Error 152 "Drive not Ready"

I'm getting this error when I try to access the "A" floppy drive. Milltronics says it's a bad drive but I'm not so sure. I've tried at least 4 different floppy drives that give me the same message. Is there some setting that needs to be changed? I was using a multi card reader that stopped reading the CF card so I swapped drives to a floppy and now I get this error. The floppy's power light lights up when you boot the machine but that's about it. Floppy disk can be read on my computer just fine.
My Ethernet went down so I'm stuck using the A drive for now but now I can't use either. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :mad:

Random thoughts in random order:

I think the CF drive is an ISA device, not a floppy drive. Are you sure your floppy drive is plugged into the floppy cable connection on the top of the card cage?
If the drive light comes on at power-up and stays on, the cable is plugged in upside down.

Does the PATH.DAT file point to the right drive?

Try plugging your drive and cable directly into the I/O card/motherboard. Shell out to DOS, and do DIR's on the various drive letters to see if any of them work.
Depending on the card cage configuration, the floppy drive will be the A:, B:,or C:, and in rare circumstances, the D: drive.

Good luck, let us know what you find.

Thanks for your help. Some answers below.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZZZZ

Random thoughts in random order:

I think the CF drive is an ISA device, not a floppy drive. Are you sure your floppy drive is plugged into the floppy cable connection on the top of the card cage?
If the drive light comes on at power-up and stays on, the cable is plugged in upside down.

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Plug is right direction , on some the plug will only go in one way. The lights come on but go off after boot up until you insert a disk. Yes the card reader uses a different cable. My machine was equipped with a Imation Superdisk that read floppy and 120MB disks. It uses an IDE cable. I tried it and it also gives the same error.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZZZZ

Does the PATH.DAT file point to the right drive?

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Not sure how I check and change this. Path on the control showed "E" drive when it read the CF card. When it doesn't read it (currently) that drive letter doesn't show up as an option. Only A, B, and C. "P" showed when the Ethernet was working.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZZZZ

Try plugging your drive and cable directly into the I/O card/motherboard. Shell out to DOS, and do DIR's on the various drive letters to see if any of them work.
Depending on the card cage configuration, the floppy drive will be the A:, B:,or C:, and in rare circumstances, the D: drive.

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I wanted to try an SD card was wondering if it needs to be reformatted. Only one I have is 8 GB. Windows 10 doesn't have the option to make it FAT.

I was able to get my Ethernet working but still need to know what this error means and how to fix it so I can use the A drive if I need to load the parameters some day. I think it mush have something to do the PATH.DAT file.

2 GB is maximum on my drive.

The PATH.DAT file is in the RAM folder and it is the file you see when you go to UTIL - INFO - PATH.
You can edit the file by going to PROG - TEXT - ANY and entering the full file name, i.e. B:\RAM\PATH.DAT.

Here is a note concerning the PATH.DAT file:

path.dat lines:
The Centurion CNC control looks to the PATH.DAT file found in the RAM directory


Line 1 ROM files (where to find)
Line 2 RAM files (where to find)
Line 3 Parts files (where to put)
Line 4 Graphic files (where to put)
Line 5 Floppy (where to save parameters
Line 6 Remote files (Save-Load source)( on newer versions)
Line 7 Cent4 files output (where to put)
Line 8 Cent4 files load for convert (where to find)
Line 9 DXF/CADL (where to find)
Line 10 Printer (where to send `Print')

All lines have to end with a backslash.
Lines 7-10 are for off-line software only.


Examples:

on a machine with a motherboard and a simdisk card -

A:\ROM\
B:\RAM\
B:\PARTS\
D:\
C:\


on off-line software -

C:\CNC\ROM\
C:\CNC\RAM\
C:\CNC\PARTS\
E:\
Q:\NETWORK\DRIVE\


C:\CAD\DXF\
LPT1\

I hope this helps.

Hi Allen, if you are running a a multi function drive on E: it will default to that drive letter. You would need to set "drive keys on menu" to yes. then you could select A: as the drive you want to go to.

another thought. try formatting the disk on the floppy in dos on the control. If the tracks off a little one drive will not read another's drive floppy .
In the shop, I can not read disks that work on the control. and vise versa.

Call me
sportybob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZZZZ

The PATH.DAT file is in the RAM folder and it is the file you see when you go to UTIL - INFO - PATH.
You can edit the file by going to PROG - TEXT - ANY and entering the full file name, i.e. B:\RAM\PATH.DAT.

