HP 85 stuff

From: Carlos Murillo <cem14_at_cornell.edu>
Date: Tue Jul 4 20:17:00 2000

At 06:40 PM 7/4/00 +0100, Tony wrote:
>> > HP85s with an HPIB interface and a mass storage ROM (IIRC) can support
>> > floppy drives. If you have this sort of set-up, it's worth copying any
>> > tapes you find onto floppies.

My HP85B works perfectly with an HP9121 dual floppy drive. It is also
the only mass storage device I can use, since the pinch roller
in the tape drive disintegrated and I haven't got down to fixing
it; I don't even know what diameter it is supposed to be.

My 85B has the following plugins:

82909A 128K RAM module
82937A HPIB interface
82936A ROM drawer with "I/O", "Advanced prgm" and "plotter/printer"
       ROMS. I am looking for the math and assembler ROMS.
82940A GPIO interface.

I have manuals for all of these, as well as the owner's and programming
manual for the 85B.

I am looking for the two tapes that comprise the software of the HP 3056DL
data logging system. This system consisted of one HP 85B and one or two
HP 3421 data acquisition and control units.

>There are several plugins for this machine. The ones that I've heard
>about are :
-snip-
>Various RAM drawers (I have a 16K one somewhere). These contain DRAM and
>a custom HP interface/controller chip, so it's decidedly non-trivial to
>make your own!

A word of caution: the 16K RAM module intended for the HP85A can
damage the HP85B. This is clearly stated in one of the manuals.

>RS232 interface(s). There are believed to be 2 of these (DTE and DCE), but
>I think the only difference is in the cable. As this is fixed to the
>interface module, it makes sense to claim they are 2 different units, but
>doubtless it's possible to use the 'wrong' one if that's what you have!

I would not be surprised if it was actually the same module with an internal
DIP jumper for DTE/DCE selection; several serial interfaces from that era
(such as the HP 82164) had that option.

>HPIL interface.

I want one of those,

>Z80 CP/M drawer (Z80+64K DRAM, essentially. Lets the HP85 run normal CP/M
>programs).

...and one of these too. I've seen two show up on eBay, but my
pockets weren't sufficiently deep.

>> Hmmm, that has possibilities.. I am also lead to believe the 85 can
>> talk to various pieces of HP test equipment, and that they share a
>> common bus. (With the right interface of course).
>
>If you add an HPIB interface, and possibly the I/O ROM, then you can talk
>to just about any HPIB/GPIB/IEEE488 device ever made. Doubtless the HPIL
>interface will talk to instruments with that interface (like the HP3421)
>but I've never tried it.

Mine talks perfectly to both of my 3421's (which have the HP-IB option).
I think Joe Rigdon told me that they can talk to floppy drives that
support the "amigo" command set. I've also used it to talk to a
59306A relay actuator, a 5328A counter, and a 59313A A/D converter.

>> > Oh, one last thing. If you want to take the top off, first pull off
>> the
>> > eject button from the tape drive. Then undo the screws on the bottom,
>> and
>> > lift the casing off. If you don't remove the eject button first,
>> you'll
>> > have problems getting the case to come free.
>>
>> Ok, thanks for that. Often the worst part of fixing (ptbl tv for

Thanks too, Tony. This will be handy when I get to fix that pinch
roller.

carlos.
Received on Tue Jul 04 2000 - 20:17:00 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:32:56 BST