On 03/09/11 19:37, Tony Duell wrote: It's HP-IB. Unfortunately one of the thumbscrews is missing from the GPIB connector. Yep. How are the rollers removed and reinstalled? I can't see any obvious way to remove them without damaging the clamp arms. Who said anything about machining the roller? :) I just bought a pack of "Sugru" (a type of putty based on silicone) which may well work for this. The trick is going to be making some form of rig to make a tapered rubber roller of the correct size... Thanks, -- Phil.

Just curious. Can I use one HP7475A HP-IB with one Oscilloscope which claims compatibility with the HP7470 (GP-IB) ? Regards Sergio 2011/9/4, Rik Bos <hp-fix at xs4all.nl>: -- Gracias. -- Saludos - Greetings - Freundliche Gr??e - Salutations Sergio Pedraja <http://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiopedraja> twitter: @sergio_pedraja http://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiopedraja http://www.quora.com/Sergio-Pedraja https://www.xing.com/profile/Sergio_Pedraja http://www.viadeo.com http://www.avalonred.com/ ----- No crea todo lo que ve, ni crea que est? vi?ndolo todo

Do you mean the screw-down jackposts on the chassis-mounted connector? Those are in therory still avaialbe form Agilent (they were used on many instruments), but I've yet to find a way of getting them in the UK, If you want to make a replaceemnt, the internal female thread is M3.5, the male thread to go into the PCB bush is 6-32 UNC, and the hexagon is 9/32" across flats. Take the other measuremtns from the one you have. Seriously, I've given up trying to buy them in the UK, I just make them when I need them. In my 7470, there appear to be E-circlips on the ends of the clamp arm pins that hold these rollers. I assume that removing said circlips allows the rollers to come off. I can take mine apart if you like. It appears these rollers have as rigid hub with a rubber tyre. I don't know if the hob is tapered or not. I think there's an official service manaul for this plotter (I don't know which interface version(s) it covers) on the Australian HP museum site. That probably covers taking the mechanical side apart (which is the same in all versions). A lathe is a traditional way of making something with a circular cross-section :-) I'd thought about using something like Devcon 90 for this, but it's darn expensive, and the problem of making the mould still applies. For something this size, it's a lot easier to make an external taper than an internal one... -tony

arrived here yet) like the Vellom The 2900/3900/3980 are cost-reduced versions of the Unisite, which was one of the best universal programmers. The main drawbacks of these are: 1) The interface to a host computer is very slow a) transferring files using the floppy drive is slow, partially due to sector interleave issue b) serial interface is slow (9600bps) unless you use their proprietary "Hiterm" Windows software (115,200 bps). There is no way to use 115,200 bps with a normal terminal or terminal emulator, because Hiterm uses a proprietary protocol. c) fastest transfer is with parallel cable ("Xpi"), might not be available on 2900? requires their proprietary Hiterm Windows software. the programmer end hardware of the parallel interface has been reverse-engineered, so you might be able to build it yourself. 3) They are no longer supported, so they won't program parts introduced in the last few years I wouldn't use these for programming recent parts, but they're great for programming older parts. I'm not sure how device support on the 29xx/39xx compares to Unisite, but the only old programmable devices I've found that the Unisite doesn't support are the first generation EPROMs (1702, 1702a, 5203, 5204), due to these needed rather extreme programming voltages (e.g., -40V to -50V) on many pins (not just one program pulse pin). The Unisite does support most bipolar PROMs, while most modern programmers do not. Data I/O and "cheap price" are rarely mentioned together.

On 09/04/2011 01:36 PM, Alexandre Souza - Listas wrote: I wish I'd known you then...I bought one ("for an expensive" ;)) some 15 years ago. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

On 9/4/11 10:16 AM, Eric Smith wrote: I also believe they are no longer making the conductive pads for the universal PLCC sites, and they do go bad frequently. There is a decent overview here: http://reviews.ebay.com/Data-I-O-Device-Programmers-A-Condensed-Reference_W…

On 9/4/11 12:48 PM, Dave McGuire wrote: Are we talking about the same thing? the small black rubber looking sheets with gold wires embedded in them?