Here is a note concerning the PATH.DAT file:

path.dat lines:
The Centurion CNC control looks to the PATH.DAT file found in the RAM directory


Line 1 ROM files (where to find)
Line 2 RAM files (where to find)
Line 3 Parts files (where to put)
Line 4 Graphic files (where to put)
Line 5 Floppy (where to save parameters
Line 6 Remote files (Save-Load source)( on newer versions)
Line 7 Cent4 files output (where to put)
Line 8 Cent4 files load for convert (where to find)
Line 9 DXF/CADL (where to find)
Line 10 Printer (where to send `Print')

All lines have to end with a backslash.
Lines 7-10 are for off-line software only.


Examples:

on a machine with a motherboard and a simdisk card -

A:\ROM\
B:\RAM\
B:\PARTS\
D:\
C:\


on off-line software -

C:\CNC\ROM\
C:\CNC\RAM\
C:\CNC\PARTS\
E:\
Q:\NETWORK\DRIVE\


C:\CAD\DXF\
LPT1\

I hope this helps.

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What is off-line software? I have a Centurion 6 with the SMB upgrade.

My PATH.DAT is:
C:\ROM\
C:\RAM\
C:\PARTS\
D:\
A:\
P:\

Should that first line be "A:\ROM\ " if I use a floppy instead of a multi-card reader? I've given up on the multi-card reader.

The 'off-line software' refers to Milltronics' FastCAM software used to create conversational and text programs at your PC rather than at the machine's front panel.


Your PATH.DAT file tells us:

C:\ROM\ ---------The ROM (Dat and Hex) files are in the ROM folder in the root directory of the CF chip.
C:\RAM\----------The RAM (Parameter) files are in the RAM folder in the root directory of the CF chip.
C:\PARTS\------ Your part programs are in the PARTS folder in the root directory of the CF chip.
D:\ ----------------- The screen graphics file is written to the root of the temporary D: virtual drive.
A:\ ------------------The parameters are Saved/Loaded to/from the A: floppy disk.
P:\ ------------------Your programs are Saved/Loaded to/from your networked drive. The P: drive letter is assigned in the NET USE line of the Autoexec.bat file.

After "re reading" the post. I missed the part where he said that it had a SD ( super disk) The super disk was 3M / Imation IDE type of drive that would take 3.5" floppies as well as a 100MB disk. ( good idea at the time)
This drive requires a hard drive, so that the drivers for that drive can be loaded. This also changes the "PATH" that is looked at. As it was a "loaded devise" it made the " A:" floppy" a E: drive.

So: the control is loading the drivers that run the super disk, when the control goes to "look at" the floppy it is expecting to "hear back" from a super disk drive. no answer back, no connection. ie error 152, "drive not ready"

Ok, to fix the problem. remove the super disk, install a floppy drive.( you may also need an "1 to 1" ( no cross over / flipped wires) floppy cable to connect to the floppy drive. edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files to remove the call outs to the super disk, edit the path.dat file to:
c:\rom
C:\ram
c:\parts
c:\TC *** ( tool change folder, your software may not have this.)
d:\ ( graphics RAM drive)
a:\ ( floppy)
P:\ ( network)

After rereading the post again, I missed the parts where "I've given up on the mutli-function card reader". The "M-F card reader is again a IDE device and requires drivers to run. and again it changes the "path". nice little drive to help get larger files into a control if you don't have networking.

The "Path" is where the control goes to " look for" things that the control calls out for.

In the beginning, Milltronics used a "Sim disk" this is an electronic drive card mounted in the control. The Simdisk has 2 areas. 1. chips that contain the MS DOS operating system and the CNC software This is the " A:\ROM" . 2. the RAM area. " B:\ RAM" These are RAM chips that hold the machine parameters and the parts programs. this was was broken up into parts B:\RAM and B:\PARTS.

Then it makes a "ram drive" D: for the on screen graphics in the mother board ram chips.

As both A: and B; ( used for floppies in PC computers" is already used by the Simdisk, The software changes the floppy to C:
So: you end up with a path,dat files that looks like this,
a:\ROM
b:\ram
b:\parts
d:\ ( graphics)
c:\ (floppy)

If another drive is added to added, ie: super disk or multi-function drives than a hard drive is added because those drives require "drivers" to work.

The hard dive goes back to conventional "PC computer" lay out.
The MS DOS is loaded and run for the hard drive instead of the Simdisk.
the ROM, RAM and Parts are also moved to the hard drive.

so now the path would "look like" this.
c:\ROM
c:\RAM
c:\parts
d:\ (graphics
a:\ (floppy)

Now: if an superdisk or milti-fuction drive is added. ( these are IDE devices)
the path would look like this:
c:\ROM
c:\RAM
c:\Parts
d: ( graphics)
e:\ ( IDE device) The device drivers would make this drive letter call out " next available drive" in the config.sys and autoexec.bat files
a:\ (floppy) Conventional floppy drive letter call out
p: ( network) any drive letter you want "YOUR" network to have. F: thru Z:

SO: depending on the control and options your control has, will determine the correct PATH.DAT for your machine.

Sportybob