Printing from HP-86B ?

[rprosperi]

(07-07-2017 08:49 PM)smp Wrote:  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?

HP-83/85 machines use ROMs with p/n starting with 00085-xxxx, while HP-86/87 machines use ROMs with p/n starting with 00087-xxxx. There is a pretty complete list here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_series_...extensions

You cannot use 85 ROMs in an 87 and vice-versa.

Many of the early interface module manuals were written before 86/87 models were released and therefor only list the 83/85 ROM model numbers. So, this translates to you will need either ROM 00087-15002 or 00087-15003.

However, and this may be a big however, on the HP-85, that ROM contains both PRINTER and PLOTTER support. On the HP-86/87, PRINTER support is built-in, so advice to add the PRINTER/PLOTTER ROM may not apply.

I would guess, from the wording in the IL Interface manual, that the needed support for this interface is built-in to your 86/87 and additional ROMs are not needed for printing. Likewise, you probably would need to add to add the PLOTTER ROM for HP-IL plotting.