On Sunday, September 04, 2011, Eric Smith wrote: I have two Data IO 3980s and use one regularly to program vintage DEC and HP EPROMS. Fortunately, over the years I've been able to pick up a couple of dozen or more of the various adapters. I've found them when folks are selling "lots" (pallets, boxes, etc.) of "stuff" and not as individual Data IO items... It's a very solid programing system - and as Eric suggested, using Hiterm is the smart way to go. You can get excellent Data IO support from the Data IO user group on Yahoo: Data_IO_EPROM at yahoogroups.com Lots of knowledgeable and helpful folks on that list. Except as I suggested above concerning "lots". Cheers, Lyle -- Lyle Bickley, AF6WS Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

On 09/05/2011 05:42 PM, Al Kossow wrote: The full UniSite can program 2708s, FYI. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

On 09/05/2011 06:37 PM, Geoffrey Reed wrote: Nope, the UniSite definitely does. I have the supported device list for the v8.1 (kinda old, 2006) software sitting in front of me. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

Dave wrote: It's never been clear to me whether the difference in device support between the Unisite, 2900, 3900, and 3980 is due to actual hardware differences, or just "product differentiation" in the software. While it's certainly possible that the 2900 hardware can't deal with the 2708, it seems somewhat unlikely. At the time they designed the 2900, the kind of corners that they could have cut that would have rendered the hardware incapable of dealing with the 2708 would have been too likely to also cause it to be be unsuitable for (then) future programmable logic devices. In any case, if you get a good deal on a Unisite, they're quite useful since they can program some parts that the 2900/3900/3980 cannot. The rev 12 and newer are best, but for programming old parts, even the earlier ones are fine.

Steve wrote: options. If one were stuff primarily, what would The old chips only came in DIP packages, so a Unisite with a SITE40, SITE48, or SITE48HS is all you need.

On 09/04/2011 12:14 PM, Alexandre Souza - Listas wrote: If you find a good deal on one, grab it. They are wonderful programmers. I used one for many years, until I replaced it with a UniSite. (which has a hard drive, supports more than 20,000 devices, that's just with the five-year-old software I have, the current software supports even more) The 2900 is "almost" a UniSite, but not quite. I dicked around with cheesy "plug it into a PC parallel port" programmers for years until I finally drove a real professional instrument. I bought one (that 2900) and haven't looked back. (I have software for these, BTW) -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

On 04/09/11 15:30, Tony Duell wrote: Yes. One of them is present and screws in properly, the other appears to have a male thread which is too small -- it just spins in the hole. Ah -- there they are! Spotted them once I gave the roller tips a good clean. It's a polyurethane tyre; the hub is 6/10 nylon with eight teeth around its radius. Well the plan was to use a few plastic or metal shims, a piece of metal rod and the glass workbench to make the roller. That damned taper basically writes that plan off :-/ And unfortunately I don't have any dry ice (solid CO2). Grrrr. Too true... Or another option would be to make a metal version of the required part, cast it to make a mould, then use said mould to cast a new part out of whatever material you like. Far more effort than it's worth though, IMHO. Easier to just make the damn thing.... -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

On 4 Sep 2011 at 20:11, Tony Duell wrote: Is solid CO2 considered a hazardous substance in the UK? You can get it in just about any medium-sized city in the US, usually sold by "ice companies". Can one buy acetone in the UK, or is that also on the proscribed list? --Chuck

Quite a few UK grocery stores sell dry ice, as well as some restaurant supply houses. Me thinks you are not looking very hard... -- Will

On 5 Sep 2011 at 21:54, Tony Duell wrote: It might be worthwhile talking to a dairy that makes ice cream. They might know of a good source for the stuff (used by street vendors who don't have access to electrical power). --Chuck

Great for when you want to get part A into part B, and part A is just a tiny bit too big. Anyway, I received one email response so far to my inquiry to some of the larger supermarket chains, and yes, they indeed will sell dry ice. You have to ask for it. And I figured this out from across the ocean. Ain't the Internet grand? -- Will

And to caterers. -- Will

On Tue, 6 Sep 2011, Chuck Guzis wrote: How much do you need? Can you still get CO2 fire extinguishers? Put a sleeve from a wool shirt over the nozzle and blast. You will get a LITTLE. Around here, you can even get it from "Party supply" stores! Used for "fog" machines RV supply places USED TO carry it, but I guess that mobile refrigerators have become almost usable.

