The purchase at Friedrichshafen 2018 with the best €/kg was the HP 9403A device. And I think it will have a very high
fun/€ ratio too!
Let's see how it looks:
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| HP 9403A in FN, near the beer kiosk. |
There are three display windows, a numerical keypad, other buttons, flip switches and a key operated switch. Let's not forget the two handles for carrying. On the back side there are three large barrel connectors with a high count of contacts (40 or so), AC power, fuse, power switch.
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| Me and the HP 9403A. |
A preliminary search on the Net before the purchase did not return meaningful data. It turns out HP has "recycled" the 9403 code with inkjet printer cartridge. The challenge is set!
The seller held the device until the afternoon, when I picked it up on the way to Hall A (with new stuff) and the car.
I had to be careful not to hit someone's legs with it. I took few breaks along the way and I even sat on it. Hans G0UPL wanted to get one too because it had Nixies and all the driving circuitry. Yeah, I know, that's why I got it in the first place.
So the mysterious device came home with me, silently opening a deep dive into 1970's documentation.
