[comp.sys.hp] Odd behavior of 7550B plotter

tgl@g.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Tom Lane) (11/29/90)

I'm running into peculiar behavior of a 7550B (Plus) plotter.

I narrowed it down to a small test program that repeatedly
reads the "OP" (output scaling points) and then "OS" (output status)
responses of the plotter; this is across HPIB.
Normally the OS value is 16, which is reasonable (bit 4 indicates
input buffer empty).  But, about one time in ten, seemingly
at random, the OS value is 32, which indicates that an HPGL error has
occurred. My program is set up to read the error code (OE) when
this happens, and the result is always 0 (no error).

What gives?  This doesn't happen with 7550A or older plotters.

-- 
				tom lane
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