11 Apr
2002
11 Apr
'02
8:55 p.m.
This is the information I have managed to gather on the HP IPC:
First have a look at the definitive guide to the IPC
(http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/integral.html)
Apart from that, I have managed to find the following info by playing
with my IPC:
There is a ROM at the back behind a little door. This contains basically
the Unix OS (HP UX) and at least in my case Tech Basic. Tech Basic looks
surprisingly like Series 80 Basic (e.g the Basic on the HP-86 and 87)
including many ROM additions (e.g. IO ROM).
The funny connector on the back (like a small centronics connector) is
HP-IB (the HP name for IEEE-488) which is used to connect peripherals
like floppies and hard disks. The IPC talks CS/80 over HP-IB so it
supports "modern" HP-IB peripherals like the 9122 floppy drive.
The IPC also has in internal HP-IL bus (a two wire, low power version of
HP-IB) which is used to talk to the built in printer. At this stage
I haven't managed to investigate whether I can externalize this bus
and connect additional peripherals.
The built-in printer takes hp92261a print cartridges which (amazingly)
are still available from major mail order firms (e.g. www.staples.com
in the US, but I suppose you can get them in the UK as well). Since the
print cartridge contains the print head as well, it is very probable
that you can get the printer to work with little effort.
The IPC site (see URL earlier on) has a number of diskette images.
These are for double sided double density (720K) disks. I have
been unable to get any modern PC to write compatible floppies
using the standard double sided quad density drive (1.44Mb). I did
find a 720K drive on eBay and bought a pack of 720K diskettes.
Using OpenBSD on a PC I then proceeded to successfully transfer the
images to the floppies and access the data from the IPC.
BTW the IPC utilities in the IPC site (programs that can be used
to read IPC floppies on a Unix host) work only on big-endian
machines. You cannot use them on a i386.
Before trying to use the built-in floppy drive, note the following:
a) its totally non-standard. The connector is wrong and the RPM
is wrong. I believe there is no way that you can use a PC compatible
drive on that machine. So take good care of it!
b) the heads need cleaning and the loading mechanism needs lubricating.
If you haven't done this already, do NOT skip this step, you may
damage the disk heads if you try to use a drive with a sticky loading
mechanism. See later on for cleaning instructions.
c) The built-in disk notifies the OS when a new diskette is inserted
so that it is automatically mounted. This makes the built in floppy
more convenient than external devices.
Using the system:
Just power it up and you should see the unix boot messages. Finally you
see the desktop manager (PAM). You can type paths on the command line on
top or use the cursor keys to navigate the file system. If you have an
HP-HIL mouse so much the better you just point and click.
You should find the BASIC interpreter in /rom/basic. Until you get
the floppies from Peter's site, BASIC is the only way to use the machine.
Use
MASS STORAGE IS path
to change your working directory and
CAT path
to list directories.
If you need documentation on Tech BASIC, I suggest you buy an HP-86/87
Owner's manual on eBay. They are close to the real thing and far more common
than IPC manuals.
For a hint on how to use external peripherals check the file
/documents/hp71_xfer on the IPC_BASIC_Bonus diskette.
As an example, here is a program that collects readings from an
HP multimeter (HP-IB device 13).
100 ! load HP-IB driver
110 MASS STORAGE IS "/dev"
120 ! on Series 80 the HP-IB card is always number 7
130 ASSIGN 7 TO "hpib"
140 ! The 13th HP-IB device is therefore 713
150 m=713
160 ! switch multimeter to remote control
170 REMOTE m
180 ! program multimeter for resistance, auto zero and trigger mode
190 OUTPUT m; "F3R1Z1T2"
200 ! initialize "previous" reading
210 v0=-1
215 DISP "Ready: press STOP to terminate program"
220 ! do while true
230 TRIGGER m
240 ENTER m; S$
250 ! display value only if different from earlier reading
260 IF v0<>v THEN DISP v
270 v0=v
280 GOTO 220
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Drive removal:
Get a torx #10 screwdriver, almost all the screws on the IPC are
of this type so there is no point in trying to do any maintenance
without one.
The plastic diskette eject button seen from the front of the machine,
is not attached to the drive and is likely to fall off when you
remove the drive. It is best to secure it in place by covering it
with a small piece of adhesive tape. This will keep it in place
during the removal and subsequent installation of the diskette
drive.
