smaller HP 82166A with 32-pin connector

[J-F Garnier]

(09-06-2021 07:37 AM)Klaus Overhage Wrote:  I wonder what kind of interface the author of the French article used back then. He writes:
"En fouillant plus a fond dans la boite; nous decouvrons un petit sac
contenant: une interface CANON <-> CENTRONICS, permettent le branchement a
un convertisseur HPIL lui meme relie a une la boucle HPIL."
That means translated:
"By digging deeper into the box; we discover a small bag containing: a CANON <-> CENTRONICS interface, allow connection to an HPIL converter itself is connected to the HPIL loop."

I don't think there was such an accessory from CANON. So who built it and how did it work?

It wasn't from Canon of course. From the context "un petit coup de fil passé à Etienne", it is clear that it came from Etienne Poupée (SCIP). The goal was exactly to solve the problem you found: make the plotter compatible with the HP82166.
I wrote an article in Micro-Revue (French) on the use of the Tandy CGP115 (similar mechanism than the Canon) here:
http://www.jeffcalc.hp41.eu/divers/files/mr-07.pdf page 36.
where I described the (same) problem and my solution. I wasn't aware of the JPC article at the time.
You can try my BIRTH program for the plotter, it gave so nice graphics that it was actually used to illustrate several later Micro-Revue issues.

J-F