[time-nuts] HP59309A clock

Magnus Danielson magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org
Wed Apr 27 19:11:10 UTC 2011


On 04/27/2011 04:47 PM, k6rtm at comcast.net wrote:
> Saying that the HP59309A clock is an HP-IB device is somewhat misleading...
>
> It's a very early HP-IB device. No microprocessor control. Not even the complex state-machine of the 8660 series.
>
> I'm doing this from memory, but it's like your memory of the dry heaves -- a little fuzzy around the edges, but still intense...
>
> You have an HP-IB command to reset the clock.
>
> Then you have HP-IB commands to increment different fields.
>
> So to set the date to the 13th, you send the increment date command 13 times...
>
> I think you get the idea.
>
> The resulting code to set the clock is easy enough to write, and once you write it, you never, ever want to look at it again.
>
> Well, I guess it is interesting in its own pathological way...

Not completely surprising for early age.

At least it has GPIB control. It's not bad, even if a bit un-smooth 
interface.

As comparison, I just had my year-counter ripple and even carry the 
second digit, and I just have no control over it. No GPIB, no serial 
port, not even DIP-switches. So an archaic interface for time is luxury.

Cheers,
Magnus




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