Big Vintage HP Hardware Haul

[@trptmbalmer]

I'm glad that between my brother and I, all of this stuff arrived intact! Hopefully the 9121 can be resurrected and brought back into service so you can make use of all of that software you've mentioned. As for the plasma displays, they're incredibly versatile, but the protocol to talk to them is more than a little odd. You mentioned pinball displays, but these are roughly double the resolution of a pinball DMD. The driver board that my Dad built to drive the displays was pretty basic and more or less bit-banged the outputs to put text on the screen, among other things.

[@woldemunster9244]

THIS! PLZ PIN & UPD007! GG

[@MonkeyUnit]

On behalf of all nerds of Earth, thank you for donating this equipment to this channel!

[@denox420]

Crazy finding another person from Springfield xD

[@BakerMiles-c7b]

@@denox420the real original springfield, is Springfield Massachusetts home of the basketball hall of shame.. I mean fame.

[@OursK85]

​@@denox420Well there's also Jessies girl. :D

[@jimiphillips1170]

The plotter would be awesome for a battleship game

[@kaitlyn__L]

An alternative to your version of 5x5 is one where the winn condition still only requires 3, even in a grid of 5. It makes it like multiple simultaneous overlapping games and makes cornering territory even more important. That works even with bigger numbers too, but gets more Go-like as you get bigger.

[@T3hBeowulf]

That 6-pen plotter brings back memories. My high school drafting class used one to plot our assignments and I loved watching the drawings unfold on the paper, particularly for me, since I spent time ensuring sections were color-coded to make visualizing the parts easier. Exciting Stuff!

[@DJSubAir]

Your joy and happiness are infectious when you get something either working or to work on. I very much appreciate these videos. Have a great day!

[@psergiu]

The HP7475A' geneva wheel sprocket that moves the pen carousel, if original, WILL shatter into small pieces. There's a replacement 3d printed model on thingverse - order-it 3d printed from ASA plastic with 100% infill. You will need to use some small files to enlarge the hub hole as the one in the 3d model is a bit too small.

[@MarkyShaw]

Mesmerizing watching that beautiful plotter.

[@ChrispyNut]

Plotters are awesome. Worked with an A0 one during apprenticeship for structural and civil engineering at the end of the 90s. So cool seeing it whizz around, moving paper up and down, with sub-millimetre precision.

[@nickstefanisko]

That plotter can take B size (11x17in) paper.

[@cheddar500]

Your enthusiasm is contagious, fun to watch

[@livefreeprintguns]

I bought a 21" Sun Microsystems CRT on eBay back in the day (one of my first purchases) but it literally arrived in pieces and I never got to use it. 😢

[@RetroTinkerer]

Just a little less than 35 minutes of vintage HP equipment? I'm all in!

[@richshealer3755]

I worked for an HP reseller in the 80's. I used the 7475A plotter to draw maps for games like Zork using HP Drawing gallery. I forgot about the special interfaces on the HP 86A. The 9121 was the first time I used a 3.5" disk. It did not have an autoshutter for the disk. You had to manauly slide the cover on the disk. There was no spring. The newer disks had a catch if you slid the cover on a newer disk.

[@Anachronda]

plotting sideways on an 8 1/2x11 sheet probably means it can also plot on an 11x17 one. back when i was doing that sort of thing for a living, we worked primarily on 11x17 sheets; a plotter that could do that would have been nice.

[@PeterSmith-rv3jz]

Yes, I've used these kinds of plotters. They can print on long paper

[@derek8564]

look at the smile on his face as he brings in the boxes. Like its his birthday or something 😁

[@ANSWERTHECALLOFJESUSCHRIST]

Yup. He is so happy! 😁

[@RetroTinkerer]

Wow, what a nostalgia trip to my childhood watching that HP plotter, they use to had one of these at my mom job in Venezuela in the 80s when I was just a child, it was mesmerizing watching that thing grab the color pens and dance along the paper and do all these finely detailed bar and pie charts.

[@rockaholictom]

I just got a Smith Corona 380 XL. It's perfect except for one broken clip but I get to fix that so I'm super happy! Thanks for the videos!!

[@Ice_Karma]

Never having dealt with HP gear of any sort, how bad is trying to keep all the four- and five-digit model/product numbers straight?

