9825A help please.

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

(11-24-2024 05:41 AM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Hello all

Thanks for all the input (pun intended).

Reading the 9885M manual the 9825A will work with the 9885M and with the correct cable, the slave 9885S.

Looks like I need a plug-in module to the rear; the 90832A interface module.

Digging around in my stores I found a 98034B interface, and just downloaded the manual. The manual states that it will run on the 9825A and it would seem to be in updated 98032A. It would appear that I have everything I need to connect te disc drives to the 9825 except for an HPIB cable to connect the 9885M to the 9885S which is not a concern at the moment as getting one Disc drive working would suffice


Has anyone had experience putting together the 9825A with the 9885M using an interface module?

Is the 98032A equivalent to the 98034B? Hopefully it is and I will update once the system has been tested.

Thanks again.

The 9885 is NOT a HP-IB device what you need is a 98032A parallel interface correctly configured and with the correct cable. The 98032A is just a 16 bit GPIO adapter had a number of pre-configured options one of which is for connecting to the 9885. I think I may have one of them I just need to remember where I put my 98xx adapters. Drop me a private message and we can discuss.

I don't have a 9825 any more however when I had one I did connect it to the 9885M that I had at the time. Besides the correct adapter and cable you will also need a ROM and here is where some of the tricky stuff comes in. You say you have a 9825A, is it really a 9825A or has it been upgraded to a B or T model? One quick way to tell is to look at the value returned when you type 'free' If it returns more than 32K then it is likely one that was upgraded to a T in which case I think I may be able to help you with a ROM as well. Several years ago when I still had 9825s I set about dumping as many ROM as I could lay my hands on, and out of that I was also involved with cloning of two different mass storage ROMs for the T models. I could probably work up a clone of the ROM that works with the A model as well but have no way to test it.

Another thing that you may run into it your machine really is an A model is the routines to do things like initialize diskettes where distributed on a tape that I am not aware of there being any readable copies in existence. There is an image available, but you need to write it out with something, I used my Frankenstein 9895 and HPDrive to do that, I may even still have some diskettes initialized for 9825A/9885M but again I will need to look. With the ROM for the T model things get much easier as the routines to initialize the diskette are in the ROM, but the means by which they got extra space in the ROM ( bank switching the ROM) unfortunately means that it will work with the T model.

Paul.