First remove the back panel. You do NOT need to remove the system ROM
to do this, so leave it alone. The panel is held by just two screws
(probably the only screws that need a flat blade screwdriver) and hinges
on the bottom of the machine. Once the panel is removed you can see
the inside of the machine. A big PCB to the left and the floppy to the
right.
Open the printer door (on the top of the machine) and look at the bottom
of the storage compartment next to the printer. You should see two black
screws. Remove them. Now the only screw holding the diskette assembly
is on screw on the bottom of the assembly (right on top of the PSU).
remove the connectors and the last screw. The floppy should slide out
towards you.
Looking at the the floppy assembly you see a mounting bracket and a
full height floppy. Before removing the drive from the mounting
bracket mark the orientation of the floppy drive against the bracket
with a pencil this will make reassembly easier. Remove the mounting
bracket and the metal cover of the floppy. Do not forget to remove
a black screw on the back of the floppy, otherwise you will not be
able to slide the metal cover out. You should see the loading
mechanism on the sides of the floppy. Try inserting a diskette to
see how it causes the loading tray to slide along paths on the fixed
sides of the drive. These are the only parts that need cleaning and
oiling. Use machine lubricating oil (under no circumstances should
you use stuff like WD-40). Apply one or two drops on each side and
insert/remove the floppy until it slides in and out effortlessly.
I use a cleaning floppy to clean the heads, so there is nothing more
to do at this stage other than closely inspect the READ/WRITE heads.
Hopefully they should have the obvious orientation that allows them
to come into contact with the magnetic surface of the floppy. If
this is so, then you are in luck, otherwise you lose.
Replace the cover and secure the floppy on the mounting bracket. Orient
the drive and bracket so that the two screw holes are on top and slide
the entire assembly inside the IPC. Attach the top two screws and the
bottom screw. You may need to slightly adjust the drive mounting assembly
to align the bottom screw. Replace the power and data cables and
reattack the back panel. Remove the piece of adhesive tape securing
the eject button and you are ready.
---------------
Corrections or additions are always welcome.
**vp
12 Apr
12 Apr
1:42 a.m.
New subject: IPC info (longish) was: Re: HP IPC (update)
Here's a message that I send to Brian ("Brian@oldcomputers"
<brian(a)oldcomputers.freeserve.co.uk>) in response to his questions about the IPC.
Joe
Hi Brian,
First, General info.
Have you seen this web site <http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/integral.html>? I
helped Peter when he got his IPC and he has posted a lot of general information about the
IPC there. It also has some disk images that you can download. There are images there of
all of the disks that come with the IPC. I've been intending to set up an IPC web site
but I don't know when I'll ever get to it.
Second; ROMs.
Thgere are only two ROM options available to the public for the IPC. (the Software
Engineering ROM and a Technical BASIC ROM). You will notice a door in the center of the
back cover of the IPC. That's where the operating Systems ROM is located. Open the
door and look at the box that's there. It should have a label telling you which
version of Unix is installed in the machine. Most of them came with version 5.0 but
there's also a version that's marked 1.something (0, I think). (verified later as
1.0) Despite what Peter says on his web page, the first IPCs came with an older version of
Unix. According to the sales literature, HP wasn't even sure that they were going to
offer Unix version 5.
One of the options for the IPC is Technical BASIC in ROM. If the BASIC ROM has been
installed there is supposed to be a sticker on the OS ROM box that says that BASIC has
been installed.
The "ROM" is actually a small CCA (Circuit Card Assembly) that contains the
ROMs. If you buy that ROM you install it by opening the door and pulling out the OS ROM
box then dissamble the box to remove a small CCA that contains the OS ROMs. You then plug
the BASIC CCA unto the OS CCA and replace both of them in the box and reinsert the box in
the back of the IPC.
The other "ROM" option for the IPC is the "Software Engineering
ROM". However this one isn't a ROM either. It's a full sized expansion card
that mounts in one of the expansion card slots at the bottom of the back. This name is
very misleading, it's really a full set of HP-UX in ROM. It will be obvious if this
ROM is installed. One of my IPCs has something that's really odd. It's serial
port card that says option 001. It's not listed in the HP catalogs but it turns out to
be a Software Engineering ROM with a serial port card piggy backed onto it. So it has both
cards but they use only one slot. Wahoo!