[@InssiAjaton]

This just hit me in a special way -- Maybe I need to finally undertake the revival of my HP 87 set? Dual floppy 5.25". One Bering box with 5 MB hard disk & an 8" floppy. One letter size (A) plotter. One B size plotter. Serial port module. [One of the two plotters is serial, the other one HP-IB]. The problems are multiple. The 87 has no doubt leaky or outright blown capacitors. The hard disk did not boot the last time I tried (before the '87 capacitor problem). And plotter pens were rejected for whatever reason. Moreover, they of course are dry by now. But so fond memories...

[@OneSmallStepWeb]

I am here for this content. But I'm thinking, have I just watched the geekiest unboxing on the internet. I live your enthusiasm. Love it. X

[@dan3a]

Wonder if printing those stems in sintered nylon (most probably through a 3D printin service) would be a good solution.

[@thebiggerbyte5991]

An excellent haul! I do love vintage HP gear - I blame CuriousMarc! ;) I agree completely about shipping CRTs face down. As long as there is some padding to protect the face the chances of survival are much greater.

[@psychoacer]

That opening slow motion spin was breath taking

[@AnalogX64]

I took drafting in high school, and we did the drawings and a drafting table with pencils and rulers the following semester; I no longer needed the credit for the course; they had replaced the tables with Atari STs and CAD software, and I missed it by 1 year. 😁

[@LoriH2O]

I've had two CRTs shipped to me. One was in the original box and etc. So it was very well supported and survived the trip without any issue. The other was... just stuck in a box and got to me entirely destroyed. (Tube itself was fine, but the plastic housing was shattered to bits. Real shame because it's quite a nice monitor too)

[@arcanescroll]

I once had a Commodore 2002 monitor shipped to me from ebay half way across the country. The packing materials consisted of some newspaper and a couple pieces of bubble wrap tossed in. Somehow it managed to survive the trip in great condition, and I have no idea how.

[@MichaelNelson1965]

I could rhapsodize about my HP-86A endlessly. Forty years ago I learned how to program on it, first the BASIC, then the native Assembly (very different), and finally 8080 Assembly (I got the add-on Z80 module). Though it spends most of its time tucked away these days, I had it out about a year ago and not only did the hardware still work, but all the games and what not I wrote were still readable on the floppies (5.25"). I only have the dot matrix printer; never got hold of a plotter. A few years later when I was writing HP laser drivers for my company, I realized that the that old dot matrix printer used a primitive form of PCL. Ah. You never forget your first love.

[@jeraldjoyce2995]

gosh, the plotter is just so much fun! I would love to see you feature it in future programs and videos.

[@JoeBurnett]

It’s amazing! The key colors and documentation are all reminiscent of what was used for my HP-41CV calculator.

[@stevenjlovelace]

You could make Connect Four by programming it to add each X/O to the bottom-most free space in each column.

[@freednighthawk]

On the keycap stems. Try printing them, or rather, have them printed, in an ABS-like resin. I'd offer to do it, but my 3d printer sucks.

[@souta95]

Fun stuff! I took am diving into an HP computer restoration. It's a prototype laptop that has a Compaq BIOS screen (from right after HP bought out Compaq). Finding drivers has been a bit of a nightmare. I had to manually edit the inf file for the wireless card (802.11b compliant), and am struggling to find Windows XP drivers for the video chip. It's a Pentium 4-M laptop, so Windows XP should be right at home.

[@menhirmike]

That Plotter is a thing of beauty!

[@douro20]

There is a plotter related to the 7475A called the ColorPro which has no carousel motor- it actually uses the paper feed motor to turn the pen carousel. It also has fixed paper size.

[@JenniferinIllinois]

Listening to that plotter printing the tic-tac-toe. Absolutely love it!!!

[@ElMarcoh]

0:38 slow mo turning was perfect

[@_droid]

Love seeing the plotter actually work! As a kid I wanted one so bad but didn't have enough money. :)

[@uomoartificiale]

Great video! I have question partially related to the computer. You seem to use a replacement pen in the hp plotter. What is it and where I can buy one? Keep up the good work!

[@kouwes4686]

We had the same plotter in our office back in 1987/88. It‘s not meant for plotting sideways but for the DIN A3 format - which is about 11 x 17“, like @andykillsu says. Fun little machine, I remember it was pretty loud hammering on the paper and the rattling turret.

