LEAST valuable collectibles (was: Apple II boards - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

27 Jan 2002

ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
...
   I think I've managed to find at least one genuine
HP thinkjet stand. But 
 you're right, most people made their own (out of plastic sheet and metal 
 rod, normally).  
We were on a budget, and we did a lot of printing on our HP 3000s, so
there was a near-constant stream of available empty boxes.  Sometimes
we'd even get paper in boxes with sturdy tops that could be easily
fashioned into Thinkjet stands.

...
  I doubt that wall wart [1] (it's that little HP 8V
3VA unit) could supply 
 the printer continuously. Which means that on long print jobs the battery 
 pack is running down, even if the charger is plugged in. Which, in turn, 
 means there's a maximum length of file you can print on the HPIL thinkjet 
 :-(.  
No, it means you run the battery down and then are disappointed to find
that plugging it in doesn't bring it back to life right away.  Nobody
ever reported that, but like I said most of our users just didn't bother
with the printer.

...
  I must say I've been very impressed with the
HP82169 HPIL-HPIB interface. 
 It's pretty much plug-n-play for most applications :-)).  
Imagine a Portable Plus sitting there formatting an HP 7963 (I think)
HP-IB disc drive through one of these.  It will do it, and then it
will let you use the whopping 20MB or so that its version of MS-DOS
can handle.

-Frank McConnell