HP-150 information
Alain Lafon
I recently was able to get hold of a HP-150 "PC-compatible" / Terminal.
As a matter of fact it is not yet mounted with a harddrive, neither can
I claim an appropriate version of DOS my own.
If anybody reads this thread: I'd be very interested in old manuals,
hardware, software or information of any other kind related to this
machine.
I'd even be very glad if somebody knew which terminal service is needed
in Linux to get the machine to work as a terminal - I googled all day
long and found some quite interesting information, but nothing that
would take me a real step further into actually using it.
Thanks a lot in advance,
Alain Lafon
Aidan Grey
I own an HP-150 PC.
It is a very old machine, from the early eighties. The disk interface is
the
HP-IB. So, you would need an HP-IB floppy drive to boot it to DOS.
It is an 8086 machine. It is DOS compatible with the IBM PC, but not BIOS
compatible. This means that some applications will not run on it. Also, any
version of MS-DOS later than 3.X will probably not run on it either.
There were two models of the HP-150, the original, and a larger model II.
Some
machines also had a built in touchscreen.
The terminal emulation is an HP terminal. I don't recall what model it
was.
I have some software for this machine. I might be able to make a copy if
you
are interested.
Aidan Grey
Stan Sieler
> I recently was able to get hold of a HP-150 "PC-compatible" / Terminal.
Posting on CC-TALK, part of the Classic Computer mailing list,
may get you software/manuals. See www.classiccmp.org
With no software running the 150 acts like an HP-compatible terminal ...
well, like the world's *slowest* HP-compatible terminal, and with
significant limitations (for many years, it held the title of "worst HP
compatible terminal", until it was mostly claimed by HP-UX's hpterm
program :).
> I'd even be very glad if somebody knew which terminal service is needed
> in Linux to get the machine to work as a terminal - I googled all day
Standard RS232 terminal.
You probably want: export TERM=hp
or: export TERM=hp150
BTW, the 150 isn't really PC-compatible. It runs a version of MS-DOS,
and ... with the help of a program from outside HP ... can be fairly close
to PC compatible. A fair number of PC programs were ported to it,
and it has a handful of HP-150 only programs as well (which generally
make use of the touchscreen).
When running MS-DOS, the 150 is actually running two processes ...
one's MS-DOS, and the other is the terminal emulator. I.e., the BIOS
is really a multi-tasking OS with only two tasks: one's MS-DOS (if running),
and the other's the terminal emulator. That's all that's left of the
"Magic" OS
that the 150 was originally going to ship with, before they switched to
MS-DOS.
Stan
Stan Sieler
> I recently was able to get hold of a HP-150 "PC-compatible" / Terminal.
Posting on CC-TALK, part of the Classic Computer mailing list,
may get you software/manuals. See www.classiccmp.org
With no software running the 150 acts like an HP-compatible terminal ...
well, like the world's *slowest* HP-compatible terminal, and with
significant limitations (for many years, it held the title of "worst HP
compatible terminal", until it was mostly claimed by HP-UX's hpterm
program :).
> I'd even be very glad if somebody knew which terminal service is needed
> in Linux to get the machine to work as a terminal - I googled all day
Standard RS232 terminal.
Alain Lafon
To say the sad truth, I have not yet come very far. Something keeps
bugging me a little - when starting the terminal it will keep telling
the message:
"Power on test failed 1000
Press return to continue."
Memory tests worked fine and PAM also works as expected.
> Standard RS232 terminal.
>
> You probably want: export TERM=hp
> or: export TERM=hp150
Did I get it right from /etc/terminfo that there are no hpterms
supported at all in Linux. I'm using a Debian 2.6.6 machine for the
hp150. Giving getty the types "hp" or "hp150" wouldn't work either.
Thanks for any answer to my previous post - may some follow(;
Have a good day everyone,
Alain Lafon
Frank Slootweg
> Hello,
>
> To say the sad truth, I have not yet come very far. Something keeps
> bugging me a little - when starting the terminal it will keep telling
> the message:
> "Power on test failed 1000
> Press return to continue."
> Memory tests worked fine and PAM also works as expected.
> > Standard RS232 terminal.
> >
> > You probably want: export TERM=hp
> > or: export TERM=hp150
> Did I get it right from /etc/terminfo that there are no hpterms
> supported at all in Linux. I'm using a Debian 2.6.6 machine for the
> hp150. Giving getty the types "hp" or "hp150" wouldn't work either.
I don't use Linux, but I have never heard of /etc/terminfo. Just of
/etc/termcap (i.e. (very) old) and /usr/lib/terminfo (i.e. new(er)).
Anyway, in Cygwin, a Linux compatible environment on (MS-)Windows,
there are many hp* terminfo entries in /usr/lib/terminfo, including
hp150. So I would assume that any decent Linux system would also have
those. If not, you can always take the Cygwin ones (<http://cygwin.com>
and
<http://cygwin.com/cgi-bin2/package-cat.cgi?file=terminfo%2Fterminfo-5.3-3&grep=terminfo>).
Frank McConnell
> To say the sad truth, I have not yet come very far. Something keeps
> bugging me a little - when starting the terminal it will keep telling
> the message:
> "Power on test failed 1000
> Press return to continue."
> Memory tests worked fine and PAM also works as expected.
PAM? Then you've got a bootable disc of some sort, right?
I no longer remember what power on test 1000 is, but I wonder whether
it is "touchscreen self-test failed". If so, and this is a 150A or B
where the touchscreen is done as rows of recessed IR LEDs and sensors
around the edges of and just in front of the screen, you may want to
get a can of compressed air and use it to gently blow the dust out of
the recesses. Accumulated dust can cause a power-on test failure, I
just can't remember the number.
