HP DraftMaster I

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Wed Sep 1 23:47:35 1999

please see embedded comments below

thanx

Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 7:16 PM
Subject: Re: HP DraftMaster I


>At 09:00 AM 9/1/99 -0600, Dick wrote:
<snip>
> I know. AFTER you bought it you found out that you needed all kinds of
>optional I/O ROMs and the like to make it work.

>
Actually, it was working perfectly about 2 minutes after I replaced the
parts on the serial I/O board. Now probably only one was defective, but I
replaced them all. There aren't many.
>
>> Nowadays, there's nobody there who'll even talk about them.
>
> Yeap.
>>
>>If you want to test the thing thoroughly, you'll have to get some of the
<snip>

> Sounds like a HP 7221 plotter with paper feed. I have one of them and a
>9874 that's similar but has a HP-IB inteface. Someone dropped the 9874 on
>one corner and bent the whole thing out of kilter. I've tried everything
>but I can't get it to feed paper right. The framne is too heavy to try and
>straighten out. Perhaps if I took it to someone that has a puller for
>straightening car frames .....
>
God be thanked, it's not at all like that miserable piece of junk! If id
hadn't said HP on it, nobody with more than two grey cells would have taken
one home.
>
> These machines will feed the appropriate amount, but don't
>>mind wasting paper, i.e. they feed the 36"-wide paper 14-15" for a
portrait
>>'A'-size form, wasting most of the paper. That was the reason I got the
>>single-sheet version. I don't need it to run all night unattended, but I
do
>>have to pay for the paper. You'll see that's not cheap.
>
> I always use mine if single sheet mode. BTW any idea where I can find a
>roll of paper for it? I only have a small amount of paper left and I'd
>like to have a roll to go with it.
>
>
>That may explain
>>why the drawings in most manuals are so difficult to read, having been
>>reduced from already-too-small drawings.
>>
>>The manuals may still be available somewhere, but I would get right on
>>trying to find them if I were you.
>
> I have a PRETTY GOOD bunch of plotter manuals. In fact, I have a good
>bunch of all of the HP computer and calculator manuals. I grab everyone
>that I can get my hands on! What model plotter do you have?
>
Well, the manual set for mine (HP7585B) weights just short of 25 lbs and
costs about $500 to duplicate because of the half-tone schematics and other
drawings, which won't Xerox at all readably.
>
> I made the purchase of my plotter
>>contingent on complete manuals, so they were included. That became a
>>condition after I found that Martin Marietta, after buying 20 or so of
these
>>still hadn't received a complete set of manuals even though each plotter
was
>>supposed to come with them.
>
> Boy! Does this bring back memories! When I was working in Canada for
>Martin Marietta we could never got any of the drawings and other documents
>from MM in the US. I keep calling and they kept telling me that they had
>been sent. In fact some of them were sent three times with multiple copies
>everytime. I finally got the name of the guy that they were sent to in
>Canada and I went found him. It turns out that he kept one copy of
>EVERYTHING that went through his office. I checked the next office that
>handled the stuff and they did the same thing. So did the next office. And
>the one after that! As it turns out the handling people kept everything and
>the ones of us in engineering never got the stuff that was supposed to be
>coming to us. I think that was SOP for MM!
>
>>
>>If you have access to a Windows box with AutoCad 12 on it (I don't have a
>>later version to try this) you should be able to put it through its paces,
>>as that has an internal plotter driver which operates independently of the
>>one in WIndows. I've had no luck at all getting the Windows driver to do
>>anything. I suspect (after watching the lights on the breakout box) that
>>there is some incompatibility in the way they work their handshaking.
>>Perhaps the '488 port will work for you, if you've got one with drivers in
>>your system.
>
> Well I'm using a HP 7550 on the PC so it may be more compatible than
>your older model. But I think you need more than a null MODEM cable to make
>the plotter work. I have a manual with the cabling schematics somewhere
>and I think the HP requires more of the pins to be connected than most
>serial devices do. I'll look for the cabling drawings if you want them.
>
The 7550 was an earlier, and much smaller, version from the same family. I
briefly had one but found the pens not to be interchangeable with my 7585,
and was too cheap to stock two sets of pens. For 'B' size, as th 7550 does,
I use an HP1120C printer.
> Joe
>
Received on Wed Sep 01 1999 - 23:47:35 BST