HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
Steve Greenfield
Unfortunately I didn't notice that it wasn't the serial port one I'd
looked at the day before, the one I bought has the HP-IB interface.
I see new HP-IB cards are very expensive. Is there a source for used
HP-IB interface cards, or Serial to HP-IB adapters that are reasonably
priced? Or should I just wait for another serial interface 7475a to come
up?
My intention is to hack this into a simple computer controlled engraver.
My logic is that it should be easier, quicker, and less expensive to
connect larger steppers (with appropriate buffer/drivers) and use all
the hardware and software already available, rather than building
something from scratch.
Or is there some stupid-simple hack I can apply to the plotter to be
able to connect it to a standard serial port?
Has anyone else here done anything like this? If so, which plotter did
you use, what kind of success, etc.? I've got lots of sites bookmarked
that all deal with building everything from scratch, I'd like to be able
to just use a standard driver with software like CorelDraw.
Thanks,
Steve
Steve Greenfield
>
> Steve
> > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
>
> Try Black Box. They have a site.
> Bob AZ
Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
Thanks,
Steve
Martin Brown
Steve Greenfield wrote:
There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers and
a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
Regards,
Martin Brown
Tony Williams
Steve Greenfield <poly...@polyphoto.com> wrote:
> Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
> that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
A couple of years ago in this newsgroup (s.e.d) there
was a mention of a (freeware) programme that used the
printer port to fake an IEEE port. I can't remember
any further details, but it may be worth a search.
--
Tony Williams.
Rolie Baldock
I cannot recommend that strategy. I bought a few TMS9914A chips and
designed and built a PCB to plug into the ISA bus. I wrote the
software in assembly language for the PC and tried it out. It worked
slowly in debug mode using Codeview but I was not able to get it to
run at anything like full speed and as a consequence the plotter pen
was going up and down like a YOYO, and ink was all over the paper.
The work necessary to get this far took a long time and to undertake
further development of the software I considered unrealistic.
On Mon, 06 Nov 2000 22:08:09 GMT, Martin Brown
<martin...@pandora.be> wrote:
>
>Steve Greenfield wrote:
>
>> RWatson767 wrote:
>> >
>> > Steve
>> > > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
>> >
>> > Try Black Box. They have a site.
>> > Bob AZ
>>
>> Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
>> that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
>>
>> Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
>
>There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
>be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
>could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers and
>a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
>important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
>
>Regards,
>Martin Brown
>
--Rolie Baldock. email: <berd_kalamunda@'nospam'techemail.com>
Rolie Baldock
That would be really interesting if the source code was available.
Regards,
On Mon, 06 Nov 2000 22:17:34 +0000 (GMT), Tony Williams
<to...@ledelec.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <3A072DAF...@polyphoto.com>,
> Steve Greenfield <poly...@polyphoto.com> wrote:
>
>> Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
>> that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
>
> A couple of years ago in this newsgroup (s.e.d) there
> was a mention of a (freeware) programme that used the
> printer port to fake an IEEE port. I can't remember
> any further details, but it may be worth a search.
>
>--
>Tony Williams.
--Rolie Baldock. email: <berd_kalamunda@'nospam'techemail.com>
Art Boyne
them here in my division of Agilent Technologies, the HP spin-off), and
knowing that you'll have trouble finding any GPIB drivers that will support
the 7475A (the only ones that existed were for DOS), you'll be much
better off finding an RS-232 plotter or buying a modern plotter with
USB.
Art
"Rolie Baldock" <berd_ka...@techemail.com> wrote in message
news:3a0885e7...@news.m.iinet.net.au...
> Hello Martin,
>
> I cannot recommend that strategy. I bought a few TMS9914A chips and
> designed and built a PCB to plug into the ISA bus. I wrote the
> software in assembly language for the PC and tried it out. It worked
> slowly in debug mode using Codeview but I was not able to get it to
> run at anything like full speed and as a consequence the plotter pen
> was going up and down like a YOYO, and ink was all over the paper.
