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Why so little on posts for HP?

Chuckster_in_Jax

Chuckster_in_Jax

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
1,362
Location
Jacksonville, Florida
I rarely see any posts regarding vintage HP equipment. I would like to hear from our members their opinions on how collectible they think HP stuff is. Also, what old HP equipment do you have (or desire)?

My current collection includes:

HP-86B (with rare/odd keyboard)
HP Model 150 Touchscreen
HP Model 150 Touchscreen II
HP Integral PC
HP Portable Plus (2)
HP 9835
HP 9000 /236 (2)
HP 9000 /370
HP 9000 /382
HP Apollo 735 (not working)
HP Vectra 486/66U
HP Vectra XA5/166DT
HP Vectra XU5/133C
HP Vectra VEi8 (500Mhz PIII)
 
I don't have any HP stuff, but I would have thought early touchscreen models would have some collectible value. Although they never caught on at the time they were kinda innovative.

Due to space constraints I've got quite a strict limit of what I want to collect. I often wish I had more room, so I could collect interesting novel old iron like the early HP touchscreens.

Tez
 
Dwight Elvey said:
Hi
I have an HP 1000 computer. Does that count?
I think it is a 21MX.
Dwight
Click to expand...

Absolutely! The first minicomputer that was purchased for the lab I worked in 1979 was an HP1000 (21MX). It had a whopping 64K of memory and collected data from (i believe) 24 gas chromatographs. It was a very rugged and stable system. Used a loop interface using a message passing protocol that was similar to token ring. Do you have a 2640A terminal? Maybe a punched paper tape reader?

http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=240

http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=283

The 2640A terminal was one of several HP products that had tape drive problems. The pinch roller would turn to goo and ruin the tapes.
Like many older machines the boot software was distributed on tape. The sources for replacing those tapes have unfortunately disappeared.
 
Heh, well my only HP machine is an HP Vecta VL400 PIII 800. Won't be vintage in a million years, if you ask me, but I guess thats what the guys said when everyone had an IBM 5150, Apple II, etc.

I'm not familiar with any of the vintage HP stuff....Hmmm...I almost think the Inkjet printer I have in WV is an HP of some sorts....first Inkjet printer mass-marekted by HP, if I recall correctly.

--Ryan
 
Never seen any vintage HP stuff ever, but now I want a 1000. My buddy Joe used an HP oscilloscope back in the day, found an easter egg inside and played Pong on it. I'll have to ask more about it, report back.
 
We have some vintage HP gear here. In my late teens, I got an HP83 at a hamfest with a 3421A data acquisition system. That got me hooked on HPIB (GPIB/IEEE-488) and since then seem to always want to find a way to put a DAQ on whatever machine comes across my bench.

So, in reference to the OP's question, we have one each of:

HP 41C (arguably a computer)
HP 75D (two actually)
HP 83
HP 85
HP 85B
HP 9836 (9000/236)

We also have various HPIB/HPIL mass storage devices (SS/CS80). 5-1/4" and 3-1/2" floppy drives and hard disks. I also have HP3421 and 3497 DAQs.

I have yet to rebuild the sticky messes inside the 85s. I have the replacement printer belts (when I was ordering belts for another project) and have the info to replace the tape drive roller.

I seem to enjoy the DEC stuff better though....

Lou
 
If I had room, I'd really like a 9000/310 or one from that series.
I worked with them in the 80's, but just as a user.

I'd like to 'take one apart' and tinker with it (software related).
 
Chuckster_in_Jax said:
Absolutely! The first minicomputer that was purchased for the lab I worked in 1979 was an HP1000 (21MX). It had a whopping 64K of memory and collected data from (i believe) 24 gas chromatographs. It was a very rugged and stable system. Used a loop interface using a message passing protocol that was similar to token ring. Do you have a 2640A terminal? Maybe a punched paper tape reader?

http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=240

http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=283

The 2640A terminal was one of several HP products that had tape drive problems. The pinch roller would turn to goo and ruin the tapes.
Like many older machines the boot software was distributed on tape. The sources for replacing those tapes have unfortunately disappeared.
Click to expand...

