Does anyone have any experience using this device?
I've never tried it but I am having some fantasies about getting one and using it to connect my 48GX to the IL Printer & cassette drive. That would allow me to transition to the GX and still get very practical use out of my IL devices.
Has anyone ever written routines for the converter?
Thanks,
JohnKercheval
Unlike the HP-IL to HP-IB interface which allows the controller to be on either side of the interface, the serial to HP-IL interface works only one way. So you need a controller on the HP-IL side to drive the loop.
So by adding a computer on the IL side (e.g. HP-71B) you may be able to drive the IL printer by tranferring data from the 48GX to the 71B and then on to the IL printer.
You may be able to do the same with cassette drive files, but it will need lots of code on the 71B.
**vp
You can also put the 82164 in "remote mode", where it accepts HPIL commands over the serial port. You would still have a lot of work to do to get it to actually print.