Need Help!- Calcomp M81 Pen Plotter (IBM XY750)

[cynar]

I picked up a plotter to play with and it's proving harder than I thought to get working properly.

It's a Calcomp Model 81 plotter, which I believe is the same as the IBM XY750 (XY/750).
I've got it working, just about, through a USB==>Serial adapter. The problem is identifying the command set. Every reference I can find assumes you are using the Fortran HCBS file set, which I cannot locate. I've got all the manuals, and I've identified most of the basic commands I need, there's just a couple I'm lacking. If anyone knows what they are I would be very grateful.

I've included all those I know below, for anyone who runs across this after obtaining their own plotter.

Known useful commands:-
%X/%Yk Moves to absolute point X-Y
%X/%Yj Moves to relative point X-Y
i Lower Pen
h Raise Pen
o%Rk Draws a circle (or arc) of radius R
F%P Selects pen P

Known, less useful commands:-
b%abc Plots all following ascii chars is text (cant stop it currently)
v Draws a box, cant control it currently
x%X,%S,%H Plots an X axis, with markings at S intervals of H hight.
y Same as X axis
l%C Dashes, 0 turns off.

Missing, useful commands:-
Sleep/delay (currently races off after pen up before the pen get's up!)
Speed control
stop text (see b)
font settings etc

Any help with this last few would be very welcome.

Cynar

[agonsw]

where did you pick one of these plotters up and for how much?

[cynar]

Ebay, for about £20ish.

It's become a bit of a challenge for me to get it fully working again rather than stripping it for parts.

[bkr]

I have a Calcomp 81 sitting in my loft where it's been for some time. It used to work OK but last time I switched it on there was no response of any kind - so it looks like a PSU has packed up. I used to have the command reference manual (a grey cover I think) but that disappeared years ago and I've never found a version online. The library at the Atlas Lab at Harwell might have a copy - they used to use this model 25-30 years ago...

Anyway, I plan to dispose of this plotter, and will probably put it on ebay fairly soon as I have to clear the loft space. I hope it can go to a new home, if only for spares or as a museum piece - I can't bring myself to put it in a skip.

[CalG]

At least it works just fine on the IBM XY-750.

Look through the output types and you will see the correct form. TEWIDATA or similar.

The Eagle application only uses a subset of all the available commands. Letters and characters are vectors etc. Not realy and issue. It is rather cumbersome to freely draw in Eagle. It is a PCB art board after all, but I believe SVG files can be brought in.

For any that would want to know

Cheers