New finds .... 2 HP-85's!

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Wed Oct 18 14:29:39 2000

Hi Bob,

  Nice find! You can use DC-100 tapes in the HP-85s. You can alao use
DECtapes and reformat them. The HP-85 can format it's own tapes, the
command is INITIALIZE. You should check the drive wheel in the tape drive
first and see if it's sticky (almost a certainty). If it is then don't try
to use the tapes in it, the goo can get on the tape itself and get wound up
in the tape spool, It that happens then the tape will break when you try to
unwind that section again. Check the archives for this mailing list, there
was a LONG discussion about interfaces and such for the HP_85 a couple of
months ago. There was also some discussion about fixing tape drives about 6
months ago. Keep looking around that warehouse, the fact that you got HP-86
books indicates that there is probably a couple of 86s lurking around there
somewhere. The HP-86 commands are a superset of those for the HP-85 so you
can use the 86 books for the 85. There's a chart posted at
"www.ebbsoft.com" that compares the HP85/86/87 features. With it you should
be able to figure which commands will work on the 85 without too much
difficulty. HP-85 manuals are hard to come by.

   Joe

At 01:28 PM 10/18/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Sometimes the gods do smile upon us... Last week ebay had someone from the
>Hartford area put up a pallet of old computer / office "stuff." Just wanted
>to clear it out of an old warehouse that was about to be rented again.
>Since it was local I was able to preview it - 3 old PS-2 towers, 3 older VGA
>monitors, a Mac II, some answering machines, lots of power cords and cables,
>etc. Not much I wanted, so someone from Washington (state) won the lot for
>about $15 (and good luck with shipping!). I had a brief conversation with
>the guy who was selling off this stuff and told him about my interests in
>really old computers. He said that he had taken home an HP-85 laser jet
>printer which worked. I told him that I didn't think that it was the right
>model number. But he said it was definitely a laser jet printer. He called
>me yesterday and told me it was really a LJ-III, that his son wanted a color
>printer, and would I be interested in it for $50 since he had just put a new
>toner cartridge in. I called a friend who wanted it, and went to pick it up
>today.
>
>When I arrived, he said he figured out why he called it an HP-85. He then
>took me back into the warehouse and showed me TWO HP-85's, covered in dust
>and grime, plus 3 unopened boxes of thermal printer paper, 2 rolls to a box,
>plus two 3-ring binders marked HP 80 series. He asked me if I wanted them.
>How could I say no?
>
>Turns out that the docs are two copies of the manuals for an HP-86B, but I
>am not complaining! Those beasties are heavier by five pounds just due to
>the accumulated dirt and grime. It will be several weekends from now before
>they are clean enough to even think about a power-on smoke test. In the
>meantime, is there anyone out there who could trade some HP-85 docs (or
>copies) for my HP-86B docs? What kind of tape cartridges do I need? (as if
>I think there's a chance in hell that the drives will still work!) Never
>having used one of these before, any advice or comments are welcome.
>
>Bob Stek
>Saver of Lost Sols
>
>
Received on Wed Oct 18 2000 - 14:29:39 BST