[@sjftech]

Shelby slowing down time just after the intro! 😂

[@NorthWay_no]

Not an HP fan as such, but I'm still looking for a keyboard (I used one such on 7000 series workstations) of the rubber/eraser-feel like keytop type. They felt bad when I first started using them, but after a while you wouldn't want to switch them for anything. The softness of the keys made for some very high friction so they wiggled around when you moved your fingertips a little. I have a similar keyboard but the keytops are hard smooth plastic (unless they have morphed as a function of time?) and it is a standard PS/2 connector/protocol.

[@darrenjkendall]

Great video, be nice to see you doing videos down the line into HP PA RISC and their Unix.

[@LegacyIvyTerascale]

Car Wizard can confirm that plastic gets more and more fragile as it gets older

[@w9gb]

I MAY have the HP 13272A floppy drive which the same as the more common 9130A (for HP 86A); but it came with an interface for connecting to HP terminals (I don’t have cables). 13272A floppy had a 40-pin card edge connector (as I remember), used standard TM-100 5.25 inside, but controller card may have been different.

[@2009numan]

the blue connectors on the back of the 86a looked like standard external scsi connectors

[@DEMENTO01]

playing tic tac toe in a plotter is the nerdiest and coolest thing I've ever seen, winning must feel a thousand times more satisfying lol

[@idahofur]

Besides hearing a leak song in my head. That monitor is a NEC monitor with HP name on it. I had one with an Apple II plus. Very sharp monitor.

[@drpc97]

i remember seeing that hardware about 20 years ago at my old computer shop. we recycled old computers and mainframes.. it was a fun time

[@Okurka.]

Recycled or destroyed?

[@mnoxman]

Curious Mark featured something called EBTKS (everything but the kitchen sink). Not sure if it is compatible but you may wan't to look in to it.

[@thedude_-__-_7528]

That's some really cool stuff! I'd love to find an HP 150 touchscreen computer, I had one growing up that I got at an estate sale for $10 or $15. I ended up selling it in a rummage sale when I was 18 which I very much regret, especially since it was in really good cosmetic condition, the only issue was that none of the discs worked any more. So if anybody knows where I might find one for a reasonable price let me know!

[@danthompsett2894]

was fun seeing that plotter do its thing surprisingly fast and accurate for something that old, i remmember dot matrix printers being painfully slow.

[@UpLateGeek]

I've had two CRTs shipped to me, but only one actually survived. The first one was shipped in normal orientation and was just fine because it was well wrapped in bubble wrap and foam packing. I guess 12" tubes are more resilient. The second was shipped tube down, buuuut unfortunately the packing was just packing peanuts. No bubble wrap, no foam, nothing to keep it from shifting in transit as the packing peanuts are squished. I pulled it out of box and heard the distinct tinkling sound of broken glass inside the case. The neck was snapped cleanly off. Sadly that monitor was a genuine IBM 14" VGA model that would've gone perfectly with my PS/2 machines. I actually only paid $1 Aussie dollary doo for it, but $70 shipping, which still would've been an amazing deal if it arrived intact. I did eventually get an identical model with an intact tube but dead electronics, but there were issues that I found during reassembly, and I haven't had the guts to try powering it on.

[@gorak9000]

I hope you got a refund from the seller for the one that was destroyed. It's amazing that people throw loose heavy stuff in a flimsy box and expect it to arrive in one piece. It's almost like most people are really dumb or something...

[@zax71]

4d naughts and crosses on a plotter would be really cool

[@ajslim79]

my "luck" with shipping monitors so far: 2 CRTs arrived fine .. 2 LCDs got wrecked :D

[@gorak9000]

Yeah, all monitors were shipped around originally - it really wasn't an issue. I don't remember if they shipped them screen side down, or in the regular orientation though - I think I seem to recall they were shipped screen side down. Also, all tube monitors are old now, so the plastic is a lot more brittle than it was originally. I doubt packages are handled much differently than they were before - to the shipping monkeys, they're just boxes - they get tossed around and drop kicked, fall off conveyor belts, driven over by trucks, and who knows what along the journey. I've shipped quite a few LCD monitors in the last few years, and never had an issue. It really depends on the packaging. Extra cardboard, bubble wrap, and much sturdier boxes (compared to crappy HD or Lowes boxes like in this video, or crappy u-haul boxes that a lot of people like to use ) are your friends. Even some fruit and vegetable boxes you can get for free at the grocery store are sturdier than the "box store" boxes :)

[@nielsroetert]

Awesome video, didn't even know this computer model existed, love the plotter action.

