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Husky hunter 16 - a new old toy

kyodai said:
Wow, the Husky Hunter 16/80 really looks nice. Finally full CGA graphics in it's true glory (With that i mean "monochrome").

I assume this one also lacks PCMCIA or any other storge media?


Still for some CGA games a pretty cool machine. Looks like loads of fun.
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Well, no changes in this, ,comparing to Husky 16. However, according to user's guide I have now, there were extra RAM modules available, and an interesting option as well - ability to burn an EPROM chip, which would work as internal ROM drive, with custom applications. No specifications or size of this EPROM chip are mentioned, unfortunately...

At least about 1,3MB free means a lot of DOS games, which can be run on it, though it means lot of copy and erase as well.
 
I think the largest EPROM i ever burnt was 1 MB. Not gonna say that there aren't any larger ones, but let's say much smaller ones (Like 32KB) were more common.

Too bad that my programmer decided to bite the dust, otherwise I would have burnt some games for you on 4MB EPROMS... they are like 5 Euro each now...

http://www.ebay.de/itm/181989278434


I have seen larger ones. But they are rare, expensive and take like forever to burn.
 
While trading in military surplus radio items, I've come across a fellow with a couple of Husky Hunter machines. Not Hunter 16; just plain old Hunter. They're green, and if I buy both of them then I get a manual. I haven't decided how interested I am in them yet, but they look kind of neat. In reading about them, they seem an awful lot like the TRS-80 Model 100 family, except in a ruggedized case that could double as a trauma plate. I found this thread and decided to drop by to see if my interest level might be modified, either up or down. I don't know what I'd do with one, especially considering its limited I/O features. I wonder if its COM port supports 45.45 baud 5-bit mode? If so, I might build a current-loop interface and use one as a virtual punch-reperforator in RTTY service...

20140618_144757.jpg
 
The Hunter is a Z80 variant and runs a flavor of CP/M with BASIC built into ROM. Hunter 16 and 16/80 are X86 and run MSDOS 3.x (I think). Pretty neat machines for the right price. Manuals seem to be the scarce pieces for either.

Tom
 
weird, I have never even heard of these things, today I saw one on ebay (decided to pass once looking it up) a 3 page thread comes back to life
 
Fleetingthought said:
The Hunter is a Z80 variant and runs a flavor of CP/M with BASIC built into ROM. Hunter 16 and 16/80 are X86 and run MSDOS 3.x (I think). Pretty neat machines for the right price. Manuals seem to be the scarce pieces for either.
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Maybe I should buy the pair, scan the manual, then sell off one of them? ;)
 
Now there's a plan! I honestly prefer the original Hunters, they just seem to have more character. The 16/80 is nice with more screen real estate so's your not dodging about with a "viewing window" in whatever program you have running. I picked up a couple original Hunters earlier this year to go with my 16 and 16/80 and have enjoyed learning them. If you're thinking of picking them up, check for corrosion in the battery tube, it can a chore cleaning up. My 204k Hunter (the nicer equipped of the 2) suffered a keyboard ribbon cable failure not long after I got it up and running.

Tom
 
Adventurer said:
Some news - I have another Husky Hunter, this time - it's the model 16/80, and finally with original instruction manual as well:
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I'm trying to emulate the Husky machines in MAME and so far have scans of manuals for the original Husky and Hunter, and have these machines emulated to a certain extent. Any chance of a scan of your manual for the 16/80?
 
I recently purchased a good condition (but well used by looks of it) Hunter 16 myself. Got HCOM & file transfers to and from my old PC working fine eventually.
I tested out a bunch of BASIC programs under GWBASIC in it, most seemed to run fine.
However, I do find a lot of DOS programs (just small sized ones, not trying any large complex programs on it) will either not run correctly, or just lock up the Hunter partially or totally, a real pain actually.
Very hit & miss to find DOS programs that will run on it. Then have to remove the AA batteries and wait for the backup battery to drop sufficiently in voltage, and then try powering on again.
Until I tried running a Space Invaders program on it - bad move, total lockup & still having issues with it even after disconnecting the backup battery.
If I cannot get the thing working again, I will do a separate post about it - may even be looking for another Husky to replace it !
I was very excited to get hold of a Husky after all these years, would be a real shame if my one has gone faulty....
 
Good news, my Hunter 16 lives again ! Just had to leave it sit overnight to recharge the backup battery (I deliberately discharged it, disconnected out of circuit too), and after disconnecting/re-connecting the main batteries,
it booted up just fine. Did another reformat too. Now to load the programs onto it again. But I will be more careful about what DOS programs to try running on it, it is very selective about what programs it likes !
 
Maybe you could add a small reset button, so you won't need to go through all that battery stuff in future.
 
Yes not a bad idea. I have tried a few more programs on it today, and no lock up/crashes this time.
The two most useful programs I have on it now are CONEX (terminal program) and RADIOLOG (Radio logging software), both run just fine.
I am limited with what I can put onto the Husky with only 256K of user memory in total. (My main DOS PC has a huge 2G/b hard drive in it, came that way when I got it).
 
Try Laplink Editor version 4 or 4.1 ( LE.COM). It's found on the Laplink version5 disks. It's much like MS DOS Edit. It has pull down menus, text search, word wrap, dual screens, print preview and few more extras that have slipped my mind. about 33KB in total. I've ran it on the HP 95LX and it's my favorite text editor for the IBM 5140 portable with an 80C88 so you should have no problem running it on the Husky.
 
So I did indeed try the Laplink Editor on my Hunter 16. It runs fine, however, when I tried to edit a file (a BASIC file), and then save it, the program complained that C drive was write protected (which it is not !).
Looking at the BASIC file after this clearly showed it to be corrupted, and doing a CHKDSK showed an errored sector !! Not good. Then had to do a full format of the memory, and re-load everything onto it (I did backup everything beforehand of course). The memory was recovered ok with no errored sector anymore. The Laplink Editor program is now deleted I'm afraid ! Will just stick with the standard EDIT program.
This Hunter 16 is very picky with the software that will run on it successfully, that's for sure....
I am guessing that the more advanced 16/80 model would be better for running programs, since it has a full CGA screen.
 
That's too bad. I thought for sure that one would have worked considering where it has worked for me in the past. It was a wise move backing everything up beforehand.

I've ran into issues like these when trying to run DOS software on the HP 95LX. There are programs that clash with the 40 column screen or maybe with the ram being used as a disk. The 100 and 200LX seem to be more far more forgiving than the 95 is.
 
Yeah ok, interesting... Well I now have a good selection of software loaded on the Hunter 16 now, which makes it pretty useful for me, for astronomy & radio hobby stuff.
And get this - another RAM drive is present in the unit, drive D ! Just 256K of memory though. It is loaded with a custom piece of software called PSTAT, made by Logic Systems Inc (US company).
It runs ok, but is designed to talk to some sort of factory process control gear, so is kind of useless. I tried to delete the program on the D drive, thinking I could use the memory, but alas, the whole D drive is write protected, cannot work out how to get around this. There is zero free bytes on the D drive too. Anyway, is interesting, was not expecting to find this.
 
Oh, it's really a rom under disguise as a ram disk . 256K would have been a nice bonus. The HP Palmtops have those too. They use D:\ for the MS DOS files on the HP 100 and 200LX. It's a read only drive.

On the HP 95LX there's a hidden folder, C:\_BIN that doesn't even show up under Filer or when entering a DIR command in C:, and software and sample Lotus 123 spreadsheets that are right in C which are really rom files and you cannot delete them.
 
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