Not having a digital camera I can't provide a photo. Amd of course I

don't have the cable to photograph (if I did, I wouldn't be looking for one :-))

If you do an e-bay search for HP 9125A under completed items, you should

These were discussed on the list a couple of years ago, IIRC at that time

somebody provided a reference to some place still selling them. I was trying to find the message in the cctalk archives recently due to a request from someone else, but have been unable to do so (word search on the archive page doesn't seem to work). One of the problems is there are several variations that look very similar: slightly different pin diameters, pin lengths, spacing, and there are two that

look physically identical but have the hot/neutral swapped. With that said,

there is one (the type that HP used, I believe) that is more prevalent than the others. I often replace these (and other) old power connectors with IEC connectors if it can be done without hacking up the equipment, but some may prefer not to

make such a modification. The rectangular hole has to be made larger of course and the two screw holes have to be 'moved out' about 1/32 - 3/64 inch.

Is this the connector on the equipment end you are looking for? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390061156608

Is this the connector on the equipment end you are looking for? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390061156608 auction # is 390061156608 for those who cannot use the above link.

Is this the connector on the equipment end you are looking for? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390061156608 auction # is 390061156608 for those who cannot use the above link.

Yeah. I found THAT out the hard way when I was much younger. But, not to worry!, Tony is probably the only one here who connects his power cords to a meter before he connects them to their intended target!

Someone recently made a "somewhat OT" post to the TekScopes list offering to give away some of the old, oval power cords that HP used a long time ago. (They were spoken for with 3 hours.) I responded with the following post about these cords, and it may be helpful to those on this list as well (and not OT here!). The bottom line is that while you have to know where to look for them, they are hardly rare or expensive. Last year I did a bit of research about the oval power cord used by HP long ago and found that it is still available off the shelf; I ordered some from Mouser to verify it. The particular power cord for this type of connector used to be Belden part number 17952, and is currently made by Volex with the same number. The manufacturer web site is http://www.volex.com I checked the web site just now and it's set up differently than it was last year. This is the path to get to it now from the home page: Products, power products, standard products, select North America, detachable, then click on the X at the intersection of "special" and "plastic" on the chart. Finally, click on "spec" for the part number. Here's where it gets interesting; scroll down to the bottom of the data and you'll see this note: "This cord is made with non-standard polarization and has a caution label applied to the cord stating this fact: `This cord is for replacement only and is NOT intended for new original equipment.' See also 17280." But we want it for replacement use, and this is the one we want. Go back up the list to the spec on either version of the 17280 (the only difference in the two versions is gray vs. black), and you'll see this note: "Polarity as mandated by CSA electrical Bulletin 895B and UL817. See also 17952." (Underwriters Laboratories is a USA organization, and CSA is Canadian Standards Association.) That's the current polarity standard. The hot and neutral pins on the older cord are reversed from that. I ordered both styles of cord from Mouser (http://www.mouser.com), and sure enough, the one for the old equipment which is now considered nonstandard polarity has a warning label on it. The price has gone up a bit since then and both types are now about $10 each. I just checked the Mouser site; they have 7 of one in stock and 24 of the other, and show a factory lead time of a week. Both Allied (http://www.alliedelec.com/) and Newark (http://www.newark.com) also carry them and have them in stock. The bottom line is that while these things might be hard to find if you don't know where to look, they are not rare by any means and you don't have to pay outrageous prices for old ones. Unless, of course, you're a collector and insist on having a 40 year old power cord to go along with a 40 year old piece of equipment :-) BTW, if you come across an oval cord like this somewhere, keep in mind that it might not be what you're looking for since the hot and neutral pins can be in two different configurations depending on which part number it is (which may not be on the cord anywhere). Be sure to verify that the polarity is the proper one for whatever you plan to connect it to. (I wrote an article on this for a small amateur radio journal last year. It had additional information and several graphics. If anyone is interested I can e-mail the text and figures.)

Yes. The term applies here as well.

My Victor Comptometer* is marked 100-130VAC on the bottom, so I'm OK there. -ethan * for the curious, it's a model 12E.523.157C, whatever that means. I just dismantled the Bakelite plug housing and what I need is similar to what we have been discussing, but not identical. I have three round fat (4.5mm?) brass pins in a similar high-middle-low arrangement, sticking out of the back of the machine. They appear to be in the pattern N-G-H, based on which one is fused. Every time I

look at the nameplate, I think of the line from "Are You Being Served" where the wife of a couple shopping at the store accuses her accountant husband of infidelity with "... the girl on the comptometer. It all adds up!"

Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> writes: There was a discussion about Bulgin connectors a couple of years ago -- I think Tony provided most of the information at the time anyway. ;) http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2007-September/246770.html However, the HP 9125A connector isn't a Bulgin one: http://www.datazap.net/sites/2396/02-19-09-P1070935.JPG It looks the same as the one on my Singer/Friden EC1118 calculator, which probably doesn't help much. I've never seen them anywhere else; I guess the closest thing would be an Italian inline mains socket...

On 20/08/2009 22:54, Brent Hilpert wrote: That's interesting. ?I thought it looked familiar -- the same cordset or connector is used on my Cromemco 3 system.... ?Sadly they're now out of stock/discontinued, and so is the other polarisation (17952).

<snip> I'ev come across it on other HP stuff. My older HP9100B has one (my later 9100B has a normal IEC 'kettle plug'). My 5243 and 5245 counters have them. I think my Intellec MCS8i had one, but I cbanged that to an IEC plug. I suspect it was a common connecotr at one time. Which means somebody may still be making them. -tony

Does anyone know if the connnector we're talking about was ever made in a non-moulded (i.e. the user gets to fit the cable) type? If so, is it avaialble anywhere?

See http://wa5znu.org/2009/08/hp5216a for pix. I was at Halted Surplus and they had the connector, so I picked one up and went around the store trying to find something that fit and found these. I drilled out the holes a little more, spread the Molex pins a bit, and soldered them to the AC line after pushing the wires through the shell.

Any ideas what the connector he's using is? It looks like some kind of adapter on an IEC plug.

I've made an matching power cord by reversing a plastic IEC connector shell and using molex pins in it. It's odd that an IEC shell backwards fits perfectly. It wouldn't pass UL, and a second shell around the cord-shell junction would help double insulate the AC wires, but it does the job..

I'd wondered about using Molex-style pins in home-made housing, but I couldn't think of an easy way to get strain-relief on the cable.