[@herdware]

And here I was hoping it would be something that would run Domain/OS, oh well. :) EDIT: Only twice I've risked buying a CRT and getting it shipped. The first was a C= 1902 which arrived whole buy pure luck since it was shipped almost w/o any packaging, the second was a really cheap VT320 that was really rough. Unsure if the plastic snaps were broken when it shipped but they were when it arrived, however it lives to this day.

[@tarstarkusz]

In general, however much padding and boxing you think you should have, double it at least. If you ever ship a CRT, it's face down with a ton of padding in a box (twice as much as you think you need), which that box should be inside a larger box with at least 2" of padding between the two boxes. It's gonna cost a fortune, but most of the time, if you do it any other way, it WILL NOT SURVIVE.

[@lo1bo2]

If you're a buyer within the same region of the country, might as well go on a road trip, pick it up, and research interesting things to see along the way.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@lo1bo2 Another youtuber I follow just uploaded a video today of a test TV getting destroyed being mailed to him. It wasn't just the CRT that got damaged either. It was the case of the equipment. It got broken into a bunch of pieces.

[@gorak9000]

A lot of it comes down to the boxes. The boxes from HD / Lowes / u-haul that a lot of amateur people use are absolute flimsy garbage. You need to find thicker boxes that are much stronger for larger / heavier items.

[@HalianTheProtogen]

I'm curious if it would be possible (and, if so, how difficult it would be) to add _Hollywood Squares_' extra win condition of “control five of nine filled squares”.

[@LaserFur]

I have a book on HPGL HP codes from back in that era.

[@systemchris]

What a lovely machine! About as compact as it could be then

[@epicswag5509]

the slow motion turn in the beginning is so good lol

[@denox420]

Funny seeing this today after visiting family yesterday in Springfield Ohio xD. Wonder if I've ever ran into James.

[@GeorgesChannel]

Great video! Love the Tic-Tac-Toe programming and the plotter action! Thanks for sharing!

[@douro20]

Didn't know UV resin did that, but I think it may depend on the resin.

[@oliverer3]

It shrinks while curing typically. So if it's left somewhere that is exposed to UV like near a window it will quickly go brittle and sometimes warp. Some resins are just very weak in general though.

[@jeromethiel4323]

HP plotters were the shit, back in the day. Always liked them.

[@TrolleyMC]

real ones remember when this channel was called AkBKukU.

[@winstonsmith478]

Were those key stems fully cured in a UV curing oven after printing? "As SLA uses resin and not molten thermoplastics, the effect of material shrinkage and warping is much less severe than in filament-based printing techniques. However, that doesn’t mean SLA isn’t without its own deformation issues. The photopolymer will shrink during the UV curing process, and results in wrapped edge, deformation and bad dimensional precision. "Although the resin is cured by exposure to the laser, it does not become fully cured in that brief instant. The material will only reach full strength once it is placed in a UV curing oven during post-processing.

[@vechzdavion]

Connect 4 and battle ship are the only games that come to mind for modifications of this program

[@kuglepen64]

Yes yes yes, but the Data General. Is it coming along?

[@richardestes6499]

Springfield is near my hometown! :D

[@nightwishfan2006]

Whatever happened with the Data General computer you were working on a couple of days years ago?

[@StormWaltz73]

Was that George Opperman art in the HP manual?

[@Colaholiker]

People old enough to remember unpacking new CRT monitors will remember that they were usually packed screen down... 😅 I remember.

[@qs3850]

Great video! What a great way to end my evening!

[@cloudy_shane]

So, you've built a time machine and become an HP ambassador 😅

[@jackalneck]

Just a PSA - Lowe's and Home Depot's boxes are moving boxes, not shipping boxes. For anyone out there looking to ship vintage tech or other precious items, use shipping boxes!

[@gabrielleeliseo6062]

I worked as a freight inspector for a number of years. I can say with a high degree of confidence that those boxes are fine and even better than most of the boxes I've seen shipped. Just make sure you have it well padded and well sealed. Don't use bargain bin packing tape. Also, labeling something as fragile makes no difference in how it's handled by most package handlers. So, be sure you pack the object like the egg drop project you did in high school. :)

[@JBEEUD]

Yeah, so I'm the one who sent those items. The Home Depot boxes specifically are double wall corrugated boxes. Very much heavy-duty shipping boxes. And wobble those boxes were thinner walled, that's why I added extra packaging to those to make sure that everything was very well cushion.

