Upon the date 04:46 PM 7/26/99 +0000, Joe said something like:
>Chris,
>
>At 03:40 PM 7/26/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>Upon the date 08:27 PM 7/26/99 +0200, Hans B Pufal said something like:
>>>Christian Fandt wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi folks,
>>>>
>>>
>>>> Anybody know if the setup files are still online at HP and if so where are
>>>> they? If nothing is on HP's site anymore does anybody have a copy of the
>>>> setup file for the _Classic_ Vectra they could email to me?
>>>
>>>I'll see if I can find one at HP Grenoble when I visit this week. This
>>>is where the vectras were (and still are) designed.
>>
>>That's great Hans! I would be much appreciative!
>>
>>As a matter of fact, this machine was built in France in April 1986. Makes
>>sense to me as this was the first of the Vectra models introduced.
>>
>>Also, if you think you can, could you please get any technical info
>>available on HP's HPIB card which was used in this machine.
>
> I have one of these machines too. I think I downloaded the setup from HP
>within the last couple of months but I don't know if I still have it
>around. If you get any information or software for the HP-IB cards let me
>know, I have a couple of them here too.
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the reply. Hans seems to be able to go to The Source over in
Grenoble in a few days. Let's see what he can find for us. (Your effort is
much appreciated Hans!)
>>
>>For you others who are wondering why this machine is still in use:
>>
>>The application software used on it runs only with the HP HPIB card (and
>>some version of a Techmar card too, I understand) and the operating system
>>_must_ be no later than MSDOS 3.2.
>
> Hmmm. That's news to me.
The operating syst. dependency is specific to the software, not to the
Vectra. I tried running the software under M$DOS 6.22 and the program
randomly crashed once in a while. When the graph of the data was attempted
to be brought up the program blew up and took the machine back to the C:\>
prompt. The software was originally written for the HP85 and ported to the
Vectra. The machine alone seemed to like 6.22 but I didn't take time to
thoroughly test it. Windoze 3.1 would run too I think but the Seven Year
Itch would come and go before much happened :)
>
>Apparently, the software vendor, Ernst
>>Leitz GmbH, had used hardware addresses specific to the HPIB card and
>>perhaps to the Classic Vectra itself along with system calls, etc. found
>>only in dos 3.2 and earlier. Also, Leica engineers found that ISA bus
>>speeds cannot be too high (e.g. > 8MHz or so).
>
> That's not uncommon with many old cards. I have some HP HP-IL cards that
>have the same problem.
Oh well, back then in "the olden days" who woulda knew . . .
'Til later, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
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Received on Mon Jul 26 1999 - 21:22:57 BST