A Printer - with a modular connector.
Modular? Hmm, haven't seen that before.
> 9123 3 1/2" dual floppy - picked up after-the-fact at a yard sale. It's
> HP-IB, but has a weird DIN power connector cord. No P/S.
This is for the HP Touchscreen II (aka 150C) -- the flavor of the 150
with the 12" display. It's got the DIN socket for that power cord.
I don't think the 3000 will play nice with it in any event.
> (2)HP3000 series 37's - these are piggy-backed, is this the usual
> configuration? . Here's where I need some info:
I'm thinking that what you have there is one 37 where the second box
provides I/O expansion. It's an option, my 37s don't have that.
> The "top" unit has a DB-25F in slot one, and an HP-IB in slot 4, as
> well as those DE-3F (correct terminology?) connectors in ports 0-5.
When I had a bunch of them on a 3000/64-68-70 (it got upgraded) I just
called them ATP connectors. Unfortunately I don't remember the pinout,
but it's three-wire RS-232 so not real hard to figure out -- harder to
find connectors for!
> The "bottom" unit has the DB-25F in slot one, the HP-IB in slot 4,
> and an AUI (ethernet? Is this a Lanic board?) in slot 5, as well as
> the 3-pin deals in ports 0-5. Above the ports is a female
> Centronics-50 which connected to what I believe is a terminal
> splitter, p/n 40290-60003. Above that is a *very* high-density 99-pin
> male connector, this is attached to the board with the HP-IB
> connector.
I'm wondering if the DB-25Fs are INPs -- basically synchronous serial
interfaces for computer-to-computer or computer-to-remote-terminal-mux
stuff.
If it says AUI, it's a LANIC. For that matter, if it's got the slide-lock
it's probably a LANIC.
The "Centronics"-50 doesn't have wire ears, it has threaded holes for
screws, right? If so, it probably is for the terminal port splitter.
That's the only sort of terminal interface I have in my /37s -- I didn't
know it could have "real" ATP connectors until a conversation with
Stan Sieler a couple of weeks ago.
I've *no* idea what the 99-pin connector is! Unless it's the
interconnect that's supposed to go between the backplanes in the two
boxes.
> The two units are connected vi an HP-IB cable on port 4 of each. Also,
> the top has the keyed power switch for both.
This bit about the HP-IB cable going between the units is something I really
don't get. I'd expect there to be an interconnect of some sort between
the two boxes and that the HP-IB interfaces are independent I/O channels.
If the bottom unit doesn't have the keyed power switch, then I don't
think it's an independent 3000.
> What I need is *really* basic info on the system and some pointers to
> information sources. Some quick ones:
> 1) How in the heck do the two 3000/37 units come apart?
Are you sure you want to do this?
> 2) How do I wire a terminal to this?
At a guess, the console port will be one of those port 0s.
> 3) Is the AUI connector an ethernet card? A lanic card?
Likely so.
> 4) Could someone please ID all the rest of the ports?
Tried that.
> 5) Is there a graphical display capability on this machine? As an add-on?
Not directly. You could connect a terminal with graphics capability
(HP 2648A, 2623A, 2627A; 2625A and 2628A with the graphics options; the
150s; probably some others that I'm forgetting) and there were additional
software products (HPDRAW, EASYCHART, DSG/3000) that knew how to use them
to produce drawings and charts.
> 6) What kind of Pertec tape interface is available for this machine?
Well, unless that's what's inside a 7970E tape drive cabinet, I'd say none.
By this point (mid-1980s) HP was using HP-IB for discs and tapes.
> 7) If my 2nd drive is damaged, how might I go about getting an OS for it?
Tricky. I don't know whether MPE for the classic 3000s is available at
all now.
> I apologize for such a long post and my absolute lack of knowledge here. I
> had a buddy who was supposed to help me out (3000 guru) but he's just gone
> overseas for work indefinitely. It's such a cool system, the way it's put
> together, and there's a bunch of neat freeware that I'd love to use too.
> Any help at all would really be appreciated.
Time for another glum part of the picture.
Roughly speaking, there's two kinds of 3000: the kind with series <= 70
and the kind with series >= 900. The former are the "classic" 16-bit stack
architecture. The latter are PA-RISC architecture. The freeware is very
probably for the latter.
-Frank McConnell
Received on Sat Nov 28 1998 - 00:50:12 GMT