19 Apr
2010
19 Apr
'10
11:35 a.m.
On Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 19:54, Tony Duell wrote:
I thought the original 9144 was an American design/build, production was
later moved to England (Bristol) around the time the 3-board version was
introduced (that is, when the host interface and the device dependant
controller were all built on one PCB called 'SBcont'). I think 9145s were
all built in England, I am not sure about he 9142.
Certainly my 9144 and 9145 units are made in England (they say so on the
nameplate and have an 'E' in the serial number). On the other hand, I
would have expected the same screws and threads to be used throughout the
production run.
However, HP certianly did use metric threads. The Integral is full of
them, for example (the expansion PCB fixing thumbscrews are certainly
metric, I had to make one. As are most of the internal fixings. And of
course the HPIB jackscrew is M3.5
So perhaps I shouldn't have been suprised to find metric screws in these
tape drives.
-tony
Although I would normally expect imperial
measurements in an American
device, I have noticed that all the screws in this drive have metric
threads.
Is it an American device? I've never seen one, but all of the
9144/45/35401 manuals appear to have been printed in the UK. Does the
serial plate list the country of manufacture?