30 Aug
2007
30 Aug
'07
2:13 a.m.
From: "Patrick Adams" <padamsdesign at mweb.co.za>
Subject: HP DraftMaster I
Hi
Me have a big problem connecting a plotter to a computer, no1 is
able to help me.
Hopefully you can.
I have a draftmaster 7595A
deeply appreciated if you would offer your help.
Hi Patrick,
What type of computer are you trying to connect to? Mac, PC, a
classic micro, mini or mainframe? Which port are you using, serial or
parallel? Are you using a network adaptor box to Ethernet? I think my
DraftMaster MX has Etherbet built in, but as far as I remember, when
we had a prototype of the previous model, it used an external adaptor
box. I've connected plotters to Apple ][+, Apple ///, Lisa 1, Lisa 2
and every type of Mac, and if you need a plotter driver for a Mac my
company can still supply one. Its not the connection that's
difficult, often its that your application does not output the data
in a format the plotter understands. Modern machines usually assume
the data is going to written into a pixel map (either within the
printer as with PostScript, or within the host computer) so that
later geometries can partially obscure earlier ones. It is even
possible to print from programs like PhotoShop, but it really works
the plotter hard, and while runs of a colour are fine, and single
dots come out with fibre pens, ball pens rely on movement to get the
ink flowing, so can't do dots. Draughting(drafting if you're over the
pond) pens are another game entirely.
I am replying to the digest, so its possible someone's already
answered this.
Roger Holmes.
2:20 p.m.
On 8/30/07, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I can imagine someone cutting a Centronics printer cable in half, and
asking how to connect it to the severed end of an HPIB cable...
I _did_ have someone approach me at work, once, holding an HPIB cable,
and demanding to know where they were supposed to put *this*. I
managed to stifle the obvious first answer and asked about what was
_really_ going on. It seems that this person had asked for a bit of
lab equipment and a computer, but the lab equipment office failed to
pass along to the IT group that this person's PC should have an HPIB
card. The user was quite upset that he couldn't show up his first day
and start taking data immediately. We fixed him up in under an hour,
but that wasn't good enough to please him. From the waves he made
later about how "incompetent" the entire IT staff was, I later
regretted suppressing the initial suggestion I'd had when I first met
him.
-ethan
(whose first computer _did_ have HPIB, and who never had to ask where
to stick the cable ;-)
On Thu, 30 Aug 2007, Roger Holmes wrote:
I beleive all Draftmasters have an HPIB port, which is technically a
parallel interface .<ducks> Which port are you using, serial or parallel?
With a Draftmaster I? 
2:38 p.m.
On 30 Aug 2007 at 16:20, Ethan Dicks wrote:
I can imagine someone cutting a Centronics printer
cable in half, and
asking how to connect it to the severed end of an HPIB cable...
Not out of the question in my book. A PC parallel port can drive a
single HPIB device just fine--all it takes is software... :)
Cheers,
Chuck
1 Sep
1 Sep
1:59 p.m.
On Thursday 30 August 2007 17:38, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 30 Aug 2007 at 16:20, Ethan Dicks wrote:
And while they're not "PC"s, Osborne computers typically had a
"Printer/IEEE"
port...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
I can imagine someone cutting a Centronics
printer cable in half, and
asking how to connect it to the severed end of an HPIB cable...
Not out of the question in my book. A PC parallel port can drive a
single HPIB device just fine--all it takes is software... :) 
30 Aug
30 Aug
3:05 p.m.
I _did_ have someone approach me at work, once, holding an HPIB cable,
and demanding to know where they were supposed to put *this*. I
Don't tempt me :-)
managed to stifle the obvious first answer and asked
about what was
_really_ going on. It seems that this person had asked for a bit of
lab equipment and a computer, but the lab equipment office failed to
pass along to the IT group that this person's PC should have an HPIB
card. The user was quite upset that he couldn't show up his first day
and start taking data immediately. We fixed him up in under an hour,
but that wasn't good enough to please him. From the waves he made
later about how "incompetent" the entire IT staff was, I later
regretted suppressing the initial suggestion I'd had when I first met
him.
Checking through some of the stuff I've picked up in my career as a
hacker (to paraphrase you-know-who), I've come across a set of routines
and a little hardware mod to link a GPIB device to a PC printer port. The
author of this stuff? None other than Chuck Guzis :-)
-tony
3:31 p.m.
