Hi folks, I have an DSO with a HPIB output. I like to make printouts on a Centronics printer but therefore need an interface. Is ther someone with an idea or schematic. Cost is "important"; I'm not a milionaire and not able to buy at Agilent ot Tek... Thanks Marco
Long ago Hp (Agilent) had some relatively inexpensive HPIB inkjet printers. You might be able to scrounge up a used one of these somewhere cheap. Or places like Blackbox and IOMega still supply these, but I doubt that these would be cheap.
But on the subject of an idea or a simple schematic to do this for you: Partly it depends on whether the scope also implemented a "dumb" mode where only a single device would ever be talking, the scope, and only a single device would ever be listening, the printer. IF, and that is a big IF, they implemented that then you have a better chance of being able to just grab the handshaked bytes off the cable and shovel them over into a Centronics handshake configuration. But if the folks who wrote the HPIB software inside the scope didn't include the dumb mode then HPIB is more complicated than the typical easy schematic, there are whole layers of protocols that both ends have to support to make the connection and clock the data to you. In that case you might do better to find a cheap HPIB card for a PC and try to find and understand enough of the documentation to be able to write the software to make the PC handle the conversion from HPIB to Centronics.
Look for HP-7440 or HP7475 plotters. Some had serial I/O, some had HPIB I/O. I have seen these sell for $40 on eBay. The HP instrument will likely output HPGL (HP graphics language) commands onto the bus, but an entire screen dump is very compact, typically less than 25 KB.
I still use 3 7440A's in my lab, and they are still really good plotters. Pens last a long time, don't cost anywhere near as much as ink cartridges, and don't clog with prolonged non-use. Biggest drawback is that the pages might take a couple of minutes to complete.
All but the earliest HP DSO's have a floppy disc built-in. If you have a disc, why not save to file, and then sneaker-net the disc to another machine which can print the file to the Centronics printer?
Ed wb6wsn
You need inverters on the data lines ( 8 of them). Then as I remember the data available pulse may need an inverter. As I remember my adapter I was able to use the data available "as is" without further buffering/ inverting.
Been to long to remember the details and don't want to figure out the pin numbers again. But the wire wrap board was easy to make
Good luck Bill K7NOM
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