Pair of HP 1000 E-Series minicomputers on eBay

[Jay West]

Noel wrote...
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  http://www.ebay.com/itm/141300893919

The seller has them listed at 'Buy-It-Now' for $1,800, but the listing does
say 'make an offer', so you might be able to get it down a ways, to
something more reasonable. They seem like they have an interesting
(non-identical) set of peripheral cards. However, I know nothing of HP's, so
take this all with a large grain of salt!
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They both appear to be 2113E's (21MX/E with extra IO capacity).
Yes, that's a fairly stuffed I/O backplane in both, but many are for
peripheral devices that aren't included.
It appears they both have the older rev 2102B memory controller, which does
impose some restrictions on the memory boards you could add in the future
for more memory.
One system appears to be missing the memory controller flat jumper cable,
that would have to be found to make it operational. If you can get by with
less memory (or if you have bigger memory boards that happen to be supported
by the 2102B), you could cut the existing memory jumper to two shorter
pieces.
Both systems would need to have the "battery jumper plug" (or stick in a
resistor) in order to POST.
They don't appear to be "master slave" as the ad suggests, at least not in
any "normal" way. Could have been a home brew interconnect though.
It's been eons since I had a power supply open on one, once I get a machine
I gut/restore the PS and then they just run forever. But be aware there's a
fair amount of foam permanently built inside those power supplies. Before
using, I'd strongly suggest taking out the power supply and opening it up
and at least clean out and replace the foam.
That loose wire on power-cont-in - I am not sure if that's really a problem
(in most setups). ISTR that if you're not using a battery and not
daisychaining power connectors, the only conductors needed to fake battery
presence are middle-left and middle-right in the 3x3 grid of holes. I don't
recall the resistor value but can look it up.
It does appear the microcode (FEM at least, can't tell if FAB is present &
connected) to CPU board jumpers are there. Those frequently are not and the
system can run without it but you lose whatever capabilities are on the
FEM/FAB.

I'm amazed at the asking prices for 21MX's these days. Not too many years
ago one would typically sell on ebay for around $150 each and they could
often be found "in the wild" for free. ISTR I got a pallet of around nine
2109E's and they all went around $150 (except the few I kept). Of course I
will not be bidding on that auction, but if someone here does and wins I
might be interested in purchasing some of the I/O cards for spares if the
winner doesn't need them. I'd be glad to help get them running and there's a
pretty good amount of expertise here amongst listmembers WRT 21MX.

Best,

J