9825A help please.

[Geoff Quickfall]

It is HP and it does calculate but it is not quite an HP calculator. I am referring to my HP 9825A desktop computer.

I restored the keyboard about five years ago and Larry Atherton (see post in general forum about Larry) restored a machine my tape drive to accept that 100 tapes. He also supplied five tapes with statistical, mathematical, testing programs for the HP to 9825A.

He was extremely helpful filling in blanks that the manuals do not cover.

With that in mind, I have acquired to tape drives, a master and slave HPIB, 8 inch floppy drives; the 9885M and the 9885S. Now I have to find the correct HPIB cable to attach these to my 9825A. Also do need a ROM module for plugged in to the front or do they need dedicated PCA boards internally.

I would appreciate any help identifying the requirements to attach these disc drives to the 9825A.

[emefff]

Hello,

do you know the YT channel 'CuriousMarc'? He restored a 9895 dual floppy, maybe you find a clue in this video (he also talks about the HP-IB board(s) in this video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjLRsJzS57Q

If not, I am quite sure he'll answer a question or two, also he has a few more videos on the 9825a and other drives,

emefff.

[KeithB]

Any GPIB cables should work, though they are pricey.
NI makes them and Digikey has them.

[Sylvain Cote]

Hello Geoff,
You can easily find a used HP-IB cable at a reasonable cost on eBay, search for "HP-IB cable".
Carefully look at the shipping price before pressing the "Buy It Now" button.

[vassilisprevelakis]

(11-22-2024 05:40 AM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  I have acquired to tape drives, a master and slave HPIB, 8 inch floppy drives; the 9885M and the 9885S. Now I have to find the correct HPIB cable to attach these to my 9825A. Also do need a ROM module for plugged in to the front or do they need dedicated PCA boards internally.

I would appreciate any help identifying the requirements to attach these disc drives to the 9825A.

Hi,

The 9885S is just a cabinet with a drive inside, no controller.

Now I do not believe that the 9885M is HP-IB, so its not just a cable you should be looking for.

You need a controller and a ROM pack and quite possibly a boot disk but I could be wrong on the last point.

Also if you have an unexpanded / un-upgraded A model, you will not be able to use HP-IB for disk storage.

Still the 9825 is a really neat system.

Cheers

Vassilis
http://www.series80.org


Finally I am not sure if

[rprosperi]

Geoff, email me about the needed length, I probably have an HP-IB cable I can mail you.\

[Geoff Quickfall]

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.

[Martin Hepperle]

...see also one of your three threads about the same topic https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-22748.html

[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.

[Geoff Quickfall]

Thanks everyone for your input.

Busy getting all the manuals required for the disc drive 9885M, general and extended IO ROM, the 98032A and the 98034B.

Paul, PM sent.

Cheers, Geoff

[Geoff Quickfall]

So far I have secured the following in the desire to get a floppy system up and running on the 9825A

9885M
9885S
98217A x 3
98032A option 85

In contact with CuriousMarc and Paul Berger who have both been extremely helpful on this journey.

Will update on this and the book soon.