What did this HP-IL device do?

[4ster]

Hewlett Packard 82166-60013 HP-IL Interfacing board
This Guy

My Google skills have failed me.

[Joe Horn]

(06-15-2015 01:37 PM)4ster Wrote:  Hewlett Packard 82166-60013 HP-IL Interfacing board
This Guy

It's kinda the same shape, and it has the same number of pins, and they are labeled the same, as the parallel-port pins on the HP 82166A "HP-IL Converter" which "provides the capability to convert an external device with general purpose input/output (GPIO) capabilities into a device compatible with the Hewlett-Packard Interface Loop (HP-IL)." [from the 82166A Technical Manual]



So I'm guessing that it's either the board inside an 82166A or a board that lets you build your own equivalent of an 82166A. I don't know why it has two identical parallel ports, though; perhaps for pass-through operation? (wild guess only).

It also looks similar to the board included in the "HP 82166A Prototyping Kit":

... about which I know nothing. It's mentioned here with no details: http://www.hp-collection.org/hpil.html

"And that's all I have to say about that." -- Forrest Gump

[Dave Frederickson]

(06-15-2015 02:43 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  It also looks similar to the board included in the "HP 82166A Prototyping Kit":

There's extensive documentation on the prototyping kit on TOS.

[4ster]

I'm not convinced that it was part of 82166A prototyping kit yet, the form factor and the arrangement of the connections are different.

Full disclosure, I am a forester, not an EE or even very savy in circuit design.

Are the screw connections for a 9v power supply? I don't see anything that looks like it is switched power out, like a 9v signal to run a relay.

[Dave Frederickson]

(06-15-2015 03:24 PM)4ster Wrote:  I'm not convinced that it was part of 82166A prototyping kit yet, the form factor and the arrangement of the connections are different.

How about the Eval Board on p.29 of the 82166A HP-IL Converter Technical Manual?

Click to zoom


Perhaps a slightly different version.

[rprosperi]

There were a series of different board form factors available from HP for integrating into devices being built around the HP-IL ports.

The off-the-shelf Prototyping Kit, p/n 82166A, included the board in the plastic enclosure for the initial bread-boarding.

There were a series of other types of boards for actually integrating into your product. Note the ebay item's part number, 82166-60013, has the same root, but different sub-part number, typical of how HP numbered parts (at least back then).

I don't recall how many sub-types there were, but I do recall seeing at least 2 different styles.

[Dave Frederickson]

(06-15-2015 10:55 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  The off-the-shelf Prototyping Kit, p/n 82166A, included the board in the plastic enclosure for the initial bread-boarding.

I believe the 82166A was the HP-IL Converter and the "prototyping kit" was the 82166C HP-IL Interfacing Kit.

The board in the eBay listing is the Eval Board described in Appendix C of the HP-IL Converter manual. An Eval Board was included with each HP-IL Converter. It's purpose is to connect 2 82166A's together.

Dave

[Sylvain Cote]

(06-15-2015 11:48 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  I believe the 82166A was the HP-IL Converter and the "prototyping kit" was the 82166C HP-IL Interfacing Kit.

I have bought several 82166C kits in the 1980's and that board was never in the "C" kit.
I was lucky enough to acquire another one 3 years ago (Kit overview, Components, IC#1 and IC#2)

(06-15-2015 11:48 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  The board in the eBay listing is the Eval Board described in Appendix C of the HP-IL Converter manual. An Eval Board was included with each HP-IL Converter. It's purpose is to connect 2 82166A's together.

Yep! that's what it look like.
I have several 82166A units but mines never came with that board.
Anyway it's pretty easy to create something similar.

Sylvain

[Sylvain Cote]

From the HP Bench Briefs March-April 1982
HP-IL Converter
The HP 82166 HP-IL Converter is a component designed to be built into other devices, such as measurement instruments.
It connects the internal electronics of the machine to the HP-IL loop, thereby letting the machine communicate with other devices on the loop and be controlled by an HP-41.
The converter makes it easy to enhance a wide variety of electronic instruments so they can be controlled by an HP-41, rather than by a much more costly computer.
The HP 82166 HP-IL Converter is available now from HP dealers or from HP.
The 82166A Prototyping Kit contains two 82166 converters, documentation and cables. U.S. price is $395.
A package of ten 82166 converters only (Prototyping Kit not included) is $1250.

