HP97 The journey begins

[teenix]

Well, it looks like the 91/92 CPU board is behaving itself.

Figuring out the problems with the 92 which I posted earlier on a different thread manifested in this board as well, so that is sorted, and I learned a few other bits about the ACT in the process.

This board was a bit tricky because even though they have the same keyboard layout, the actual key matrix is different, although not sure why. That in itself was not much of a problem, but when you want to use the 91 Topcat to emulate the 92, or vice versa, the keys need to be decoded differently.

There are also differences in the switches and how they are interpreted by the ACT. The actual switches are different as well, so some switch functions are set from the menu when emulating a different model to that of the actual hardware.

I have the 2 PIK printer ROMs installed, and the printer is responding as it should, but I haven't connected the print head up yet. I want to make sure everything is working properly, and the print head driver shuts down if an error occurs. If the software fails, as it does sometimes during development, I need to make sure the print head doesn't stay energized, which would be a disaster as it will probably burn out quickly.

This has the same printer driver software as the 97 board, so it should(?) be ok.

That will be the next task.

cheers

Tony