Hello all,
This will be my first post :-)
I have recently acquired a HP 37900D Transmission- and line Tester. It has an FDD and a HDD and HP-IB.
I really do not think i will ever use it to Transmission- and line Testing but i hoped to be able to use it as an instrument control computer.
HP 80 series are rare and very expensive in Europe.. And i got the HP 39700D for 40€ plus shipping from Germany - i think that is an ok price..
I want to play around with my old HP equipment (a 3324A signal generator and a 3561A spectrum analyser) and control it over GPIB by learning to write small programs. Im into old reel-to-reel and cassette stuff and do my own repairs and adjustment using a good soundcard and AudioTester. But i really want to use the signal generator and the spectrum analyser for doing the test and adjustments of the tape decks - so i will need to learn make small programs and make data acquisition.
According to this site:
http://www.museum-nt.de/objekte/hp_37900d.html the MB should be the same as HP 9000/332 - Here is a translation from German:
"The HP 37900D is based on the proven technology of HP computer products. The main board of the system is identical to that in the HP 9000/332 computer and uses a Motorola MC68030 processor. The interesting thing about the HP 37900D are its integrated drive (a 52 MB SCSI hard disk), the flat screen in amber-coloured font and the directly attached keyboard."
My question at hand is, what kind of software should i try to install on the HP 37900D in order to get it to function as a scientific HP computer rather than a signal tester?? And where do i get it??
I have only MS-DOS experience - but i want to learn the HP stuff. This might be a steep learning curve for me..
Thanks for any good idea!