> The work necessary to get this far took a long time and to undertake
> further development of the software I considered unrealistic.
>
>
> On Mon, 06 Nov 2000 22:08:09 GMT, Martin Brown
> <martin...@pandora.be> wrote:
>
> >
> >Steve Greenfield wrote:
> >
> >> RWatson767 wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Steve
> >> > > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
> >> >
> >> > Try Black Box. They have a site.
> >> > Bob AZ
> >>
> >> Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
> >> that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
> >>
> >> Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
> >
> >There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
> >be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
> >could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers
and
> >a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
> >important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
> >
> >Regards,
> >Martin Brown
> >
>
Martin Brown
Rolie Baldock wrote:
> I cannot recommend that strategy. I bought a few TMS9914A chips and
> designed and built a PCB to plug into the ISA bus. I wrote the
> software in assembly language for the PC and tried it out. It worked
It is tedious, complex, but not impossible. Like I said if time spent is
unimportant.
> slowly in debug mode using Codeview but I was not able to get it to
> run at anything like full speed and as a consequence the plotter pen
> was going up and down like a YOYO, and ink was all over the paper.
> The work necessary to get this far took a long time and to undertake
> further development of the software I considered unrealistic.
There must have been something wrong with your implementation then. The 9914
was quite well behaved. And a plotter doesn't need much bandwidth, probably
<1kb/s and even the oldest IEEE chipsets could sustain ~100kb/s in a PC without
trying too hard in a HLL.
Scouting round junk boxes at computer shows is probably his best bet. There is
going to be *no* competition at all for second hand IEEE488 cards. A simple
system controller implementation is not all that difficult. YMMV
Regards,
Martin Brown
Steve Greenfield
>
> Steve Greenfield wrote:
>
> > RWatson767 wrote:
> > >
> > > Steve
> > > > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
> > >
> > > Try Black Box. They have a site.
> > > Bob AZ
> >
> > that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
> >
> > Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
>
> There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
> be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
> could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers and
> a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
> important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
Cost is a factor, but time is money, too. :') It is sounding more and
more like I should hold out for a serial model, and just hack this one
up for practice while I'm waiting.
And as I said, I'm no programmer. I think I said, anyway. I don't think
C64 Basic experience will help. ;')
I will probably drive this over a LAN, perhaps DOS/W3.11 in a box using
the DOS drivers? Does that sound possible? Ultimately I may end up with
a few of these plotters modified into engravers, might be easier to have
several on one IEEE 488 interface than fiddle with limited serial ports.
Steve
Steve Greenfield
>
> Steve Greenfield wrote:
> >
> > I see new HP-IB cards are very expensive. Is there a source for used
> > HP-IB interface cards, or Serial to HP-IB adapters that are reasonably
> > priced? Or should I just wait for another serial interface 7475a to come
> > up?
> I have a serial-based and the HP-IB based 7475, but you probably don't
> want
> me to ship them :)
Yeah, shipping has got to be rather steep, this thing is very heavy. I
think someone selling one on eBay said it was 30 pounds boxed up. I
could probably buy several for what it would cost from Finland to the
USA. I appreciate the thought, though.
> If you just want to drive them you could buy a
> cheap HP 9000/300-series workstation (345,370,380,4xx etc.) that have
> a built-in "slow" HP-IB bus and if you're lucky enough to get HP-UX 9.10
> setting the printing is easy. NetBSD has support for ppi (HP-IB plotters
> and printers) but I've never gotten it to work (yet).
That is a thought. Not like it has to transfer data very quickly,
move(x,y) (x1,y1) I'm sure transfers quicker than the plotter can move.
> After that just set up an lpd-queue, Samba or something similar.