On 04/09/11 20:11, Tony Duell wrote: It's a completely different part. The HP one has a hex nut head, this one has a knurled round head, a smaller diameter screw thread and is much shorter. The hub is straight. And the HP part disintegrated completely just after I finished measuring it... I've bodged it for now -- by stretching a piece of model aircraft fuel hose over the HP hub. It works... mostly. The wheel is now a little oversize, and there obviously isn't a taper. I might try attacking it with the lathe tomorrow night... Thanks, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

OK, I've been measuring up the rollers. While I was doing this, one of them disintegrated in my hands. So I did what any self-respecting engineer would do.... I got the callipers and reverse engineered them! The figures in the HP Journal are basically accurate. OD at the "wide" end is 9.5mm, and ~0.23mm less at the "narrow" (tapered) end. The complete roller is 6.5mm long, with a 2-degree taper. Given the angle and width (Adjacent length), we can use trig to get the height-above-base and the The inner core is 6/10 Nylon, black, with a 3mm diameter hole drilled through the centre. Eight equally-spaced wide teeth are formed around the circumference, with a tooth depth of 0.5mm. Measured from the tip of one tooth to the tip of the opposite tooth, the core has an OD of 7mm. An embossed ridge is placed in the middle of the core at the same level as the teeth, apparently to stop the roller slipping off laterally. The thickness of the rubber coating is thus: 9.50 - 7.00 = 2.50mm at the wide end 9.27 - 7.00 = 2.27mm at the narrow end. Would photos be of use to anyone? My plan now is to use a pack of black Sugru to expand these rollers out to ~12mm, leave them overnight to set, then try and machine them down to the correct profile tomorrow with the lathe. Cheers, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

I've never seen a 7440 (aak Colorpro) that's not the HPIB model, alas. I do remeber that this plotter has an optional expansion module contain ROM (and RAM?) that plugs into the underside of the unit -- fortunatly mine has it. I beelive some ploters -- and I think the HP7470 is among them -- do have more commands in one interface version than in another. I guess it comes down to what they couild fit in the ROM ;-) Are you sure? I've jsut looked at the documentation for the program you mention below (and yes, it is the one, it has your name in the documentation), and you clearly state there that the plotter you borrowed was 7470. The 7470 is a 2-pen thing , the pens hre held one at each side of the carriage rail and the carriage moves 'off the side of the paper' to pick a pen up. The 7440 has a 6 pen carousel, driven by paper motor (IIRC) -- when the carrage moves off the side it mechanically engagues a clutch to enable the carousel drive. I've never seen an HP ploter witha Centronics interface, adn I am suprised they exist. HP plotters tended to need a bidirectiona interface, you could get information back from them like the currnet plotter limits, pen postion, etc. You could use most HP plotters a a crude digitiser -- fita sight in place of the pen, then move that aroudn with the manual control buttons and hen it was ovre a feautre on the original (put where the plotter paper would noramlly be), get the host computer to read the coordiantes from the plotter. The Victor 9000/Sirius did use GPIB buffers (75160 and 75161 IIRC) to drive the 'printer' port though.. If not, I have it here. -tony

Chuck wrote: I guess that's the next (il)logical step from the "Mostek 6502". Next up: the "Intel 6502". Sigh. I've seen references on the Internet and in books to both the "Zilog 8080" and the "Intel Z80".

Andrew Burton wrote: 8080: Intel 6502: MOS Technology (a company entirely unrelated to Mostek) Mostek never made a 6502 (or related parts), but was a licensed second source for the Zilog Z80 family, Fairchild F8 family, and Motorola MC68000 family. Mostek developed the MK3870 series single-chip microcontrollers based on the F8. Mostek was originally was a fab partner for Zilog, before Zilog built their own fab (contrary to the Wikipedia claim that Western Design Center was the first fabless semiconductor company). Nevertheless, there are a zillion web sites that claim that MOSTEK made the 6502. Zilog never made the 6502 either.

Of course, now someone is going to dig up a tube of Mostek 6502s. Strange things happen. Fairly recently a friend showed me some 7400 series logic made by Transitron. Instant woody. -- Will

On 9 Sep 2011 at 19:36, William Donzelli wrote: There are some folks in China who can give you any sort of label on any chip you'd care to name. The innards of the chip don't even have to correspond to the label. How about a PGA SN7404 with an Analog Devices label? :) --Chuck

On Sat, 10 Sep 2011, William Donzelli wrote: As it is with synthesizer chips. Last year there was a particularly sloppy batch of fake SIDs on Ebay. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

Chuck Guzis wrote: I want a giant power transformer labeled with Burr-Brown. And with a 2011 manufacture date. That would be awesome. Peace... Sridhar