My 712

There is not a lot of activity in this subforum so I thought I would share my HP 712/80. It is pretty normal looking from the outside:


The plastics are a bit rough and the top doesn't fit great. I'm working on a fix for the floppy cover.
Inside is 128mb ram, a BlueSCSI, and one special trick:



I'm working on getting another monitor which supports SOG and modifying the monitor arm...

Anyone have a spare /100 system board and 64mb of ram?

That picture was really bugging me.

I chopped down the monitor arm and replaced my Dell 1905 with another 1901 and things are much better:

Wow this is neat. Is that the A2878A second display add-on card in the 712? Does it work out of the box in NS for PA-RISC, what options does the NS give for the dual monitor setup (ie. can they run at different resolutions, can you adjust the display order/placement)?

Also I had never thought that the PowerCenter, RS/6000 and the 712 (I have all these as well, not the same models though) all would fit into a normal rack width, this might come in handy.

Quote from: MindWalker on September 27, 2024, 01:26:12 AMWow this is neat. Is that the A2878A second display add-on card in the 712? Does it work out of the box in NS for PA-RISC, what options does the NS give for the dual monitor setup (ie. can they run at different resolutions, can you adjust the display order/placement)?

Also I had never thought that the PowerCenter, RS/6000 and the 712 (I have all these as well, not the same models though) all would fit into a normal rack width, this might come in handy.

Yup, the second monitor card. I had a 712 years ago and could never find a A2878A. I sold that machine off and would idly search for a card or 712 here and there. About a year ago I saw this machine with a low BIN, but more importantly, the A2878A in place so I pressed the button as quickly as I could. This is still the only second display card I have ever seen.

The card works out of the box in HPUX and NS. I'll do some screenshots later today of the options in NS. It is easy to set up and arrange the monitors.

I'm trying to set up the ultimate vintage pizzabox rack. I'm looking for a thinner RS/6000 (a 7006-42T) so I have the space to shoehorn in my Nextstation Color or Quadra 610 (A/UX).

Thanks. If it's not too much trouble, could you also take a pic of the monitor card? I can't find any pictures of those online and I was wondering how complex card that actually is.

Btw; what's the thing on the top of the rack, with the headphone jack and volume wheel?

Next time I open the system I'll get a pic.

HP C360

I've been actively searching for the second display card for years! Cool to see it works out of the box!

Sorry, took me a minute to grab photos.
I'm reworking my KVM situation, so I'll try and get some screenshots once that is done.

---

You can certainly adjust layout and some settings. I'm not sure if you can do independent resolutions.

Did you get the 712 to work with NeXTSTEP on the BlueSCSI? I'm struggling to get my system working. HPUX 10.20 was easy to install (from a real CD Rom drive or a CD-image on BlueSCSI, and both on a real HD drive and a HD-image on BlueSCSI).

Installation of NeXTSTEP breaks every time, with different messages depending on the BlueSCSI firmware revision.

Best,
Michael

I managed to install NeXTSTEP 3.3 on my HP 712 equipped with BlueSCSI 1. Did it some time ago, so I don't remember exactly what, but I do remember having had many issues. Starting from the SD card. Some of those which were OK for SCSI2SD or for my camera, were not OK for BlueSCSI.
Also wanted to use an extension cable for the SD card, but eventually found out it is also not possible.
So, kind of a bumpy road, but I'd say mainly on the hardware side.
Eventually, I am using a SCSI2SD and I swap card if I want to swap OS.

Quote from: zac on November 19, 2024, 10:43:23 AMDid you get the 712 to work with NeXTSTEP on the BlueSCSI? I'm struggling to get my system working. HPUX 10.20 was easy to install (from a real CD Rom drive or a CD-image on BlueSCSI, and both on a real HD drive and a HD-image on BlueSCSI).

Installation of NeXTSTEP breaks every time, with different messages depending on the BlueSCSI firmware revision.

Best,
Michael

Yes, I run Nextstep off my BlueSCSI in my 712. Here is my config for the hard drive:

[SCSI6]
Type = 0
IMG0 = nexthd.hda
SectorsPerTrack = 139
HeadsPerCylinder = 4

Hmm, there's one difference to my setup:
I didn't use IMG0 = nexthd.hda but had a HD6-image on the SD card. Nowadays, there's a System = NeXT possibility, but I don't know what exactly this entry does.

I tried 4 different SD cards, all with the same problems. Maybe I should try a card that was not manufactured by Sandisk? I have a spare 4GB Samsung card that I could try.