9915A

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Wed Mar 13 15:01:41 2002

Hi Michiel,

   Where are you located? I'm just outside of Orlando Florida.


At 07:57 PM 3/13/02 +0100, you wrote:
> Hello,
>
>> Nice find! I have a couple of these and ONE keyboard. It took me four
>> years of serious searching to find it!
>
> About two months ago I noticed a complete HP-85 (tapes, manuals and a 19"
rack
>with HP-IB equipment)

   Was it on a pull out drawer and in a cabinet that was about 18" tall?
If so I've seen those before, they're a data acquision system and it
usually has a HP 3497 Data Acquision unit in the bottom. There's a number
for the complete unit but I can't remeber exactly what it is. Somewhere I
have a couple of manuals and tapes for that system.


 at a local industial recycling facility and told this to
>a friend of mine. He immediately wanted to buy this, but when I asked, it
was
>already sold...
>
> So this weekend I was at a HAM market and saw some manuals with HP-85
printed
>on them and underneath was the 9915a, which I didn't recognize at the
moment. I
>talked a bit to the guy selling it and got it for EUR 20 (about $20),
which I
>hope is a good price.

    I think that is an excellant price! The 9915s are very hard to find
and some companies are still using then so occasionally someone will be
trying to buy one.
>
>> AFIK this is the only keyboard around. They are EXTREMELY rare!
>
> Am I correct in thinking that with the keyboard I can use the 9915A as a HP-
>85? Or is the keyboard just a row of digital inputs which can be read out
by a
>basic program?

  No, it acts as a regular HP 85 keyboard.

>
> Can I do anything usefull with a HPIB terminal?

   No. the only way to use a terminal would be to have a program running on
the 9915 that would capture the keystroks but even then everything would be
inside of the program and not at the command (system) level.


 Somebody on the sunrescue list
>mailed me this, but then I've tried a terminal with the serial card and that
>didn't work..

   That works with some of the bigger HP computers like the 9000 300s that
are intended to be used with a monitor and keyboard but not with the
smaller systems.

>
>> The tape approach is the easiest to use EXCEPT just about all the 9915
and HP
>> 85 tape drive rollers have gone soft with age.
>
> Aha, I also haven't gotten any tapes... Are these still obtainable
somewhere?

    YES! You can use the old DC 2000 tapes. These were widely used on PCs
for tape backup. I think they hold about 40 Mbs. But you can't use the 100,
200 or 300 Mb (DC21xx) tapes. You can also use the DECTapes. But both have
to be formatted with the 9915 or HP 85.

>
>> I've made a schematic of it. I'll try to find it but I'm not promising that
>> I'll be able to. The "keyboard" connector is also used to output some
>> status and control signals so be carefull if you start experimenting with
>> it. I've been looking for a long time but I've only been able to find a
>> couple of manuals for the 9915 and they're not very helpfull.
>
> Those schematics would be nice if you found them, I haven't tried hooking
up
>anything to the keyboard ports yet in fear of breaking something. The
manuals I
>have are:
>
> HP-85 Owner's manual and programming guide (2x)
> Printer/plotter owner's manual
> I/O programming guide
> HPIB installation and theory of operation manual
> HPIB peripheral installation instructions
> registration and warranty cards :)

   That's a good start. I'll try to find my stuff.

   Joe
>
> regards,
> Michiel
>
>
Received on Wed Mar 13 2002 - 15:01:41 GMT