Hi
No terminals or external storeage. I've not had time to fiddle with it much
other than to get it turned on ( required the fake battery plug ). I've toggled
in some simple code and checked the boot loaders. Other than that, not
too much done with it. It has some limited I/O cards. I have both a low speed
and high speed serial. I have some type of multi bit input and a relay output.
I have a card to connect to a disk system but no controller or drives.
I've meant to fiddle with loading things through the serial but other project
have higher priority right now.
Dwight
 
Dwight Elvey said:
Hi
No terminals or external storeage. I've not had time to fiddle with it much
other than to get it turned on ( required the fake battery plug ). I've toggled
in some simple code and checked the boot loaders. Other than that, not
too much done with it. It has some limited I/O cards. I have both a low speed
and high speed serial. I have some type of multi bit input and a relay output.
I have a card to connect to a disk system but no controller or drives.
I've meant to fiddle with loading things through the serial but other project
have higher priority right now.
Dwight
Click to expand...

Dwight,

The system we bought did not have any disk drives. The only storage we used was the mini tape drive in the terminal. The system ran specialized software sold by HP's scientific group. It did have a BASIC interpreter on it. The terminal was attached to a interface card the HP service reps referred to as the BACI board (pronounced bock-ee, Binary Asyncronous Communications interface). I do remember that to boot the system you had to store certain values in the CPU registers using the front panel switches. Then press <preset>. <IBL>, and then <run>. The boot rom had routines for a number of different devices. The way the system knew what device to boot from was to manually store the ROM entry point for your device in one of the CPU registers before hitting the run key.
It has been over 20 years since I used that system. It was replaced with an HP 1000 A-series which was more flexible and user friendly. I was the system administrator for that system for several years.
 
Chuckster_in_Jax said:
I rarely see any posts regarding vintage HP equipment. I would like to hear from our members their opinions on how collectible they think HP stuff is. Also, what old HP equipment do you have (or desire)?
Click to expand...
Well, here it is quite hard to find any vintage HP equipment.
I once worked with a HP9826 using HP-IB for instrument control. Having a HP9826 would be nice. I also would like to have a HP 48sx.
 
I have a 9000/735, perhaps not quite yet "vintage" but a machine that oozes with quality. Since you also own earlier examples you might know - was the plug-in module design derived from the older Apollo machines?

HP's in general have unique industrial design features that set them apart from anything else, but perhaps geared more towards ergonomics rather than just appearance.

Chuckster_in_Jax said:
My current collection includes:
...
HP Apollo 735 (not working)
...
Click to expand...
735_tn_1.jpg
735-mouse_tn.jpg
735_kb_2_tn.jpg
 
Erm, seems like HP is all I've been posting about around here. HP 64000 series computers, in fact. Been searching for any info/software I could dig up, and I'm realizing that this machine, while totally amazing, isn't really for me. So I'm selling it here too! ;)
 
The only HP system I have is a Vectra V8 (something or another) that has a dual processor board without a socket for one of the processors (apparently, the same motherboard was used in another of their models and DID have the second socket). It also uses a 24 pin ATX power supply (which didn't come with it) which I don't have one of and didn't want to pay HP for one (plus outrageous shipping) because, without a power supply, I don't know if it works. It's a Catch-22 thing. No one on Fee-bay selling the 20 to 24 pin adapters could tell me if one would work with that motherboard.
 
paul said:
I have a 9000/735, perhaps not quite yet "vintage" but a machine that oozes with quality. Since you also own earlier examples you might know - was the plug-in module design derived from the older Apollo machines?

HP's in general have unique industrial design features that set them apart from anything else, but perhaps geared more towards ergonomics rather than just appearance.
Click to expand...


Paul,
All of the HP 9000 series 200 and 300 use the plug-in module design but had more options than the Model 700 series. When the 700 series came out, HP started phasing out the HP-IB peripherals and switched from Motorola 68000 processors to the PA-RISC CPU's. The case design was switched from the smaller stackable boxes to the large flat pizza box. The 735 is a really nice machine. Hope I can get mine running.
Some of those HP-IB drives used SCSI hard drives with a controller board to make the translation to HP-IB.
 
arfink said:
Erm, seems like HP is all I've been posting about around here. HP 64000 series computers, in fact. Been searching for any info/software I could dig up, and I'm realizing that this machine, while totally amazing, isn't really for me. So I'm selling it here too! ;)
Click to expand...

From what I can find, the 64000 is not a general purpose computing machine but a highly specialized piece of equipment intended for a "limited audience". If you go to :

http://www.hpmuseum.net/

search for "64000" and you will find several manuals but only 2 listings for downloadable software.
 
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