Ouch. Way beyond me. Sounds like I should just wait for another serial
7475a to come up, and while waiting I can play with this one. My rough
plan is to set this up in the basement workshop when I'm done, and drive
it over my LAN from something like CorelDraw 8. Thought I might get one
of those cheap 486's or 386's that I can get for $10 or $20 and use it
for that.
> > My intention is to hack this into a simple computer controlled engraver.
> > My logic is that it should be easier, quicker, and less expensive to
> > connect larger steppers (with appropriate buffer/drivers) and use all
> > the hardware and software already available, rather than building
> > something from scratch.
>
> Sounds like fun but you would probably have to slow the plotter down as
> it
> can be quite quick in its movements. Hmmm.. just duct-tape a dremel to
> the
> pen-picker and start engraving.
I ran the self-test mode on the plotter, yep, it is really quick. I
understand it can be slowed down, but I don't know how slow it can go.
If I'm just cutting foam or foam-core plastic, with a suitably fast
cutter (20,000RPM?) it can probably move pretty fast, but for cutting
PCB's it will have to go slower.
One option I've thought of is to use steppers with worm gear drives,
like in old 5.25" floppy drives, for more torque and see if I can get it
to scale down. So maybe the computer and plotter think they are drawing
an 11x17 when it is really 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 size. Then all the hardware
from the plotter would not be an issue, I would only be using the
electronics. It would also take a lot less torque to move a 3x5 board
around with the cutter only moving up and down. A local computer shop is
giving me some 5.25" floppy drives just for this purpose.
Ultimately it would be nice to be able to do 11x17 full size for signs
and such. But I need to generate some income first, or luck into some
large steppers and suitable hardware. Stranger things have happened, I
found a Graphtec cutter/plotter in a Goodwill for only $25! Cleaned out
a paper jam, replaced a fuse, and I can cut vinyl for signs up to 18
inches wide! Made one sign already and paid for the Graphtec and the
roll of vinyl, which I also lucked into.
> I do hope you have the manuals for the plotter (those that show the
> HP-GL
> language ?)
No, keeping my eyes open, though. I really do need to get the operation
manual for the plotter, too.
Steve
Rolie Baldock
You are no doubt right in your assessment. I never did blame the
TMS9914A for the problem because I had no evidence to assume that. My
first reaction was my software was crook, but I could not prove that
either without having some fancy debugging system which recorded the
details in real time and put the results into a file on the HDD. This
I was not prepared to do due to the feeling it was not a good way to
spend my precious time. A friend GAVE me a National Instrument ISA bus
GPIB adaptor board, and the VERY kind National Instrument engineer
tested it for me and found it to be A1. Now I have to connect it to
the HP9872A plotter and see if there is anything wrong with the
plotter which might be responsible for the slow speed operation. When
I get "AROUNDTUIT" I'll know the answer to this riddle.
On Wed, 08 Nov 2000 10:16:02 GMT, Martin Brown
<martin...@pandora.be> wrote:
>
>Rolie Baldock wrote:
>
>> I cannot recommend that strategy. I bought a few TMS9914A chips and
>> designed and built a PCB to plug into the ISA bus. I wrote the
>> software in assembly language for the PC and tried it out. It worked
>
>It is tedious, complex, but not impossible. Like I said if time spent is
>unimportant.
>
>> slowly in debug mode using Codeview but I was not able to get it to
>> run at anything like full speed and as a consequence the plotter pen
>> was going up and down like a YOYO, and ink was all over the paper.
>> The work necessary to get this far took a long time and to undertake
>> further development of the software I considered unrealistic.
>
>There must have been something wrong with your implementation then. The 9914
>was quite well behaved. And a plotter doesn't need much bandwidth, probably
><1kb/s and even the oldest IEEE chipsets could sustain ~100kb/s in a PC without
>trying too hard in a HLL.
