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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Milltronics > Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    91

    Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Long story short. We sold our house a few years ago and moved to a new one. I just now got my new shop built and my equipment installed. My milltronics Partner 1e Centurion 5 has been a work horse and mechanically it is perfect. However, after sitting for a few years the batteries went dead and the one on the simdisk corroded. I replaced the Cmos and Simdisk batteries and found one capacitor on the simdisk bad and replaced it. I followed the steps to setup the Cmos and the SRAM procedures. When the control boots up it gets to the a:/ and then stops. I can hit ESC and it will then enter the CNC software. However, once in the CNC software I am unable to get the floppy disk drive to work so that I can load the parameters. I get an error 152 drive not ready

    I will probably end up sending this off to Sporty Bob to have his SBC upgrade done, but right now I need to save up some money and try to finish a few projects before I send it off. Any suggestions?

    I tried another floppy drive and it does the same thing. I think that the paths are correct

    Attachment 448342Attachment 448344

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    529

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Try typing in the parameters by hand. I could never get the floppy drive to work reliably.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    91

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    I have never tried to enter them by hand. I will have to search and see if I even have the paper documents for them. That being said, I would still need to get the floppy working so I can load some of my programs.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1567

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Quote Originally Posted by dlenardu View Post
    the batteries went dead ........ I followed the steps to setup the Cmos and the SRAM procedures. When the control boots up it gets to the a:/ and then stops...... I get an error 152 drive not ready....
    I tried another floppy drive and it does the same thing.
    ...double check cable orientation, then bios settings for FDD

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    529

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Use your RS232 comm port and hook up a computer direct... can't hardly believe anybody still messes about with floppies.

    Quote Originally Posted by dlenardu View Post
    I have never tried to enter them by hand. I will have to search and see if I even have the paper documents for them. That being said, I would still need to get the floppy working so I can load some of my programs.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    91

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian L View Post
    Use your RS232 comm port and hook up a computer direct... can't hardly believe anybody still messes about with floppies.
    I have never been able to get the RS232 port to communicate with my computer. Always had to use the floppies

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    637

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian L View Post
    Use your RS232 comm port and hook up a computer direct... can't hardly believe anybody still messes about with floppies.
    Only time I tried to use the RS232 com port it was painfully slow. With RS232, speed was measured in K's per minute not MB per seconds like today standards. Try that when cutting 3D, sucks big time. I've been using USB the last few years an it's fine. Not as good has the Ethernet that I was using but it can no longer connect to my Win 10 computer. The USB will download in a few seconds for a 1 meg file then you can run from the machine RAM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    91

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Quote Originally Posted by moldcore View Post
    I've been using USB the last few years an it's fine. Not as good has the Ethernet that I was using but it can no longer connect to my Win 10 computer. The USB will download in a few seconds for a 1 meg file then you can run from the machine RAM.
    Moldcore, Are you using a usb floppy emulator? I know sportybob offers one on the SBC upgrade and I am looking at going to it when I get the chance to send him my system.

    On another note, I finally got back into the CMOS. The only way I was able to get back to the CMOS was to unplug the battery. I'm not sure that I did anything different this time but I was able to get it to read the floppy drive so thanks to Machinehop5 for suggesting to go back to the CMOS. I still can not get it to boot up automatically.

    Is there another way to enter the CMOS without unplugging the battery?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    132

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Get an AT keyboard and plug into motherboard and hit Del key when boot screen comes up.

    Ron

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    637

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Quote Originally Posted by dlenardu View Post
    Moldcore, Are you using a usb floppy emulator? I know sportybob offers one on the SBC upgrade and I am looking at going to it when I get the chance to send him my system.
    Yes it's an emulator. You'll have to download a software that re-formats USB thumb drives to 1.44 MB to use it. sportybob should be able to help you with that. Milltronics did my SBC upgrade years ago and added Ethernet.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    91

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    @moldcore, are you happy with the sbc upgrade? Do you feel it was worth the money?

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    637

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    Quote Originally Posted by dlenardu View Post
    @moldcore, are you happy with the sbc upgrade? Do you feel it was worth the money?
    The machine we did it on was a VM24 that was built in 1999. It used an Imation super disk 120 MB drive to load programs. The drive was great but were notorious for going bad after a couple of years and the disks and drives (you needed on on your computer also) became harder and harder to get. I think we went through 3 or 4 drives in 12 years before doing to the SBC so we could use Ethernet. The hard drive on the the machine was also pretty small so that was a consideration. After the upgrade it worked great using the Ethernet to transfer files and the machine seemed to be faster loading and running. For us it was the right thing to do even though the Ethernet no longer works and we are back to basically a floppy drive using the USB. My first machine was a Partner 1 with a centurion V and floppy drive that was painfully slow doing 3D. Buying the VM24 with a Centurion 6 was a huge improvement in speed in 3D cutting, 10 times faster. Check with Milltronics or sportybob to see if it can be done on you machine.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Posts
    11

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    I have milltronics controller Centurion I CNC2.97
    Must go

  14. #14

    Re: Machine will not automatically boot, can't get floppy to read

    I am having similar issues. Battery on simdisk just went bad so I replaced it and now it will not boot up. Cnc halted: error 1, invalid function number.
    I have VM17 centurion 6 control. Just bought it a year and half ago. Been running fine till this point. I can’t find the operating disk, I bought it from my employer and will have to go to work Monday and maybe do some searching for that. From what I read I may need to reload those ? But I am not sure how to load that from DOS.
    Any help would be great
    Thanks

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