[rprosperi]

What an impressive amount of data to correct my almost correct reply, thanks Dave and Sylvain.

Having never bought/owned any of these kits, I guess my advice on the kits and part numbers missed the mark, but the intention is correct. There were different kits with different component packages/styles to get HP-IL integrated into custom-designed products.

Back in the day, I got an HP-IL Development module to explore doing this, but was pretty quickly overwhelmed, and then when the 71B came out, I never really looked back at the low-level HP-IL stuff.

I often wondered how many products ever got produced in larger than prototype/beta quantities. I'm sure the Educalc catalogs have some of them, gotta go take a look someday soon...

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

(06-16-2015 01:53 AM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  I have bought several 82166C kits in the 1980's and that board was never in the "C" kit.
I was lucky enough to acquire another one 3 years ago

Sylvain

I have never been lucky enough to get either of these, the selling price always seemed to go through the roof. I did however mange to acquire a number of 1LB3/1LR4 chips along with all the other components to make an interface, including 6 of the HPIL adapters for some model of spectrum analyzer.

Did HP even make available a code listing for the software on the mask programmed F8 processor that is included in the 82166C kit?

Paul.

[nicholas]

(06-18-2015 01:48 AM)Paul Berger (Canada) Wrote:  

(06-16-2015 01:53 AM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  I have bought several 82166C kits in the 1980's and that board was never in the "C" kit.
I was lucky enough to acquire another one 3 years ago

Sylvain

I have never been lucky enough to get either of these, the selling price always seemed to go through the roof. I did however mange to acquire a number of 1LB3/1LR4 chips along with all the other components to make an interface, including 6 of the HPIL adapters for some model of spectrum analyzer.

Did HP even make available a code listing for the software on the mask programmed F8 processor that is included in the 82166C kit?

Paul.

I used several 82166C kits to interface to thermoprinter and maka a emulated disk drive that went against a PC hard disk.

I used z80 as the processor.
this must have been in 1983 or similar years.
All thios code is gone and so is the schematics unfortunately.
But I remeber docs came with the kit to describe how to do bot HW and SW

/Nicholas

[Sylvain Cote]

(06-18-2015 01:48 AM)Paul Berger (Canada) Wrote:  Did HP even make available a code listing for the software on the mask programmed F8 processor that is included in the 82166C kit?

Not that I known of.

(06-18-2015 09:27 AM)nicholas Wrote:  But I remeber docs came with the kit to describe how to do bot HW and SW

82166-90020 HP-82166C HP-IL Interface Kit Technical Guide
1: Introduction, 2: Parts List and Description, 3: Documentation Guide, 4: Design Alternatives,
5: Connection Diagrams, 6: Ordering, 7: Licensing & 8: Warranty

82166-90017 The HP-IL Interface Specification
Chapter one provides an overview of the HP-IL interface system with some example implementations.
The complete functional, electrical, and mechanical specifications of HP-IL are contained in chapters two, three, and four respectively.
Chapter five discusses system considerations such as recommended sequences of interface messages, asynchronous loop operations, and device compatibility.
In the appendices information such as message coding and glossary of terms may be found.

82166-90016 The HP-IL Integrated Circuit (1LE3-0003) User's Manual
The HP-IL integrated circuit is a tool that performs many complex HP-IL functions automatically.
Chapter one describes the features available and gives a general overview of the HP-IL IC's capabilities.
In chapter two, the complete functional specifications are given with descriptions of all operational modes and automatic functions.
Chapter three provides application examples with descriptions of frame sequences and responses.
A complete flowchart of an example HP-IL device implementation is also provided.
Chapter four describes the electrical specifications and implementation guidelines.
The theory of operation of the internal logic is given in chapter five.

82166-90024 Firmware Design for HP-IL Devices - Application Note
The purpose of this application note is to assist the firmware designer by providing a detailed template for the HP-IL routine in the form
of pseudo-code which is easy to understand and can be converted to microprocessor-specific code with a minimum of effort.

edit: typo