>
>Scouting round junk boxes at computer shows is probably his best bet. There is
>going to be *no* competition at all for second hand IEEE488 cards. A simple
>system controller implementation is not all that difficult. YMMV
>
>Regards,
>Martin Brown
>
>> On Mon, 06 Nov 2000 22:08:09 GMT, Martin Brown
>> <martin...@pandora.be> wrote:
>> >
>> >Steve Greenfield wrote:
>> >
>> >> Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
>> >> that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
>> >>
>> >> Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
>> >
>> >There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
>> >be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
>> >could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers and
>> >a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
>> >important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
>> >
Rolie Baldock
Please don't just hack it up. You might later regret it. Try to get a
maintenance manual for it, find out how it works and if you are
electronically intelligent you might be able to build new electronics
to drive the motors using a microcontroller. There will be someone out
there who will be doing something similar and you may get enough info
to be able to convert it into a useable machine again.
On Wed, 08 Nov 2000 17:53:16 GMT, Steve Greenfield
<poly...@polyphoto.com> wrote:
>Martin Brown wrote:
>>
>> Steve Greenfield wrote:
>>
>> > RWatson767 wrote:
>> > >
>> > > Steve
>> > > > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
>> > >
>> > > Try Black Box. They have a site.
>> > > Bob AZ
>> >
>> > Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
>> > that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
>> >
>> > Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
>>
>> There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
>> be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
>> could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers and
>> a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
>> important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
>
>Cost is a factor, but time is money, too. :') It is sounding more and
>more like I should hold out for a serial model, and just hack this one
>up for practice while I'm waiting.
>
>And as I said, I'm no programmer. I think I said, anyway. I don't think
>C64 Basic experience will help. ;')
>
>I will probably drive this over a LAN, perhaps DOS/W3.11 in a box using
>the DOS drivers? Does that sound possible? Ultimately I may end up with
>a few of these plotters modified into engravers, might be easier to have
>several on one IEEE 488 interface than fiddle with limited serial ports.
>
>Steve
--Rolie Baldock. email: <berd_kalamunda@'nospam'techemail.com>
Paul Grohe
Steve Greenfield <poly...@polyphoto.com>
from Alien Relics and Polymorph thoughtfully posted:
> Martin Brown wrote:
> >
> > Steve Greenfield wrote:
> >
> > > RWatson767 wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Steve
> > > > > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
> > > >
> > > > Try Black Box. They have a site.
> > > > Bob AZ
> > >
> > > Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
> > > that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
> > >
> > > Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
> >
> > There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
> > be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
> > could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers and
> > a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
> > important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
>
> Cost is a factor, but time is money, too. :') It is sounding more and
> more like I should hold out for a serial model, and just hack this one
> up for practice while I'm waiting.
>
> And as I said, I'm no programmer. I think I said, anyway. I don't think
> C64 Basic experience will help. ;')
The DOS driver package (used to?) contain a driver that allowed a
talk only GPIB port to be mapped as an additional LPT port.
I did it under Windoze 3.1 (back in the old daze - when I
downloaded the files from their BBS using a 2400 baud modem!).
The DOS gpib.com driver and this utility are loaded from
config.sys. Windoze just sees it as another LPT port - and you
just install the standard 7475 plotter driver and point it to the
"new" LPT port.
Of course, you have to find a National Instruments card first. It
*might* work with the newer cards (AT-GPIB) - but you would have
to load DOS drivers for the card (yecch!).
Do a multiple web search on Dogpile for "National Instruments"
"PC-II" or "PC-2A". I have seen them in some junk stores, and on
Ebay. Ther are some "PC-IIA Compatible" cards out there - but the
NI drivers are too "smart" and recognize an "imposter" and refuse
to load.
It is possible to "convert" the plotter to serial by replacing
the interface daughter board - there even was a note about this
on the HP site - but you will have a tough time finding that
board. It is just easier to find a serial plotter.
To the OP, See if you can trade in your plotter for a serial one.
HPIB plotters will always be in demand since they "talk" to all
the older HPIB equipment. Serial plotters used to be less
desirable - but with the proliferation of serial ports on the
newer instruments - they are becoming popular again.
