Polaroid HR6000 Digital Palette - looking for info

philpem

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
35
Location
Leeds, UK
Format
35mm
I'm probably pushing the boundaries of "on topic" for APUG, but I figure this is worth a try

A while ago, I picked up a Polaroid HR-6000 "Digital Palette" film recorder. This is basically a CRT display with a SCSI interface, framebuffer and controller board. Essentially, it exposes an image onto 35mm film, line by line.

I've managed to track down a copy of the RasterPlus software, which rather predictably has issues on modern PCs. I'd like to get this working on a newer PC, even if I have to write the software myself...
Problem is, to do this properly I need the documentation and software which came in the "Polaroid Digital Palette Interface Toolkit" -- from what I can gather, this was distributed to developers by Polaroid, and could be obtained simply by calling and asking for a copy.

Given Polaroid's turbulent history, I doubt I'd find anyone there who knows a thing about this beast. Does anyone here happen to have a copy of this software, or perhaps know someone (perhaps a former Polaroid engineer) who might?

I'm also after a copy of the "Gentest" software, which is used to test and calibrate the film recorder after a repair operation.

I've been told that a gentleman called David Hemingway was part of the development team and later handled customer service for Polaroid, although I've been unable to find contact details for him. I've also been given the name Simon Pinder-Hales, who apparently handled sales for these machines -- beyond that, I have no further leads :-(

If anyone's interested in my project -- I've set up a page for it here: http://www.philpem.me.uk/code/filmrec/ (I'll be updating this as my little project progresses)

Thanks,
Phil.
 

tezzasmall

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
1,132
Location
Southend on Sea Essex UK
Format
Plastic Cameras
Found your page and this post via google. Any success with the film recorder over the past decade?
the OP 'philpem was last seen: Jul 21, 2020'...

He has no website listed in his details, but you might try sending a DM just in case he visits again some time?

Terry S
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…