HP97 The journey begins

[teenix]

Hi all,

I've been busy behind the scenes. The circuit board is getting a bit complex now but getting there. I had a bit of difficulty sorting out the new motor drive. Normally not much of a hassle but I wanted to have programmable print width and print intensity and this required some fine tuning of the circuit. This was the main reason I could not complete the project using a single processor.

Both of these functions seem to work ok, but I won't know 100% until the new circuit board is made and running the software.

I have also installed a chip for the Constant Memory feature which can be disabled if required.

I'm still hanging off getting the board made due to little glitches I see and it's a lot to throw away if it's broken. It's amazing how everything looks fine until you look at it a few days later.

I've modified the main CPU program and written the (PIK) CPU program. These test ok during simulation and on a test jig, but because they have to interact with each other I won't know 100% until the board becomes operational.

What a ride :-)

cheers

Tony