There was a third ROM for the IPC but it was never sold to the public. That's the
Service ROM. The Service ROM replaced the OS ROM entirely and could be used to
troubleshoot machines that would not boot. I do have one of the service ROMs.
External drives:
I may be able to help you with software once I'm able to connect a 2nd drive onto
mine so that I can readily duplicate disks. FWIW the IPC supports the HP 9122D and 9122S
external floppy disk drives. The S model has a single drive and the D model has dual
drives. There's also a 9122C drive but it's a quad density drive. The IPC will use
it but there's some incapatiblity problems with it. The D and S drives are the same as
what's in the IPC and you should be able to copy directly between the IPC and them. I
have some of those but I have to sort through them to find a good one (see below).
The IPC also supports a number of other drives including the HP 9133 and 9134 drives. The
9134 is a hard drive only and the 9133 is a hard drive and a floppy drive in one box. I
think HP also says that it will support the 9153/9154 drives. Depending on the letter that
follows the model number those hard drives range from about 15 to 40Mb. That doesn't
sound like much these days but it's more than enough capacity for the IPC.
I presently have three drives that I'm using on the IPC; a 7958B, a 9133 and a 7945.
The one that I use the most is a 7958 which has a capacity of about 150Mb. It's
inteneded for a medium size business computer and is not listed as being compatible with
the IPC but I've been using it for years and it works fine. The 7945 is also not
listed for the IPC but it seems to be working fine also but I've just been using it
for a short time. The IPC is also supposed to support the HP 9125 5 1/4" floppy
drive but I've never played with one of them. I did try to use a HP 9127 5 1/4"
floppy drive on the IPC but I couldn't get the system to recognize it.
The reason that I mentioned the drives is because I've been trying to install all
of the IPC software that I have onto a single drive. If I can do that then I could simply
copy everything to another drive and set up a new system. But I'm having touble
getting things to work from the hard drive. The diagnostics is one example, it works fine
from a floppy diks but it will not run from a hard drive! I'm no expert with Unix so
I'm trying to get together with a friend of mine that is and perhaps he can figure out
what's wrong.
BTW I should tell you to be carefull with HP's double-sided disk drives, like the
one that's used in the IPC, the 9122 and the 9133. They have a bad habit of gumming up
and then they don't open all the way and you have to pry the disk out and force a new
disk into the drive. If you have any symptoms like that DON'T USE THE DRIVE! By not
opening all the way, it will cause the top head to catch on the disk and rip it off the
drive! Two of my IPCs and all by 9122s are acting that way right now, that's why I
can't copy disks at the moment. The fix isn't difficult, you have to remove the
drive from the housing, take the sheet metal cover off the drive and then use solvent to
remove the old grease on the sides of the dives where the part that holds the disk moves
up and down againt the frame. I usually use alcohol and just pour it ove the drive and
work it around and then wipe up the alcohol and dissovled grease. I use pressurinzed
solvent such as carburator cleaner to get into any tight places. But you have to be
careful with that stuff, it will dissolve many plastics. I'm also careful not to let
the dirty alcohol get on the heads. After the mechanism works freely, I relubricate it
sparingly with a good quality grease such as gun grease. The finally step is to clean the
heads thoroughly. Then replace the cover and reinstall the drive.
Here are the steps to get the drive out of an IPC. Unplug the power cord. Open the top
cover/carrying handle then open the printer cover. In the bottom of the storage
compartment next to the printer you will see two small screws. Remove them. Close the
printer cover and case cover to get them out of the way. Remove any expansion cards in the
back, then remove the two screws that hold on the back cover (one of each side). The back
cover has hooks at the bottom that engage the rest of the machine so open the top of the
back cover first then unhook it at the bottom. You will see the back of the drive on the
left. Unplug the power cable and data cable, remove the one screw at the back of the drive
and you can then pull out the drive.
Reverse the steps to reinstall the drive. But first check that the eject button and
it's spring is still in it's hole. (The drive is the only thing that holds them in
place and they can fall into the bottom of the machine). There's a switch above the
two cables on the back of the drive, make sure it is in the down position.
