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PeterP · 02-05-2021, 05:30 AM

I picked up an HP-IL device on eBay (offering a very low amount and the seller accepting it), however I am not able to find anything out about it, or figure out how to fire it up, play with it.

Attached are some images, anyone having any idea? Push comes to shove, I can strip it for parts (like the IL chip and the HP-IL connectors), but I was thinking its worth while to see if someone can figure something out, or provide directions on e.g. how to power it up and see if it has any commands (unlikely), etc.

HP-Collection · 02-05-2021, 05:44 AM

Looks like a AC motor driver Wink

Greetings from Switzerland

KeithB · 02-05-2021, 02:58 PM

Such an oddly specific piece of equipment.
You might see if they have a similar RS-232 or GPIB version, the commands might be the same.

Dave Frederickson · 02-05-2021, 03:26 PM

Crap! Another HP-IL device. Gotta fix Wikipedia again!

John Keith · (This post was last modified: 02-05-2021 06:26 PM by John Keith.)

Can you see part numbers on Q2 and Q3 (the devices attached to the heat sink)? May be helpful in determining what type of controller it is.

**rprosperi** · 02-05-2021, 06:43 PM

What does the "other" side look like, where one would presumably connect a power supply (to power this device) and other leads for the motors this is presumably controlling?

With the device powered-on, you can connect it to the loop with a 71B (or other controller, but why would you?) and doing RESTORE IO should come back right away confirming the IL loop is communicating, then you can use DEVID$(1) to get it's ID, which may help a bit.

PeterP · 02-05-2021, 10:18 PM

eBay states that indeed it is an AC motor driver (I should probably have led with that, duh!)

The back looks like the below so I have no idea which pin is what, I dont even know where to power it up and with what voltage...

Dave Frederickson · 02-05-2021, 10:32 PM

(02-05-2021 10:18 PM)PeterP Wrote: The back looks like the below so I have no idea which pin is what, I dont even know where to power it up and with what voltage...

You could try applying 5V to the HP-IL chip. If the 1LR4 HP-IL chip (uC interface) is like the 1LB3, pin 1 is 5V and pin 10 is GND.

**rprosperi** · 02-05-2021, 11:49 PM

(02-05-2021 10:18 PM)PeterP Wrote: The back looks like the below so I have no idea which pin is what, I dont even know where to power it up and with what voltage...

There must have been a cable harness that plugged-in to this 48-pin horror, which had separate leads for the power input and special connectors for the motors.

I dug into docs for some obscure HP-IL peripherals from back in the day, and checked them to see if possibly applicable, but those devices are for controlling step-motors and look nothing alike, so not related. Sorry, not much help.

PeterP · 02-06-2021, 01:01 AM

no worries, thanks for trying!

Quote:48-pin horror

Very technically apt term here I have to say....

I will look at it over the weekend and then it will be stripped for parts.

Dave Frederickson · 02-06-2021, 01:50 AM

(02-05-2021 11:49 PM)rprosperi Wrote: There must have been a cable harness that plugged-in to this 48-pin horror, which had separate leads for the power input and special connectors for the motors.

I disagree. The connector appears to be a hard metric connector by Harting. These types of connectors are common with VME and CompactPCI. The faceplate is also common with plug-in modules.

Paul Berger (Canada) · 02-06-2021, 02:05 AM

Well it says it is an AC motor controller so my guess would be that the two TO-220 parts bolted to the heatsink are triac. Looking from the back the two Rifa caps and the two white ones behind them look like they are X & Y safety caps and should be marked as such. X caps are typically across the two AC lines and Y caps from the lines to ground The two toroids behind would probably be filters in line with the two legs of an AC feed so you should be able to figure out where the AC connections are. They grey blob is probably a transformer and may even be marked, but I suspect the primary side is next to the toroids. There looks to be 4 diodes on the other side for a full wave rectifier with a couple fairly large electrolytic caps next to them rated for 16V. Perhaps one of the TO-220 devices is a 5V regulator.

If you can figure out the AC input I would probably start with 110V and see if you get +5V across the power pins of the HPIL chip as per Dave's post earlier. If you have a variac available you could even start with a lower AC input voltage and then raise it until you get something reasonable on the DC side.

This would get you top the point of powering the thing up but probably the only way to figure out how it works would be to dump and reverse engineer the ROM of the 6811, I don't think the 6811 had protection.

Paul.

**rprosperi** · 02-06-2021, 02:09 AM

(02-06-2021 01:50 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:
(02-05-2021 11:49 PM)rprosperi Wrote: There must have been a cable harness that plugged-in to this 48-pin horror, which had separate leads for the power input and special connectors for the motors.

