Printing from HP-86B ?

[smp]

So, I've been looking and looking for any available GPIB-to-Serial (USB, or RS-232, or anything serial) interfaces on the Internet. Maybe I'm too thick to do the search properly, but I keep coming up with Serial-to-GPIB interfaces. The exception being that National Instruments may actually make what I'm looking for - they have some $500 and some $600 devices. Sigh!

I then took another look at the HP 82938A module. This would put my HP-86 on the HP-IL and I could link up with pyILPER, as Dave and Bob have suggested. The 82938A is available here:

http://www.360tech.com/hp-il-interface-m...47116.html

for $65. Not bad. The manual for the 82938A says that it requires either the IO ROM (00085-15003) or the Plotter/Printer ROM (00085-15002). As luck has it, I have the Plotter/Printer ROM. Oh, lucky day! But wait! I have also read that the ROMs that start with 00085 are for the HP-85, and I might actually need the equivalent Plotter/Printer ROM for the HP86/87 (00087-15002). Is that right?

Wow. This is starting to get complicated... I love my HP stuff, I love my HP stuff, I love my HP stuff...

smp