Software:
The software that I have includes; Unix version 5, utility software that goes with the
SE ROM, Technical BASIC (disk version), C compiler (I think it includes an assembler),
Fortran, Micro-Track, Plot-Trak, Calculator, DataComm, MultiPlan and TK! Solver. I have
all the manual for these as well as all of the user's manuals for the IPC. I also have
the service manuals for the IPC.
Technical BASIC:
I'm sure that you noticed that I kept referring to Technical BASIC. That's
because the IPC was intened to replace the HP-85 and HP envisioned that most user's
would use it as an instrument controller runing BASIC. But it appears that that's not
what happened. I've never seen an IPC set up as an instrument controller. I think the
Unix scared away most of those users. However I STILL see lots of HP-85s in use! In fact,
I was watching an episode of This Old House awhile back and they were using a HP-85 to
measure numerous tempatures in a house to check for insulation efficiency. But getting
back to Technical BASIC, HP offered it in a ROM and in a disk based version. One reason
that I know that HP was serious about using the IPC to replade the HP-85 is because they
printed four different manuals for it. There is a Programming Techniques manual, an I/O
Programming manual and a two volumes of Technical BASIC reference manuals. In contrast,
the C compiler manual is only about 20 pages long (but they did include the Motorola data
manual for the 68000 and K&R's Unix manual).
Whew! That's enough for now. E-mail any other questions and I'll try to answer
them.
Joe
At 12:32 PM 11/25/01 -0000, you wrote:
Hi Joe
I am very interested, I don't know anything at all about it. Unfortunately I
don't have any software to run on it either.
The one I have has a Unix ROM in it, I don't know if there were other ROM's,
anything you can tell me will be very welcome.
Is there any chance of you copying any software I will obviously pay you.
I am really looking forward to hearing from you, I have been waiting for
several years to find someone who knows about the Integral. You are only the
second person I have come across with one or should I say Six
regards
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net>
To: <brian(a)oldcomputers.freeserve.co.uk>
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 6:58 PM
Subject: HP Integral
Hi Brian,
I found your web page about the HP Integral while searching the net. I
have six Integrals and I can tell you anything that you want to know about
them if you're still interested.
Joe
1:45 a.m.
At 04:55 AM 4/12/02 -0400, you wrote:
This is the information I have managed to gather on the HP IPC:
First have a look at the definitive guide to the IPC
(http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/integral.html)
Apart from that, I have managed to find the following info by playing
with my IPC:
There is a ROM at the back behind a little door. This contains basically
the Unix OS (HP UX) and at least in my case Tech Basic.
The ROM in the back is optional. The IPC had a very limited set of HP-UX built-in but
you could get a complete HP-UX in ROM (the Software Engineering ROM) and install it in an
expansion slot or you could get Technical BASIC in ROM. It installed inside the OS ROM
located under the backdoor. You could also get a blank PROM card to install your own
software. The same socket was also used for the Service ROM. Technical BASIC and the
complete HP-UX were also available on disk.
Tech Basic looks
surprisingly like Series 80 Basic (e.g the Basic on the
HP-86 and 87)
That's because the IPC was the designated replacement for the HP-85 series. BUT if
you look at the number range and accuracy, it's not nearly as good as the 85.
including many ROM additions (e.g. IO ROM).
The funny connector on the back (like a small centronics connector) is
HP-IB (the HP name for IEEE-488) which is used to connect peripherals
like floppies and hard disks. The IPC talks CS/80 over HP-IB so it
supports "modern" HP-IB peripherals like the 9122 floppy drive.
Correct. You could also get a expansion card that had a faster HP-IB port.
The IPC also has in internal HP-IL bus (a two wire, low power version of
HP-IB) which is used to talk to the built in printer. At this stage
I haven't managed to investigate whether I can externalize this bus
and connect additional peripherals.
I haven't tried that. Let me know what you find out about it. There was also a
HP-IL expansion card available for the IPC. I've used one to talk to a HP 3468 meter.
The built-in printer takes hp92261a print cartridges which (amazingly)
are still available from major mail order firms (e.g. www.staples.com
in the US, but I suppose you can get them in the UK as well). Since the
print cartridge contains the print head as well, it is very probable
that you can get the printer to work with little effort.