For serial - you want a HP7475A with Option 001 (002 is GPIB).
Good Luck!
Cheers,
Paul Grohe
Steve Greenfield
>
> On Wed, 08 Nov 2000 17:53:16 GMT,
> in the newsgroup sci.electronics.design,
> Steve Greenfield <poly...@polyphoto.com>
> from Alien Relics and Polymorph thoughtfully posted:
>
> > Martin Brown wrote:
> > >
> > > Steve Greenfield wrote:
> > >
> > > > RWatson767 wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Steve
> > > > > > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
> The DOS driver package (used to?) contain a driver that allowed a
> talk only GPIB port to be mapped as an additional LPT port.
>
> I did it under Windoze 3.1 (back in the old daze - when I
> downloaded the files from their BBS using a 2400 baud modem!).
> The DOS gpib.com driver and this utility are loaded from
> config.sys. Windoze just sees it as another LPT port - and you
> just install the standard 7475 plotter driver and point it to the
> "new" LPT port.
I have no knowledge of IEEE 488 to speak of. Is it not possible for me
to drive more than one of these plotters from a GP-IB card?
> Of course, you have to find a National Instruments card first. It
> *might* work with the newer cards (AT-GPIB) - but you would have
> to load DOS drivers for the card (yecch!).
This will ultimately be set up in my basement workshop, preferably
driven over the network to a computer dedicated to it. Probably a 386
with WFW 3.11 and DOS.
> Do a multiple web search on Dogpile for "National Instruments"
> "PC-II" or "PC-2A". I have seen them in some junk stores, and on
> Ebay. Ther are some "PC-IIA Compatible" cards out there - but the
> NI drivers are too "smart" and recognize an "imposter" and refuse
> to load.
I'm keeping my eye on eBay. The local places I've gone keep telling me
about all the HP-IB cards they've thrown away!
> It is possible to "convert" the plotter to serial by replacing
> the interface daughter board - there even was a note about this
> on the HP site - but you will have a tough time finding that
> board. It is just easier to find a serial plotter.
Come to that, the place I got this one also had a rebadged HP 7440a
serial interface plotter, I wonder if I can just swap the
daughterboards, then? The 7440a is legal size, max, or I'd just use it.
Anyone know if the 7440a and the 7475a use the same interface
daugherboard?
> To the OP, See if you can trade in your plotter for a serial one.
> HPIB plotters will always be in demand since they "talk" to all
> the older HPIB equipment. Serial plotters used to be less
> desirable - but with the proliferation of serial ports on the
> newer instruments - they are becoming popular again.
>
> For serial - you want a HP7475A with Option 001 (002 is GPIB).
There is another local surplus store that has that very one, but he
won't just trade me straight across. He wants $150 for it, too.
> Good Luck!
Thanks!
Recognizing that the steppers in the plotter are very small and not
meant to drive against any real resistance, I've picked up an old (very
old!) dot matrix printer that has two large steppers in it. I realize
I'll have to beef up the drivers from the Plotter.
Steve
nob...@nowhere.com
: I have no knowledge of IEEE 488 to speak of. Is it not possible for me
: to drive more than one of these plotters from a GP-IB card?
Yes- GPIB allows up to 16 devices on thebus- though there are cabling/hardware
limits also.
Stan
Art Boyne
<nob...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:9741492...@cswreg.cos.agilent.com...
Actually, 15 devices (assuming 1 load/device), including the computer.
I just checked my IEEE 488.1 spec.
Art
Tony Williams
> That would be really interesting if the source code was available.
[Me]
> > A couple of years ago in this newsgroup (s.e.d) there
> > was a mention of a (freeware) programme that used the
> > printer port to fake an IEEE port. I can't remember
> > any further details, but it may be worth a search.
