HP-85 Serial Card

I feel like a computer is incomplete without a serial line, so i procured a HP82939A Serial Interface. It requires the I/O ROM for operation.

The serial properties are set by DIP switches inside the package, so it’s a screwdriver job.  I used 2400 baud, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. 

Then I set this back to defaults to appease the terminal program which insisted on factory defaults: 7 data bits, 1 stop, 300baud. 

I left the plotter at the original settings, so the initialisation program needs to program the serial port via CONTROL statements. (See I/O ROM Manual)

The device number is 10 which is the default.

It worked fine with the plotter.

The Data Communications Pac includes a terminal program, TERMEM.  The comms parameters can be changed via the soft keys.

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