Those are the same cartridges that are used in the HP ThinkJet printers. They're
also used in some Canon printers and in Diconix printers. Just don't leave them in
for a long period of time or they'll leak all over the place. Also NEVER ship the IPC
or a printer with them installed, the changing air pressure will cause them to pump the
ink out.
The IPC site (see URL earlier on) has a number of diskette images.
These are for double sided double density (720K) disks. I have
been unable to get any modern PC to write compatible floppies
using the standard double sided quad density drive (1.44Mb). I did
find a 720K drive on eBay and bought a pack of 720K diskettes.
Using OpenBSD on a PC I then proceeded to successfully transfer the
images to the floppies and access the data from the IPC.
BTW the IPC utilities in the IPC site (programs that can be used
to read IPC floppies on a Unix host) work only on big-endian
machines. You cannot use them on a i386.
Before trying to use the built-in floppy drive, note the following:
a) its totally non-standard. The connector is wrong and the RPM
is wrong. I believe there is no way that you can use a PC compatible
drive on that machine. So take good care of it!
Correct. Tony Duell can tell you lots more of the technical details about the drive but
it's basicly the same drive that HP uses in most of their 80s ish 3.5" floppy
drives; 9133, 9122, 9123, etc.
b) the heads need cleaning and the loading mechanism needs lubricating.
If you haven't done this already, do NOT skip this step, you may
damage the disk heads if you try to use a drive with a sticky loading
mechanism. See later on for cleaning instructions.
That's a COMMON problem with HP's double sided 3.5" floppy drives. The
discussion and cleaning instructions have been posted here several times.
c) The built-in disk notifies the OS when a new diskette is inserted
so that it is automatically mounted. This makes the built in floppy
more convenient than external devices.
It's a real pain to make the IPC realize that you've changed the disk in an
external drive!
Using the system:
Just power it up and you should see the unix boot messages. Finally you
see the desktop manager (PAM). You can type paths on the command line on
top or use the cursor keys to navigate the file system. If you have an
HP-HIL mouse so much the better you just point and click.
You should find the BASIC interpreter in /rom/basic. Until you get
the floppies from Peter's site, BASIC is the only way to use the machine.
Use
MASS STORAGE IS path
to change your working directory and
CAT path
to list directories.
If you need documentation on Tech BASIC, I suggest you buy an HP-86/87
Owner's manual on eBay. They are close to the real thing and far more common
than IPC manuals.
The HP 9000 series manuals are helpfull if you don't have IPC manuals. They explain
things like MSI and other topics that you MUST understand in order to use the IPC. I
haven't compared the BASIC implementations in each but I expect that they're
close.
For a hint on how to use external peripherals check the file
/documents/hp71_xfer on the IPC_BASIC_Bonus diskette.
As an example, here is a program that collects readings from an
HP multimeter (HP-IB device 13).
100 ! load HP-IB driver
110 MASS STORAGE IS "/dev"
120 ! on Series 80 the HP-IB card is always number 7
130 ASSIGN 7 TO "hpib"
140 ! The 13th HP-IB device is therefore 713
150 m=713
160 ! switch multimeter to remote control
170 REMOTE m
180 ! program multimeter for resistance, auto zero and trigger mode
190 OUTPUT m; "F3R1Z1T2"
200 ! initialize "previous" reading
210 v0=-1
215 DISP "Ready: press STOP to terminate program"
220 ! do while true
230 TRIGGER m
240 ENTER m; S$
250 ! display value only if different from earlier reading
260 IF v0<>v THEN DISP v
270 v0=v
280 GOTO 220
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Drive removal:
Get a torx #10 screwdriver, almost all the screws on the IPC are
of this type so there is no point in trying to do any maintenance
without one.
The plastic diskette eject button seen from the front of the machine,
is not attached to the drive and is likely to fall off when you
remove the drive. It is best to secure it in place by covering it
with a small piece of adhesive tape. This will keep it in place
during the removal and subsequent installation of the diskette
drive.
First remove the back panel. You do NOT need to remove the system ROM
to do this, so leave it alone. The panel is held by just two screws
(probably the only screws that need a flat blade screwdriver) and hinges
on the bottom of the machine. Once the panel is removed you can see
the inside of the machine. A big PCB to the left and the floppy to the
right.
