HP 9825B - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

17 Jun 1998

Hi Doug,

  I also bid on it but I decided to let you have it since I have several of
them already.

At 01:33 PM 6/17/98 -0500, you wrote:
...
 I recently acquired a 9825B, and I've got some
questions:

Can I get some docs from somebody?!  I can't figure out how to program the
thing. 
   It uses HPL.  HP's version of APL and BASIC crossed.  Assign variables
like this "A <- 2"  "B <- 2*A" etc.
...

The keyboard on mine appears to be different than that of another 9825B on
the net.  How many different 9825B variations were there?  
  There's at least three vesions, the A, the B and a T.  The latter ones
had most of the optional ROMs built in.  BTW  I just bought another one, it
has a big warning label on it not to use any plug in ROMs other than the
Matrix and String (I think). It says that the others are already built in
and if you add a plug-in one that you may damage the calculator.  I have
lots of docs for these and 6 other 9825s but this is the first time that
I've seen that warning.

  There are also two very different keybaords used on them.  The 9825 at
the bottom of your picture has the full travel keyboard.  They're more
desireable.

 A pic of mine
...
 juxtaposed with somebody else's is at:
	http://www.yowza.com/classiccmp/hp/

My "exectute" key is stuck.  I haven't taken the machine appart yet, but
the keyboard mechanism isn't likely to match anything I have laying around
the house.  Does anybody have any experience repairing this machine's
keyboard? 
   Yeap!  If it's only stuck you can usually pull them up and fix them.
...

BTW, it seems like a great machine!  I like the LED display.  Did anybody
ever make a similar model, but with, say, an 80x24 character LED display?  
   Yes, HP did except they used a CRT.  The HP 9826 replaced the 9825. The
9826 was shaped like an oversized Apple computer and had an integrated
keyboard, 5" monitor and 5 1/4" disk drive. You can see one on my webpage
at "http://www.intellistar.net/~rigdonj/hp9000.htm".  The 9826 used a 68000
CPU and could run HPL, BASIC or Pascal. All of the languages were USUALLY
stored on disks and loaded from there but you could get the languages on
plug-in ROM cards.  You could have any or all languages on the same drive
and/or in ROM on the same computer and you could select the one that you
wanted the computer to load.  I have a drive with all three languages on it
and BASIC in ROM on one computer.

   The 9826 was also called a 9000 226 model and was part of the HP 9000
series 200 computer family that included the 9836 (aka 9000/236), 9836C,
9816 (aka 9000/216), 9000/220 and 9000/217. Even though the 9826 was
designated as the replacement for the 9825 all the computers in that family
are generaly compatible. The primary differences were the number of
expansion slots, integrated vs. modular construction, overall size, number
of built in drives and wheather they had monochrome or color displays.  I
have pictures on several of them on my website.

  Joe

...

-- Doug