RGB-to-VGA adapter & docs was: Re: HP "Field Guide" ?

Upon the date 08:24 24-03-05, Joe R. said something like: That's indeed correct Joe. Thanks very much. Can run MS-DOS?! Kinda like putting cheapest, low performance tires on your classic Corvette, IMO :-) Carlos had indicated in his message just before yours that it could be the Series 300 DOS Coprocessor, 98286A. I pulled the CPU box out, pulled the card and indeed it says 98286-6xxxx in the etch on the solder-side of the card. I fetched my 1989 HP catalog and found a whole page on just the Series 300 DOS Coprocessor. Back then, HP came out with their version of an office automation software system called "NewWave" for IBM PC ATs. They apparently wanted to enable the 9000/200 and /300 workstations to be integrated into an IBM PC AT software environment. Hence, the 9826A. Now, the next problem is to get the machine running so I can see if the Coprocessor s/w even exists for you Joe. I lack a correct monitor for the fixed frequency output of the RGB card. The card is a 98547A which has three BNC connectors; sync on green. I've got an old and HEAVY 19" display in poor condition stored down in the back garage and cannot get to it because its literally buried under boxes of 'stuff' and a large group of early car radios I've kept for parts and/or restoration. Not sure if the thing would sync to the HP's fixed freq output anyway. The two fixed freq monitors specified for the 98547A are the HP 98751A (19") or HP 98785A (16"). The machine was found at the Dayton Hamvention back in 1999. The HP 9000/375 CPU box, HP 7958B 152 Mb hard disk, and the HP 9144A tape drive had been removed from some sort of military transit case. There's a US government NSN number stenciled on the side of the CPU box. I'm going to check with some of my military radio collector friends to see what it translates to. The fellow who had bought it earlier that day wanted just the case and I got the three HP boxes for $20 or $30. No KB, mouse or other items were with it then. The system probably was never issued to the field judging from the pristine cleanliness of everything. The CPU module was a 9000/340 (98574) but had been upgraded, according to a sticker upon it, to a 9000/375 which uses a 68040 CPU chip. Great! Since the purchase, I've been trying to find a way to view the RGB output on a typical VGA monitor that would sync to the output. I've gathered most everything else needed: keyboard and mouse came from a list member & three RGB coax cables came home from the Rochester Hamfest several years ago. Not a single page of documentation though, and I'm one to try to fully document my collection if possible. Just the HP catalogs are on hand. I found my HP/UX 5.5, BASIC/UX 5.5 and HP/UX 7.0 distro tapes, all still in shrinkwrap and their licence certificates, that I had squirreled away for a rainy day. I think Linux and one or two of the BSD's have been ported to run on this system. Anybody have the HP Pascal 3.1 or 3.2 system? Just last week in one of my occasional searches for a video solution, I found this RGB-to-VGA adapter product: http://www.magenta-research.com/products/products/product_set3/VideoAdapter… Hmmm, yeah. Just right! So, I inquired about the price. They emailed back $695.00 (gulp!!!) Take a look at that little thing! $695?? Well, I guess I'll keep looking ):-\ Anybody have ANY ideas or a source of an *affordable* RGB-to-VGA adapter?? I don't think this has been discussed here before, has it? Whatever it would be will probably strip the H & V sync off the green signal output and send them to the appropriate pins on the HD15 VGA connector. I might even be tempted to build my own adapter if I could lay my hands on all the tech specs for both the HP's RGB output signals and the VGA input signal requirements of a contemporary VGA monitor. I'm like a Tony Duell on stuff like this: if I have time and technical resources at hand I can roll my own. Again, IF I have time :-\ This would help at least one or two others on the list too, I suppose. How about documents -user manuals, tech data, service manuals, etc.?? Anything at all around in paper or .pdf for any of this h/w? Nothing on bitsavers.org. Anybody have HP 9000 websites? Thanks for your input. Regards, Chris F. NNNN Christian R. Fandt, Treasurer Antique Wireless Association, Inc. Jamestown, New York USA email: cfandt at netsync.net Electronic/Electrical Historian URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/