Open the printer door (on the top of the machine) and look at the bottom
of the storage compartment next to the printer. You should see two black
screws. Remove them. Now the only screw holding the diskette assembly
is on screw on the bottom of the assembly (right on top of the PSU).
remove the connectors and the last screw. The floppy should slide out
towards you.
Looking at the the floppy assembly you see a mounting bracket and a
full height floppy. Before removing the drive from the mounting
bracket mark the orientation of the floppy drive against the bracket
with a pencil this will make reassembly easier. Remove the mounting
bracket and the metal cover of the floppy. Do not forget to remove
a black screw on the back of the floppy, otherwise you will not be
able to slide the metal cover out. You should see the loading
mechanism on the sides of the floppy. Try inserting a diskette to
see how it causes the loading tray to slide along paths on the fixed
sides of the drive. These are the only parts that need cleaning and
oiling. Use machine lubricating oil (under no circumstances should
you use stuff like WD-40). Apply one or two drops on each side and
insert/remove the floppy until it slides in and out effortlessly.
I use a cleaning floppy to clean the heads, so there is nothing more
to do at this stage other than closely inspect the READ/WRITE heads.
Hopefully they should have the obvious orientation that allows them
to come into contact with the magnetic surface of the floppy. If
this is so, then you are in luck, otherwise you lose.
Replace the cover and secure the floppy on the mounting bracket. Orient
the drive and bracket so that the two screw holes are on top and slide
the entire assembly inside the IPC. Attach the top two screws and the
bottom screw. You may need to slightly adjust the drive mounting assembly
to align the bottom screw. Replace the power and data cables and
reattack the back panel. Remove the piece of adhesive tape securing
the eject button and you are ready.
---------------
Corrections or additions are always welcome.
**vp
Somewhere I've got a write up about the IPC. I'll try to find it and post it on
the list. (Found it. I'll post it at the same time that I post this.)
Joe
8:02 a.m.
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16 Jun
16 Jun
5:10 p.m.
Thanks for this excellent trove of info.
-W
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vassilis Prevelakis" <vp(a)mcs.drexel.edu>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 1:55 AM
Subject: HP IPC (update)
This is the information I have managed to gather on the HP IPC:
First have a look at the definitive guide to the IPC
(http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/integral.html)
Apart from that, I have managed to find the following info by playing
with my IPC:
There is a ROM at the back behind a little door. This contains basically
the Unix OS (HP UX) and at least in my case Tech Basic. Tech Basic looks
surprisingly like Series 80 Basic (e.g the Basic on the HP-86 and 87)
including many ROM additions (e.g. IO ROM).
The funny connector on the back (like a small centronics connector) is
HP-IB (the HP name for IEEE-488) which is used to connect peripherals
like floppies and hard disks. The IPC talks CS/80 over HP-IB so it
supports "modern" HP-IB peripherals like the 9122 floppy drive.
The IPC also has in internal HP-IL bus (a two wire, low power version of
HP-IB) which is used to talk to the built in printer. At this stage
I haven't managed to investigate whether I can externalize this bus
and connect additional peripherals.
The built-in printer takes hp92261a print cartridges which (amazingly)
are still available from major mail order firms (e.g. www.staples.com
in the US, but I suppose you can get them in the UK as well). Since the
print cartridge contains the print head as well, it is very probable
that you can get the printer to work with little effort.
The IPC site (see URL earlier on) has a number of diskette images.
These are for double sided double density (720K) disks. I have
been unable to get any modern PC to write compatible floppies
using the standard double sided quad density drive (1.44Mb). I did
find a 720K drive on eBay and bought a pack of 720K diskettes.
Using OpenBSD on a PC I then proceeded to successfully transfer the
images to the floppies and access the data from the IPC.
BTW the IPC utilities in the IPC site (programs that can be used
to read IPC floppies on a Unix host) work only on big-endian
machines. You cannot use them on a i386.
Before trying to use the built-in floppy drive, note the following:
a) its totally non-standard. The connector is wrong and the RPM
is wrong. I believe there is no way that you can use a PC compatible
drive on that machine. So take good care of it!
b) the heads need cleaning and the loading mechanism needs lubricating.