On 30 Aug 2007 at 23:05, Tony Duell wrote:
Checking through some of the stuff I've picked up
in my career as a
hacker (to paraphrase you-know-who), I've come across a set of routines
and a little hardware mod to link a GPIB device to a PC printer port. The
author of this stuff? None other than Chuck Guzis :-)
<Blush> I got my inspiration and motivation for that (as I recall)
from two things--a pile of GPIB cables for the printer
port of a
Victor 9000 at a local surplus place--and an HP 5-pen plotter picked
up at the going-out-of-business sale of a Control Data business
retail store (gives you an idea of how long ago it was). I also had
a fresh copy of SuperCalc for the PC and a 5150 with an MDA. I
coded the original routine as a TSR that hooked one of the BIOS
interrupts, so Supercalc was none the wiser.
Funny how some things come together at the right times...
Cheers,
Chuck
31 Aug
31 Aug
3:04 p.m.
On 30 Aug 2007 at 23:05, Tony Duell wrote:
I don;'t suppose you (or anyone else here) has one of those cables still?
I'd love to see thw wirelist.
The printer port on the Sirius/Victor 9000 was really a software-driven
GPIB poer with a strange pinout. What I mean is that the port was driven
by GPIB buffer chips (75160 for the data lines, 75161 for the control
lines), with the 'host side of those going to a 6522 VIA, so that the
protocol was entirely software-defined. The pinout of the 36 pin Blue
Ribbon connector was centronics-like -- DAV on pin 1 (Centronics Strobe),
data lines on pins 2-9 in the obvious order, and so on. Things like REN
and ATN endied up on normally-unused pins.
Alas the PC protner port was so well-designed.
Checking through some of the stuff I've
picked up in my career as a
hacker (to paraphrase you-know-who), I've come across a set of routines
and a little hardware mod to link a GPIB device to a PC printer port. The
author of this stuff? None other than Chuck Guzis :-)
<Blush> I got my inspiration and motivation for that (as I recall)
from two things--a pile of GPIB cables for the printer port of a
Victor 9000 at a local surplus place--and an HP 5-pen plotter picked up at the going-out-of-business sale of a Control Data
business
retail store (gives you an idea of how long ago it was). I also had
a fresh copy of SuperCalc for the PC and a 5150 with an MDA. I
coded the original routine as a TSR that hooked one of the BIOS
interrupts, so Supercalc was none the wiser.
Had it beren mine, I think i'd have made up a bit of hardware to sort the
handshakes out, and set the plotter to 'Listen Only' mode (I think all
real HP ploters can be set ot do that). The PC would then certianly have
been none-the-wiser.
_Many_ years ago, I needed to get plotter output from a CoCo3, and all I
could get my hands on was an HPIB plotter. I ended up using a Commodore
PET (8032SK) with a 8050 drive to load the program from, and a 3rd party
RS232 itnerface unit. The PET just read chracters from the RS232
interface and sent them to the plotter. Overkill, sure, but it worked
(and yes, I do still ahve all the bits of that system)
-tony
4:22 p.m.
On Fri, 31 Aug 2007, Tony Duell wrote:
Alas the PC protner port was so well-designed.
?
_Many_ years ago, I needed to get plotter output from
a CoCo3, and all I
could get my hands on was an HPIB plotter. I ended up using a Commodore
PET (8032SK) with a 8050 drive to load the program from, and a 3rd party
RS232 itnerface unit. The PET just read chracters from the RS232
interface and sent them to the plotter. Overkill, sure, but it worked
(and yes, I do still ahve all the bits of that system)
I have used an XT as a serial to parallel converter, and as a parallel to
serial converter, etc. For me, that has almost always been cheaper than
the appropriate purpose designed hardware.
5:57 p.m.
On 31 Aug 2007 at 23:04, Tony Duell wrote:
Had it beren mine, I think i'd have made up a bit
of hardware to sort the
handshakes out, and set the plotter to 'Listen Only' mode (I think all
real HP ploters can be set ot do that). The PC would then certianly have
been none-the-wiser.
It took me exactly two evenings to work this out--one to work out the
cable and the second to write the TSR. I'd already converted my MDA
card for bi-directional operation, so it was pretty much a no-
brainer. The project came in handy a few months later when a friend
showed up on my doorstep with an HP GPIB-interface voltmeter and
wanted to know how to get the data into his PC. ISA GPIB host
adapter cards were available, but expensive.
I believe one odd aspect of the GPIB plotter that I used was that it
supported fewer commands than the serial version. All of that HPIB
protocol must've taken extra ROM space. Fortunately, Supercalc
didn't use the added command set, so I was fine.
Cheers,
Chuck
6322
days inactive
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days old
10 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cclist＠sydex.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk -
rtellason＠verizon.net