[@gorak9000]

Yeah, HD / Lowes / u-haul boxes are TERRIBLE. Go to your nearest cardboard recycling bin - you'll no doubt find much better boxes there for free - just add tape! I wouldn't even use HD / Lowes boxes for moving - they're pretty crap and thin and have no structural integrity to them.

[@arcanescroll]

I always find it amusing that after all these decades we still use primarily GPIB (the standard formerly known as HPIB) for nearly all our test equipment. Hey, if it ain't broke, why change it? XD

[@gorak9000]

I think you mean GPIB - general purpose instrument bus. And a lot of newer equipment did away with GPIB now - now it's LXI over USB or Ethernet primarily. Same idea though, a general purpose command language that's interoperable across multiple manufacturers, but on a more modern physical layer.

[@arcanescroll]

@@gorak9000 yep, I do, slip of my few undamaged brain cells. A lot of our equipment is like 90's and early 2000's era stuff. It's okay for what we do, and honestly GPIB works just fine for most uses.

[@gorak9000]

@@arcanescroll GPIB is great if you use it with a Prologix interface that provides you a straight serial interface that's easy to work with. I absolutely abhor installing the bloated and stupid NI drivers to talk to "real" GPIB interfaces. Whomever came up with that bloated and overly complicated BS at NI should be drawn and quartered.

[@xrstopherpopp120]

i haven't the foggiest idea what the hell is going on in most of these videos, and yet, here I am chomping at the bit to see what next has arrived!

[@horusfalcon]

Do you fool with any HP-UX gear? I support a fleet of B2600 Workstations at work, and have had to develop methods to take images of the drives for backup/recovery purposes.

[@jeromethiel4323]

Not hard to draw circles in the HP plotter commands.

[@ajslim79]

well.. "i didn't know how big it was" .. "it's put in here at an angle" .. "it's enormous" .. "wow!" "look at this glorious monster" "oh my gosh"

[@gorak9000]

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!!

[@abowman89]

👍 receive my offering and keep up the awesome videos.

[@larry785]

Good! Now can you calibrate my HP 6629 & 6626 Power Supplies?

[@TefenCa]

Thanks for posting this!

[@douro20]

There's a pocket computer which uses the same CPU as the 80 series- the HP-75.

[@mistie710]

You obviously don't remember "Connect 4".

[@mcerny04]

I'm used to an infinite grid tic tac toe style game, where you need to have a 5 long line to win.

[@belstar1128]

is a game you play with the printer still a video game?

[@rich_in_paradise]

Man, pen plotters are so cool..

[@michaelwood9866]

do you have any want/need for some hardcards?

[@EverythingIsBrokenGarage]

Anymore plotters and you will end up like Steve at Mac84 with a basement built out of Laser Writers, well in your case it will be plotters haha 😅

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

You bought all that at Home Depot and Lowes? :P

[@darkfoxandgoldfox]

Do you know if I can dock my switch to my phone

[@jefersonfischer]

ohhh unboxing cool stuff !!!

[@jeromethiel4323]

You don't need an HP, you WANT and HP. ^-^

[@HKT-4300]

Your excitement is infectious man!! hahah

[@rphntw1n]

We might need a retrobright episode with all this 😂

[@NielsPaul]

So the Connells were singing about an HP plotter? The more you know.

[@Okurka.]

Was it too difficult to let the plotter draw a circle?

[@gorak9000]

It shouldn't be - if I remember correctly, there are commands in HPGL to draw circles. He should also have it draw the circle or the X smaller than the entire square - it would make it easier to follow in the end, and not just a bunch of uniform squares with diagonal lines running at 45 degrees all the way through the squares. Sounds like a good feature for V2.0

[@lightmagick]

I could be wrong but it sounds like those SLA printed key stems might not have been fully cured, if you got another batch of them make sure they get cured for long enough. Not that I'm saying the person who sent them messed up though as I could also be totally wrong and I can accept that if so.

[@gorak9000]

I've had some SLA parts from JLC PCB that were pure white initially and have severely yellowed with moderate sun exposure (sitting on a window sill for a couple of weeks), but I didn't check them for dimensional stability. Would be something to check I guess if the dimensions were more critical (they're just enclosure ends for electronics boxes). I really didn't expect them to severely yellow like they did though... and especially not in a couple of weeks!

[@GoldenTrumpet24]

I wish HP was still good. Had really bad experiences with their modern laptops and an even worse experience with customer support. It's no fun waiting in line for hours only to be hung up on...multiple times.