27 Apr
2003
27 Apr
'03
4:15 a.m.
From: Joe <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com>
No way. "Individual Learning Program in Microprocessors" is everybit as
good as PM. PM concentrates more on troubleshooting and Heath presents more
on interfacing...
I used to do a lot of work with the 5036s and I owned about 8 of them
at one
time. (FWIW Mike H. ended up with most of them and he's been selling
them on E-bay).
Tried selling them on ebay that is... I reserved it at $90 and it didn't
reach there twice. I paid a high price for my first 5036a in my early day
on ebay but that was because I had found 'Practical Microprocessors' a few
years earlier and grew tired of opening suitcases at fleas & thrifts. Then
I bought 5 more of the trainers later on ebay. I think I first traded two
to Joe for a DEC WT/78, then another two trainers for a PDP 11/05. Then
when Joe was throwing stuff out, I got a few of the trainers back too. ;)
So you should still have some hiding around Joe.
I think I still have loose leaf copies of ALL of the 5036 manuals, including
the SM, Practical Microprocessors and User's (Owner's?) manual. I'll *loan*
them anyone that is willing to scan them and post them on a website
somewhere. I also still have a copy of the webpage that I used to have for
the 5036. I intended to post it and a lot of other HP related web pages on
Jay's wesite but I ran into too many problems with his site (it wouldn't
work with any of the FTP programs that I had, the directories couldn't be
found, the passwords didn't work, etc) so none of them ever got posted.
>I would rate the book "Practical
Microprocessors" together with an HP
5036A
>as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. I also have the
Heath ET-3400A, an
ETA-3400
>(memory & I/O) expansion,
sheesh! There's a breadboard there for god's sake...
and the Heath
manuals. I would rate that as
perhaps a 6 or 7 on the same scale.
I used to rate the Heathkit trainers at 8 or 9 on
a scale of ten but
after using the HP 5036 I wouldn't rate the HK higher than
about a 4! The
HP beats it hands down in every area. It's better built, it's better laid
out, it's easier to expand, the docs are MUCH better, the training course is
also much better and includes many areas that HK never talked about and
finally it has a real service manual.
Tip: the push button locks that hold the 5036 circuit board in place
are
frequently broken. I found that a lot of the PS-2s use similar locks.
They can be removed from junk PS-2s and used to fix the 5036. If you have
problems figuring out how to R&R the locks let me know and I'll explain how
to in detail.
Joe