cjeff@ghoti.lcs.mit.edu (Carl J.M. Alexander) (05/10/91)
A friend has passed along to me some hardware his company was going to surplus into the dumpster. The systems administrator at the company believes it's all in working order, but it all predates him and they're now an all Mac shop, so this stuff has just been gathering dust for at least a couple of years. Now they're all mine--hardware only: no manuals, no pinouts, no cables, no power cords--nada. I would appreciate any and all information regarding these orphans that anyone would care to pass along. In particular, answers to the following questions would be much appreciated. (I somehow doubt that this is of much interest to the net, so please reply by e-mail. If anyone out there *is* interested, please let me know & I will forward whatever I get. (And of course, if it turns out that lots of people are interested, I will summarize and post to the net.)) Re the HP-7202A graphic plotter. This looks pretty straightforward, mostly because there's a very good page of documentation built into the hardware. Does anyone have a pinout for the input, which appears to be a DB-15 serial port? Is this RS-232 compatible? Do I need to know anything to send it commands aside from what's on the help card that slides out of the front? Re the HP-2225B Printer. This can't be what I think it is, but I can't figure out what else it might be: it *appears* to be an early battery-powered inkjet printer, unless it's missing some major pieces. Am I right? Can anyone give me any clues about the interface: there's a panel on the back marked 'HP-IL' above two 3-pin connectors unlike anything I'm familiar with. One is female and marked 'OUT' the other is male and marked 'IN' and both appear to use only the two outside pins and not the center one. Is this some sort of serial interface? Some variant of RS-422 maybe? Or is this a proprietary HP interface? Also, the battery pack slides in and out as a very neatly designed self-contained unit. It includes a two-pin input. Does this expect direct AC (it looks unlikely) or am I going to have to find a charger for this? Re the HP-85 Whachamacallit. What *is* this thing? --Carl Alexander News Editor, The Active Window cjeff@ghoti.lcs.mit.edu
rjn@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Bob Niland) (05/14/91)
re: > Re the HP-2225B Printer.
This is an HP-IL (not HP-HIL) version of the ThinkJet, and is battery
powered (or line powered via 82059D adaptor). It may still be on the price
list - the 82059 is.
HP-IL is essentially a two-wire serial loop version of HP-IB (IEEE-488).
HP-IL is HP-proprietary, but open. The architecture is well documented and
IL chips are sold to outside developers (although the designer's kit was
discontinued a couple of years ago).
At one time there were a suite of HP-IL to <other> converters, such as the
82169A HP-IB/IL pod, but I think they are all gone now. I also don't know
if the HP-IL ISA (PC) card is still offered.
Regards, Hewlett-Packard
Bob Niland Internet: rjn@FC.HP.COM 3404 East Harmony Road
UUCP: [hplabs|hpfcse]!hpfcrjn!rjn Ft Collins CO 80525-9599