HP1000/A600 Help and docs and sw needed!

Hi folks, I have a HP1000/A600 machine sitting here at my place. And no clue where to start using it. I have the following stuff: - A600CPU, containing: * 2 serial interfaces (12005/...10) * 1 sandwich "32 channel MUX/12 bit ADC" * parallel port * HPIB interface * some other serial MUXes - 7908 HPIB Tape cartridge/Disk combination - 9133 HPIB 3,5" Floppy (with disk inside as well??) - 3292A serial Terminal (newer) - 2648A serial Terminal (older) - 12966-60008 serial cable for the terminal (is that right?) - 7978 HPIB 9-Track 1/2" tape drive - 7958B HPIB disk drive - HP6000 670H HPIB disk drive - A LOT of software manuals but no hardware manual. I have already found the only document at hp.com that told me something about select codes, switch settings etc. But nothing about cable pinouts etc. I tried my 2648 terminal with the cable, without success. Perhaps my terminal is broken or - what I think - the cable pinout is incompatible to the "new" A600. What should I do with all that stuff? I will have to decide what to do with my HP stuff, because I need to reassign my collection's priorities with respect to the LAB 8/e that will drop in next week. If I don't have any fun with the stuff, it will go to eBay/scrapyard (the latter is where I got most of it). Who knows how to make a serial cable? Who has software for me? Who knows how to get software from my PC/Sparc (short: modern world) into the HP gear? Who has docs? Bitsavers seems to have nothing about the A series. I powered up the CPU. Depending on the switch settings, the diagnostic LEDs say "bootloader running" or "VCP running". So the system should be in a somewhat usable state. Further when I remove the first serial card (which is in nearly factory settings, including VCP break enabled), the diagnostic LEDs tell me about some error. So I hope that the system already talks to the right port. I also powered up the 7906 tape/disk cobination. It makes some funny sounds and after a while, it shows me a "P" on its little LED display in the back. Some HP manual told me that this is a good sign, "P" for "passed". Also I have been told that there is an installed RTE on the disk. But I have no GPIB cable yet. And the GPIB connector looks rather different than on my HP1000/E (for which I have a cable). Thank you for every kind of information, I am excitedly looking forward for replies. Best wishes from Alfeld/Germany, Philipp :-) P.S.: I also have two HP1000/E machines and a lot of cards sitting around here. Perhaps I could hook the disks up to them? I never did anything useful with them - except hooking up a terminal and entering 4-word test programs via front panel (which worked). Any other ideas what to do with these machines?