AFAIR the code was freely available, but I can't
exactly remember where. A trawl of Steve Walz's
site <armory.com> might turn up something.
--
Tony Williams.
Steve Greenfield
I found it: http://www.softronix.com/
I found it via a message posted on a messageboard that referenced using
the parallel port to fake a GPIB/IEEE 488 port. The person had done this
to use an HP 7475 plotter with Softronix's MSWLogo, so I don't know if
this will actually help me use it look like a standard printer port
driveable by CorelDraw or CNC software.
Yes, the software is freeware now, so at least it will only cost me time
to try.
The search for either a serial port 7475a or an ISA GPIB/IEEE 488 card
goes on...
Steve
Dan Beeker
Dan Beeker
Paul Grohe wrote:
>
> On Wed, 08 Nov 2000 17:53:16 GMT,
> in the newsgroup sci.electronics.design,
> Steve Greenfield <poly...@polyphoto.com>
> from Alien Relics and Polymorph thoughtfully posted:
>
> > Martin Brown wrote:
> > >
> > > Steve Greenfield wrote:
> > >
> > > > RWatson767 wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Steve
> > > > > > HP-IB interface, or buy a serial HP 7475a?
> > > > >
> > > > > Try Black Box. They have a site.
> > > > > Bob AZ
> > > >
> > > > Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
> > > > that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
> > > >
> > > > Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
> > >
> > > There should still be cheap ISA cards about for IEEE-488. Drivers might
> > > be a bit thin on the ground for the old Intel chipset these days. You
> > > could drive IEEE bus with an basic IO card, some suitable HPIB buffers and
> > > a fair amount of tedious software development if cost is really more
> > > important to you than time. Plotters are not especially fast peripherals.
> >
> > Cost is a factor, but time is money, too. :') It is sounding more and
> > more like I should hold out for a serial model, and just hack this one
> > up for practice while I'm waiting.
> >
> > And as I said, I'm no programmer. I think I said, anyway. I don't think
> > C64 Basic experience will help. ;')
>
> The DOS driver package (used to?) contain a driver that allowed a
> talk only GPIB port to be mapped as an additional LPT port.
>
> I did it under Windoze 3.1 (back in the old daze - when I
> downloaded the files from their BBS using a 2400 baud modem!).
> The DOS gpib.com driver and this utility are loaded from
> config.sys. Windoze just sees it as another LPT port - and you
> just install the standard 7475 plotter driver and point it to the
> "new" LPT port.
>
> Of course, you have to find a National Instruments card first. It
> *might* work with the newer cards (AT-GPIB) - but you would have
> to load DOS drivers for the card (yecch!).
>
> Do a multiple web search on Dogpile for "National Instruments"
> "PC-II" or "PC-2A". I have seen them in some junk stores, and on
> Ebay. Ther are some "PC-IIA Compatible" cards out there - but the
> NI drivers are too "smart" and recognize an "imposter" and refuse
> to load.
>
> It is possible to "convert" the plotter to serial by replacing
> the interface daughter board - there even was a note about this
> on the HP site - but you will have a tough time finding that
> board. It is just easier to find a serial plotter.
>
> To the OP, See if you can trade in your plotter for a serial one.
> HPIB plotters will always be in demand since they "talk" to all
> the older HPIB equipment. Serial plotters used to be less
> desirable - but with the proliferation of serial ports on the
> newer instruments - they are becoming popular again.
>
> For serial - you want a HP7475A with Option 001 (002 is GPIB).
>
Steve Greenfield
>
> Have you tried Jameco?
> > > > Steve Greenfield wrote:
> > > > > Well, as you can imagine I'm a bit hesitant to buy a converter or card
> > > > > that costs more than $400 for a plotter I bought for only $25. :')
> > > > >
> > > > > Again, any used reasonably priced sources?
Good call, cheaper new GPIB cards than the other places I looked, but
cheapest is still $200.
Sigh.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'd forgotten Jameco.
Steve