Robert Stek wrote:
> 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.
Most likely, they will work. These machines are very resilient.
>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.
Well, first of all, do you have HP85A's or HP85B's ? This is important
when it comes to the size of the memory modules that they can
hold in their back. The HP85B cannot take the 16K memory module.
What kind of modules are there on the back of these machines?
If you have the HP82938 HPIL interface card, you can talk to
HPIL devices such as the HP9114 floppy drive, the HP3421 data
acquisition system.
There is also an HPIB interface, the HP82937 if I recall correctly.
With this you can talk to the HP9121 floppy drive, and any
other instrument with HPIB.
Other interfaces that were available were GPIO, BCD, a modem...
The optional ROM tray also plugs in the back and can hold several
ROM chips; some of the software available this way was the I/O module,
the plotting module, the math module, the assembler module, ...
RAM modules came in different sizes; I have a 128K module in my 85B.
The tape drive uses DC-100 cartridges, but the pinch rollers
have almost surely disintegrated by now. It is much better to find
an appropriate floppy drive.
The machine is relatively slow; I remember having timed the HP71,
HP75 and HP85; their speed had a ratio of 1x:2x:3x in the same order.
But the two first ones are cmos calculators. Funny that the order
of appearance was exactly backwards.
Regarding the manuals: The HP85B user manual is available
in one of the CD's available from the Museum of HP calculators;
see the catalog of documents at
http://www.hpmuseum.org/software/swcd.htm
--
Carlos Murillo-Sanchez email: cem14_at_cornell.edu
428 Phillips Hall, Electrical Engineering Department
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
Received on Wed Oct 18 2000 - 13:42:12 BST