HMC150 '50' Machines Walter Grinders July '99

Hi guys,

I work in an Electronics repair shop, we fix the electronics and motors used in CNC machines and other industrial hardware.

One of our clients has a Walter Grinder that is using the guts of an IBM XT clone computer for its CNC control. And the machine refuses to boot becuase of a Hard Disk error.

These hard disks are no longer available. And our shop does not have any way to read them directly, or to test the Disk controller card.

What we DO have is a way to replace the old Hard Disk system with a Flash drive. I just need to know what files are needed to run this machine.

The client sent me his "backup" and from that I have:
- STD50.exe (looking inside this program I see it should run under DOS 3.3 or later, and I found the text string I used for my subject line)
- STD50 3.5" floppy, this contains a number of files and folders that look like a machine and/or tool configuration.
- BSR MS Dos 5.0, this 3.5" floppy is not readable.

What I would like to know is:
1. When the PC boots, does it run STD50? Are there any command line parameters needed?
2. Should the config files be in a sub-folder, or do they have to be in the root folder, or (worse) on a floppy?

What I'm making is an ISA card that will replace the current disk controller. This card has an IDE disk interface, and I will connect to that a FLASH IDE drive module. So the clieint will have an SSD replacement for his aging (slow) hard disk. One that should outlive the machine. Well, outlast the controller anyway. Although repairig the controller would be a lot easier than the disk!

I posted more technical details and photos to the Vintage Computer website:
Looking for links to info, parts surplus for Seagate ST-225

Thanks in Advance!
Rich.

good day Rich.
yes I can help.
these are embedded software machines so computer swaps are not easy.
what is the machine group? something like HMC 400, or 500, or 600 ?
I will need to know exactly what happened to the machine that required your services...
hard drive failure? computer card failure?
they built these machines so that you could not 'swap' computers, but are forced to buy from the manufacturer.
you may need to get creative, but I have done similar stuff before.
[email protected]
chris

The linked site has photos of the machine's control cabinet interior and the error message. Hard disk system failure. So could be the card, cables or drive.

My plan is to replace the entire drive system. Thankfully, some "Vintage Computer" enthusiests developed a replacement card that gives old computers an IDE disk drive port. And other manufacturers make solid state flash drives with IDE connectors. There are even IDE to SD cards, so you pop a drive in or out as needed. Pretty cool solution.

I got a friend to setup a DOS virtual machine and run the STD50 program to see if it is the main control program. He said all it did was demand a floppy and then create the data/tool folder structure on it and exit.

So I'm trying to find out WHAT files are part of this machine's operation. Then I need to find a copy of them.

The machine shop has an older version of this machine that they think runs the same software. So, I'm going to try and get the files off of that. But not me in person, no budget for a "site service call".

I have never seen the machine or a photo of it, the only clue to its name I gleamed from the files they sent me. The subject line of this thread is what I found inside STD50.EXE.

I'm a little confused why the client (and other posts) refer to this machine as "STD 50" but inside that program file it says "HMC-150". I expect to figure it out, eventually.