[Kosmas]

Hi to everyone.

My machine is a Masterwood 320 Υ.O.M. 2000, it is working under DOS v. 6.22 and it only has a floppy 1.44 .

I am trying to connect it with another PC (with XP) that i have.
I need to tranfer large Gcode files from and to the machine and to backup more often than now.

So far i ve tried with a utp cable and with an rs232 cable but the cnc cannot see the PC and the PC cannot see the CNC...
I have read all the threads at this topic but I can find a solution.
Also i found threads in some forums about connecting a DOS PC with a XP PC and about installing a USB on a dos PC but as i dont have experience in networks, i hope someone who did that kind of communicating to help.

The problem is that the most network technician near me dont know or have forgot DOS.
Sorry for my bad English.
Thanks in front
Kosmas

[victorofga]

check ebay if you can find older computer yet working...

also this company still exist.. they can help you... you migth have to buy a new control from them

take a look into your machine.. you migth find expansion slot for harddrive..
question if machine recognize hard drives..

if youre sure, theres dos6.22 running... im almost sure you can install hardrive even cd burner..

i remember i had some 300mhz compaq and i could use flashdrive under win98

[Bubba]

dos 6.22 does not recognize USB ports. You have to have the DOS from Win 98 SE at a minimum. To transfer the files under dos, you you need to use a Terminal program such as HyperTerminal.
Yeh, I am trying to remember my DOS stuff also!

[ger21]

I think networking is your best bet. Install a network card with dos drivers on a floppy, and Google to find out how to set it up.
I used to use a Masterwood 327 with networking. Share a folder on the XP machine, and map it to a drive letter in the DOS netwrking utility. Then point the masterwood to the mapped drive and it should be able to pull the files from the shared folder on the XP machine.
That's how we used to do it. However, the DOS machine wouldn't show up on the XP machine, but it worked great.

[Bubba]

Also, the shared folder on the XP machine would have to be Fat formated????
Dos 6.22 would not recognize ntfs formating.
So you might want to use a flash drive or something like that for the xp machine.

[ger21]

Also, the shared folder on the XP machine would have to be Fat formated????

I don't think so, as it originally was connected to a machine running NT4 with NTFS.

[jeffery926]

Here is a driver for a thumb drive for Win98. Windows 98 USB Mass Storage Device Drivers

You just need a PC running Win98 that has a USB port to transfer your large g-code files, then you just boot to DOS to run them. I even have System Commander 2000 loaded on my DOS controller PC so I have a choice to either boot to Win98 or DOS.

Jeff

[victorofga]

jeffrey thats what i tried to explain... dos6.22 of course wont recognize flashdrive... since flashdrive was developed after.. later

years later. i wrote clearly...

under win 98

=====================================

i believe the ethernet the only thing works on the old dos and the new windows system commonly..

im not a programer..


other approach could be somehow the db25 port for communication...


i dont remember if dos 6 recognized the 32 bit system..
but win3.1 already knew the 32 bit applications.. and sounds funny but win 3.1 was run with dos 6.22

one thing sure.. if that comptuer using dos6.22 then motherboard has any extension slot.. and can be instaled hardrive, or ethernetcard or something must be there solution...

[jeffery926]

Victor, I guess you missed my point. Make a change to a newer PC with a USB port running Win98. It can handle 2 hard drives and put your other hard drive in it as a slave. You can even still purchase a new PC that will run Win98 and DOS if you can't find an older used one.

ISA Slot Computers

They even have ISA slots if your CNC controller program has a card that requires it to run like my system does.

System Commander will allow you to have multiple operating systems on one PC and you can select which one to boot to when your PC starts.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Vcom-300200-System-Commander-2000/dp/B000042OM3/ref=sr_1_1?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1360070964&sr=1-1&keywords=system+commander+2000"]Amazon.com: System Commander 2000 5.0: Software[/ame]

I am using a 16GB Compact Flash Card in my DOS CNC controller PC instead of a spin up drive and run Win98/DOS on it.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-CF-IDE-DI-Connects-3-5-Inch-Interface/dp/B000YUMLPI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360058761&sr=8-1&keywords=Compact+flash+ide]Amazon.com: Syba SD-CF-IDE-DI IDE to CF Adaptor, Direct Insert, Connects to 3.5-Inch IDE Host Interface: Electronics[/ame]

If you don't want to go the Win98 route and another pc with a USB port, you could just add a CF to your PC as a slave drive. You can format it using Fdisk and copy your files to it using DOS for backup or use it to transfer your large files back and forth to your WinXP computer that has a Compact Flash Card reader. It really does not matter what format is used when formatting the Compact Flash as a hard drive, WinXP will recognize it.