I disagree. The connector appears to be a hard metric connector by Harting. These types of connectors are common with VME and CompactPCI. The faceplate is also common with plug-in modules.

Guess I'm not up on my Harting devices. What does all that mean, with respect to this context, and how does that make that horrible-looking connector any better?

Dave Frederickson · (This post was last modified: 02-06-2021 02:17 AM by Dave Frederickson.)

(02-06-2021 02:09 AM)rprosperi Wrote:
(02-06-2021 01:50 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote: I disagree. The connector appears to be a hard metric connector by Harting. These types of connectors are common with VME and CompactPCI. The faceplate is also common with plug-in modules.

Guess I'm not up on my Harting devices. What does all that mean, with respect to this context, and how does that make that horrible-looking connector any better?

I'm just saying it plugs into a chassis, not a cable.

Here's another HP-IL board from Seal.
https://www.ebay.at/itm/SEAL-S94002-HP-I...4194943109

Dave

Edit: LOL! Martin H. was investigating this board a year ago.
https://forum-controlsystems.abb.com/202...-interface

**rprosperi** · 02-06-2021, 03:03 AM

(02-06-2021 02:14 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:
(02-06-2021 02:09 AM)rprosperi Wrote: Guess I'm not up on my Harting devices. What does all that mean, with respect to this context, and how does that make that horrible-looking connector any better?

I'm just saying it plugs into a chassis, not a cable.

Ah, got it, didn't know you meant THAT VME! Interesting. So, possibly some means to be able to walk up to some rack (controlling or monitoring equipment) and just plug-in some portable HP-IL controller for collecting test data, adjusting settings, etc.

Erwin · (This post was last modified: 02-06-2021 07:47 AM by Erwin.)

Hello,

looks like it could be a slave module and HP IL only for read outs? VME connector
VME Pin description
So it looks like it is only the connector but not used in a classical VME?
In a rack-mount it would be very uncommon to have a HP-Device close to it - exept on a table mounted rack. Very misterious. This is a double sided platine, so we would see a bus structure or more of the layout to the pins of the connector. Could you do a photo from the back side? So we are able to see if the uC is used only local. The three grey blocks could be relais?
I think first it should be clear what voltage the mains should be. If it is from Europe 220V would be the guess, if it‘s from US then 110 volts. The fuse maybe an indicator to this.

Regards Erwin

MeindertKuipers · 02-06-2021, 09:58 AM

This connector is certainly not VME, that had much more pins, it had 3 rows of 32 pins. This connector is for more current. So it is most likely a high-power rack-mount system.
And without schematics, it is not safe to power up. It could be anything from 48 to 230V

Erwin · (This post was last modified: 02-06-2021 01:48 PM by Erwin.)

(02-06-2021 09:58 AM)MeindertKuipers Wrote: This connector is certainly not VME, that had much more pins, it had 3 rows of 32 pins. This connector is for more current. So it is most likely a high-power rack-mount system.
And without schematics, it is not safe to power up. It could be anything from 48 to 230V

You are right of course ... but the capacitor for 250V (they grey blocks) are an indicator for 220V ? it makes no sense to use them for 48V I think.

ijabbott · 02-06-2021, 03:50 PM

(02-06-2021 02:05 AM)Paul Berger (Canada) Wrote: Well it says it is an AC motor controller so my guess would be that the two TO-220 parts bolted to the heatsink are triac. Looking from the back the two Rifa caps and the two white ones behind them look like they are X & Y safety caps and should be marked as such. X caps are typically across the two AC lines and Y caps from the lines to ground The two toroids behind would probably be filters in line with the two legs of an AC feed so you should be able to figure out where the AC connections are.

It would be a good idea to remove or replace those RIFA caps before connecting it to the AC mains. They don't age well.

Paul Berger (Canada) · 02-06-2021, 04:17 PM

(02-06-2021 01:47 PM)Erwin Wrote:
(02-06-2021 09:58 AM)MeindertKuipers Wrote: This connector is certainly not VME, that had much more pins, it had 3 rows of 32 pins. This connector is for more current. So it is most likely a high-power rack-mount system.
And without schematics, it is not safe to power up. It could be anything from 48 to 230V

You are right of course ... but the capacitor for 250V (they grey blocks) are an indicator for 220V ? it makes no sense to use them for 48V I think.

Perhaps , but that would mean they are operating pretty close to their rated voltage anyway it would be better to start at a lower voltage and see if you get a reasonable DC voltage at the other end, rather than start at a higher voltage and let out the magic smoke.

Paul.