HP 110 assistance sought

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun Nov 21 12:06:18 2004

> 1) I was thinking about hooking this up to my HP 1631D logic analyser.
> Connected to my logic analyser is a 9121 floppy drive and 2225 printer. The
> 9121 and 2225 are hooked up to the 1631D via HP-IB. My 1631 analyser has an
> HP-IB port (of course) and an HP-IL port as does the HP110 plus. So can I
> hook up the 110 plus to the 1631D via HP-IL, and have the laptop see the
> printer and floppy that are hooked up to the 1631 via HP-IB? In essence I'm
> asking if the 1631 will act as a hub between the two different types of
> connection since it has both. I know nothing about HP-IL.

HPIL is sort-of a serial veraion of HPIB (the electrical side is totally
different, of course, but the same ideas apply to both interfaces). HP
made a very nice translator (the HP81269) between the 2 interfaces which
often gives almost true plug-and-play operation (to give you some idea, I
connected an HPIB Colorpro plotter to my HP41 (which has an HPIL module
and the plotter ROM) using this interface, told it which address the
plotter was set to, and got perfect plots with no more work.

Many of the instruments that have both interfaces (I know the 3421 data
loger, for example, does this) have a sort-of cut-down 82169 built in.
However, I doubt it would work as an adapter to link HPIB peripherals to
the 110.

The HP110 will allow HPIB printers (and plotters) connected via the
82169, you give the address in one of the set-up screens. The
Portable Plus (a later machine, somewhat similar to the 110) will use
many HP HPIB drives too, if the 82169 has a sufficiently late firmware
revision. How to do that is in the Portable Plus TechRef (I have this), I
don't know if the 110 will do it too.

The normal disk drive for the 110 is the 9114 (either A or B version),
which is also used with the 41, 71, 75 calculators. I don't think it's
particularly rare.

>
> 2) Would anyone have a cable to accomplish the above? I have HP-IB cables
> but no HP-IL cables.

You need 2 HPIL cables. HPIL is a ring (loop), you link the output of one
device to the input of the next, then keep on going until you get back to
the first device.

>
> 3) Um... uh... I have to admit I can't figure out how to turn on the 110
> plus. It would appear to have no power switch at all. If my guess as to the

It's something like 'hold down the contrast key (the one with the
half-moon on it' until it starts up. By now the lead-acid (yes!) battery
is probably very dead, though. It can be rebuilt using 3 2.5Ah Cyclon cells.

> power cable connection on the back is correct, it will require a
> non-standard power cable of some type. Anyone have a spare or know where I
> can get one?

It's the standard HP 8V charger. The one used with the Topcats (91, 92,
95C, 97, 97S), 41 rechrageable pack, 71, 75C, 75D, most IL peripherals,
and so on. Just about every HP calculator hacker has a pile of these (all
mine are, of course, 240V input). There were also 3rd-party car chargers
(Eramco made one).

>
> 4) It'd be nice to find a manual for the unit. Anyone have a spare, or know
> where a PDF copy is? I'd like to find a complete set of manuals for it and
> the apps built into the roms.

There's a scheamtic on the HPCC schematics CD-ROM. Apart from that, I'd
ask on the MoHPC site, somebody there might have the manuals. I have a
lot of manuals for the Portable Plus (including the TechRef and the
service manual), which are not directly applicable to the 110, though

One last comment. The DE9 connector is a serial (RS232) port, but it's
not wired the same way as the normal PC 9 pin serial port. You need to
make up a special cable to use it. Yes, I have the pinouts if you want to
do this.

-tony
Received on Sun Nov 21 2004 - 12:06:18 GMT

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