If you haven't done this already, do NOT skip this step, you may
damage the disk heads if you try to use a drive with a sticky loading
mechanism. See later on for cleaning instructions.
c) The built-in disk notifies the OS when a new diskette is inserted
so that it is automatically mounted. This makes the built in floppy
more convenient than external devices.
Using the system:
Just power it up and you should see the unix boot messages. Finally you
see the desktop manager (PAM). You can type paths on the command line on
top or use the cursor keys to navigate the file system. If you have an
HP-HIL mouse so much the better you just point and click.
You should find the BASIC interpreter in /rom/basic. Until you get
the floppies from Peter's site, BASIC is the only way to use the machine.
Use
MASS STORAGE IS path
to change your working directory and
CAT path
to list directories.
If you need documentation on Tech BASIC, I suggest you buy an HP-86/87
Owner's manual on eBay. They are close to the real thing and far more common
than IPC manuals.
For a hint on how to use external peripherals check the file
/documents/hp71_xfer on the IPC_BASIC_Bonus diskette.
As an example, here is a program that collects readings from an
HP multimeter (HP-IB device 13).
100 ! load HP-IB driver
110 MASS STORAGE IS "/dev"
120 ! on Series 80 the HP-IB card is always number 7
130 ASSIGN 7 TO "hpib"
140 ! The 13th HP-IB device is therefore 713
150 m=713
160 ! switch multimeter to remote control
170 REMOTE m
180 ! program multimeter for resistance, auto zero and trigger mode
190 OUTPUT m; "F3R1Z1T2"
200 ! initialize "previous" reading
210 v0=-1
215 DISP "Ready: press STOP to terminate program"
220 ! do while true
230 TRIGGER m
240 ENTER m; S$
250 ! display value only if different from earlier reading
260 IF v0<>v THEN DISP v
270 v0=v
280 GOTO 220
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Drive removal:
Get a torx #10 screwdriver, almost all the screws on the IPC are
of this type so there is no point in trying to do any maintenance
without one.
The plastic diskette eject button seen from the front of the machine,
is not attached to the drive and is likely to fall off when you
remove the drive. It is best to secure it in place by covering it
with a small piece of adhesive tape. This will keep it in place
during the removal and subsequent installation of the diskette
drive.
First remove the back panel. You do NOT need to remove the system ROM
to do this, so leave it alone. The panel is held by just two screws
(probably the only screws that need a flat blade screwdriver) and hinges
on the bottom of the machine. Once the panel is removed you can see
the inside of the machine. A big PCB to the left and the floppy to the
right.
Open the printer door (on the top of the machine) and look at the bottom
of the storage compartment next to the printer. You should see two black
screws. Remove them. Now the only screw holding the diskette assembly
is on screw on the bottom of the assembly (right on top of the PSU).
remove the connectors and the last screw. The floppy should slide out
towards you.
Looking at the the floppy assembly you see a mounting bracket and a
full height floppy. Before removing the drive from the mounting
bracket mark the orientation of the floppy drive against the bracket
with a pencil this will make reassembly easier. Remove the mounting
bracket and the metal cover of the floppy. Do not forget to remove
a black screw on the back of the floppy, otherwise you will not be
able to slide the metal cover out. You should see the loading
mechanism on the sides of the floppy. Try inserting a diskette to
see how it causes the loading tray to slide along paths on the fixed
sides of the drive. These are the only parts that need cleaning and
oiling. Use machine lubricating oil (under no circumstances should
you use stuff like WD-40). Apply one or two drops on each side and
insert/remove the floppy until it slides in and out effortlessly.
I use a cleaning floppy to clean the heads, so there is nothing more
to do at this stage other than closely inspect the READ/WRITE heads.
Hopefully they should have the obvious orientation that allows them
to come into contact with the magnetic surface of the floppy. If
this is so, then you are in luck, otherwise you lose.
Replace the cover and secure the floppy on the mounting bracket. Orient
the drive and bracket so that the two screw holes are on top and slide
the entire assembly inside the IPC. Attach the top two screws and the
bottom screw. You may need to slightly adjust the drive mounting assembly
to align the bottom screw. Replace the power and data cables and
reattack the back panel. Remove the piece of adhesive tape securing
the eject button and you are ready.
---------------
Corrections or additions are always welcome.
**vp
7986
days inactive
8052
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
vp＠mcs.drexel.edu -
wmsmith＠earthlink.net