I've seen knife assemblies which fit into the pen holder on the plotter.
Unfortunately I don't believe it's realistic to use them on the HP multi-pen
plotters because they won't fit in the carrier.
The one I examined had three roller bearings (implying it's runing on a
flatbed, BTW) with a swivel mounted (obviously quite meticulously assembled
as they're less than 1/2" in diameter blade centered between the rollers.
These rollers are in a barrel which is what the plotter grabs and align
themselves with respect to the direction of travel so the blade, which is
spring loaded and height adjustable for different thicknesses of vinyl.
I've never seen one working on a drum plotter like my 7585B, though.
I'd really hate to have to build one of these things.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, September 02, 1999 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: HP plotters
>At 09:07 AM 9/2/99 -0600, Dick wrote:
>>I had one fellow describe to me how he rigged his pen in the 7475 so he
>>could draw his PCB layouts directly on the copper. That certainly
wouldn't
>>work with my inkjet printer!
>
> I've heard that there are knifes available that can be used in them to
>cut strip lines on copper PCB and knifes for cutting out vinyl and other
>materials but I don't know what they cost or where you can get them. Does
>anyone know any more about them?
>
> Joe
>
I was reading the manual on my Plextor UltraPlex Wide, and it says it supports
VMS. Thought that knowledge might be useful to y'all. Their web site has
lots of info on their various products. http://www.plextor.com/home.html
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
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BeOS Powered!
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<>It goes into Q-Bus based PDP11 systems. I know it will work with
<>an 11/73 and 11/83. It may work in other systems as well.
Totally incompatable with J11 cpu.
<The FPF11 board has a ribbon cable which ends in a connector which
<fits the Floating point chip socket of a 11/23, 11/23+ and 11/24.
<
< Megan Gentry
< Former RT-11 Developer
Confirmed in the LSI-11 systems service manuals.
Allison
<An FPF11 can be used with a KDF11-B (11/23+), which is a Qbus
<machine. It can also be used in an 11/24, it derives only
<power from the bus (if I remember correctly).
Correct, I have one.
<I would suspect that it might also work with an 11/23 (KDF11-A),
<since it has the same chip location for Floating point as the
<11/23+, but I've never confirmed this.
It works with all of the 11/23 series (Q and U,). Jumpers configure power
for either U or Q and much be checked before inserting.
What it is is a faster version on a quad board for the FPU chip. If you
crunch numbers on 11/23s or 11/24s it's a must have.
FYI, It's a raft of 2901s and some microcode to emulate the FPU chip.
It's faster as all the data paths internally (to the board) are wider.
Allison
<The local N* users must have figured that out eventually. One of them got
<together with the guy who owned the Champion software outfit and started a
<users group for the "superbrain" computer which was a complete system
<packaged in what looked like a desktop terminal. I know that at least thi
<one guy still had his N* after that.
I still have Champion (for dos) running at work. It works.
The only thing the NS* had wrong to most people was the controller in
the memory map. NS* dos was far to primitive for most peoples liking
but it was quite small. Most people I know liked the NS box for it's
ruggedness and general good behavour. What wasn't liked much was the
too small disks (~90k under NSdos, ~82 cpm for the SSSD controller)
and the hard sector business. The DSDD controller was much better
but, most people went with a good soft sector controller and CPM.
My #1 NS* went that route in late 80 when I got my first upD765 to work
with. Since the controller was reliable it went in an explorer8085
as a second system and eprom blaster. I still have those and a third
stock NS* SD system and when I finally get a good DD NS* disk I'd fire
it up as a DSDD system with the later controller installed.
Was it the best? No, it was pretty good and most people liked it as
a solid box.
Allison
An FPF11 can be used with a KDF11-B (11/23+), which is a Qbus
machine. It can also be used in an 11/24, it derives only
power from the bus (if I remember correctly).
I would suspect that it might also work with an 11/23 (KDF11-A),
since it has the same chip location for Floating point as the
11/23+, but I've never confirmed this.
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
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+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
In a message dated 9/3/99 10:17:30 AM EST, John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk writes:
<< My favourite peripheral of all time: the Roland 3-axis
milling machine. It could cut full 3D models out of blocks
of plastic, presumably controlled by a kind of 3D HPGL.
Made a hell of a mess with little green plastic shavings!
Anybody got one? Anybody want to get rid of one? :-)
--
John Honniball >>
This machine also could be used to produce beautiful wooden plaques. If you
_do_ find one of these, I'd suggest you buy or rig up a chip removal system.
Letting the chips fall where they may will greatly reduce tool life and also
produce imprecise cuts.
Glen Goodwin
0/0
In a message dated 9/3/99 9:56:57 AM EST, rigdonj(a)intellistar.net writes:
<< >Hmm -- most vinyl cutters are in reality just cheap single-pen plotters
with
>the equivalent of an Exacto knife in them.
That's about what I expected. But how do they make it cut in different
directions? Or is the knife on a swivel?
Joe >>
As a previous poster noted, the knife is mounted in a swiveling holder.
Glen Goodwin
0/0
OK, what kind of a system does a FPF11 go into? It's some kind of floating
point processor and it's Q-Bus.
Beware, I might be asking several, what is this sort of questions today.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