-Frank McConnell
Thomas Dickey
> Alain Lafon <pr...@gmx.at> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> To say the sad truth, I have not yet come very far. Something keeps
>> bugging me a little - when starting the terminal it will keep telling
>> the message:
>> "Power on test failed 1000
>> Press return to continue."
>> Memory tests worked fine and PAM also works as expected.
>> > Standard RS232 terminal.
>> >
>> > You probably want: export TERM=hp
>> > or: export TERM=hp150
>> Did I get it right from /etc/terminfo that there are no hpterms
>> supported at all in Linux. I'm using a Debian 2.6.6 machine for the
>> hp150. Giving getty the types "hp" or "hp150" wouldn't work either.
Debian's /etc/terminfo is a subset of the full terminfo database.
> I don't use Linux, but I have never heard of /etc/terminfo. Just of
> /etc/termcap (i.e. (very) old) and /usr/lib/terminfo (i.e. new(er)).
> Anyway, in Cygwin, a Linux compatible environment on (MS-)Windows,
> there are many hp* terminfo entries in /usr/lib/terminfo, including
> hp150. So I would assume that any decent Linux system would also have
> those. If not, you can always take the Cygwin ones (<http://cygwin.com>
> and
> <http://cygwin.com/cgi-bin2/package-cat.cgi?file=terminfo%2Fterminfo-5.3-3&grep=terminfo>).
actually you're referring to the ncurses packages (not cygwin per se).
The termcap file is generated from the terminfo, e.g.,
ftp://invisible-island.net/terminfo.src.gz
ftp://invisible-island.net/termcap.src.gz
--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net
Temor
1200, which was a test fail 1000 and a test fail 200 (together) but they
were both something basic. The early 150 touchscreen sensors were
unprotected, hence dust got into the sensors, later models had plastic
strips covering the sensors.
Too far back now, braincells well and truly gone... error 200 might be
keyboard...disconnect it and try it.
"Frank McConnell" <fmc+cshm...@reanimators.org> wrote in message
news:ce60op$2opn$1...@lots.reanimators.org...
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ed sharpe
error.... we would clean out the holes with some canned air and it seemed
to clear the problem.
here at the museum I believe we have a full set of prints on the 150 and
the service manual... now to find where they are....
--
Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC
Please check our web site at
http://www.smecc.org
to see other engineering fields, communications and computation stuff we
buy, and by all means when in Arizona drop in and see us.
address:
coury house / smecc
5802 w palmaire ave
glendale az 85301
"Alain Lafon" <pr...@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:ce4010$1ud$1...@infosun2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de...
ed sharpe
museum!
any loose ones floating out there?
also need logic diagrams and manuals on the hp 2100a/s processor... ( mini
computer)
--
Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC
Please check our web site at
http://www.smecc.org
to see other engineering fields, communications and computation stuff we
buy, and by all means when in Arizona drop in and see us.
address:
coury house / smecc
5802 w palmaire ave
glendale az 85301
"Temor" <iaintus...@itsafunnlyoldworld.com> wrote in message
news:XKwOc.20724174$Id.34...@news.easynews.com...
jdj
> Hello,
>
>
> To say the sad truth, I have not yet come very far. Something keeps
> bugging me a little - when starting the terminal it will keep telling
> the message:
> "Power on test failed 1000
> Press return to continue."
> Memory tests worked fine and PAM also works as expected.
>> Standard RS232 terminal.
>>
>> You probably want: export TERM=hp
>> or: export TERM=hp150
> Did I get it right from /etc/terminfo that there are no hpterms
> supported at all in Linux. I'm using a Debian 2.6.6 machine for the
> hp150. Giving getty the types "hp" or "hp150" wouldn't work either.
>
>
Power on test code 1000 is for the touchscreen; means that one or more
sensors were not detected as working properly. Usually that means that the
holes are blocked with fluff.
Chances are that there's also a bit of fluff inside to clean out.
There are two termcap or terminfo entries for the hp150: one refers to
another hp terminal and one is a complete description of it's own. The
former works a bit and the latter does not work at all. It seems most
distros no longer include termcap/terminfo entries for many "older"
terminals such as the 150.
If you have PAM working, you obviously have DOS, as well. PAM is HP's
shell and requires DOS to work. Running dos, you will not be able to use
the 150 as a terminal. You can exit to terminal mode (and from DOS) from
PAM and will have to reboot to get back to dos.
There were terminal programs available for the 150: Most were VT100
emulators with extra features. One terminal program used the HP150's
native terminal functions and used XMODEM for file transfer.
It is a Very Good Idea to immediately copy your program disks and use the
copies. The floppy drives do wear out the disks somewhat faster than more
recent models. Try to use the DSDD 720Kb floppies, not the DSHD 1.4Mb
floppies because the drives cannot reliably write to the media. You may
find your disks have errors or lose data in time. The original floppies
were SSDD single-sided floppies but DSDD double-sided floppies are
OK--they're the same except that the SSDD floppies are certified for use
on one side only.
The 150A and 150B, both of which are the smaller ones, use two N cells to
power the CMOS memory and clock. They have to be replaced fairly
frequently, so keep a good supply on hand.
Some links I dredged up for the 150:
funet archives:
http://www.funet.fi/pub/misc/hp150/
faqs, historical stuff:
http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/hp150faq.txt
http://www.silicium.org/ibm/hp/hp150.htm (en francais)
http://www.glariosa.ch/computeum/hp150.htm (im deutsch)
all 23 of th other links to hp150 info are now dead.
If you have access to compuserve, ask on the antique computer forum (or
whatever they call it now) about HP150 info. Surely there is someone from
the pre-AOL days still around who has the info.
=-=