Jeff

[neilw20]

You might consider trying DOSBOX. it is free.
I run Win98 stuff and earlier on my Win7 32bit Toshiba laptop, VESA graphics and all. It will run in XP also.
It is very configurable. Worth a try.
DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS

[jeffery926]

You might consider trying DOSBOX. it is free.
I run Win98 stuff and earlier on my Win7 32bit Toshiba laptop, VESA graphics and all. It will run in XP also.
It is very configurable. Worth a try.
DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS

That's a scary thought. I'm a firm believer in keeping things simple which means allot more stability and reliability, especially on my CNC mills and lathes.

Jeff

[neilw20]

Try it. To easy not to. You can get the source code for it too if you really want to see how it works.
Source code for DOS!! For Video cards too. No better way to understand it, than reading that code. You can choose the types of devices on it.
It is only scary if it looses control?
You can change the cpu priority too, and make it the cpu hog if you need to.
From Win98, at least a dos window was emulated anyway from how I see it -- any comments out there in expert land?
There is a text configuration file, and it has it's own file space - you mount a folder as a drive.
Mach3 does very well in spite of this:
Time

[victorofga]

sorry jeffrey..

i mixed up the posters..
bubba wrote i answered..


keeping simple thats a good point.. working without emulators..

a new control possible very expenses, so worth to find some way to work on the old system..

win98 was the last windows i think you could restart withF8 fully dos..
also win98 had some memory handling limit compared with later win versions..

i was thinking setting up two modern computer between office and the cnc..

and at the cnc the new computer just for receivng datas from office.. and locally transfer on a flashdrive over the old computer the datas..

still a lot cheaper than replacing control..

[jeffery926]

Try it. To easy not to.

If it's not broke, why spend hours upon hours starting from scratch fixing it?

It is only scary if it looses control?

Exactly!!

From Win98, at least a dos window was emulated anyway from how I see it

I never run a DOS program from a emulated Win98 DOS window. I boot directly to DOS when the PC starts to run my CNC machines.

Mach3 does very well in spite of this:

I do use Mach3 only for my hobby engraving work. It's not a big deal scrapping a piece of wood, Corian or a mirror engraving.

Sorry Victor, I was only trying to help.

Jeff

[victorofga]

that company you posted isa slot computers, think they offer a good solutions for this..
i used turbocnc, i think a very stable program, and used the F8 to start in dosmode.. never used in dos window..
that was i tried to pointing... win 98 was the last win version that could work without loading anything from windows..

[Bubba]

Neil,
Dosbox won't work:{( I tried it on my XP machine to run my dos controller and it will not allow direct access to the parallel port.

[ropewrench]

I just rebuilt my computer with DOS 7.1 and win XP
Dos 7.1 has usb support. It is DOS pulled from Win 98 of something
no mather what you try I would back it up.

XP will see and reads DOS
I would pull the DOS Hard drive and Slave it to the XP box
Make a folder and save everything or everthing you need. (I saved the whole thing)

Find usb Driver for DOS Pre load it to Dos hard drive before reinstalling it to DOS Box

This is a little work but you would and could save yourself some head achs down the road

You could

[jeffery926]

XP will see and reads DOS
I would pull the DOS Hard drive and Slave it to the XP box

You can just use on of these. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1360078629&sr=8-7&keywords=hard+drive+reader+usb]Amazon.com: SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for 2.5 / 3.5 Inch Hard Drive / Optical Drive with External AC Power Adapter: Computers & Accessories[/ame]

I have one and it works very good to access a hard drive with the USB port.

Jeff

[Al_The_Man]

jeffrey thats what i tried to explain... dos6.22 of course wont recognize flashdrive... since flashdrive was developed after.. later

..

I have a few systems that are running DOS using a flash drive, there are several drivers out there that will do it, the down side is it is not hot-switchable, IOW the flash drive has to be present at boot up.
I also use one of the older DOS Modem programs such as Telix or Qmodem and use either the Terminal program that came with early Windows (NOT Hyperterminal) on the PC up to Win98, if using XP then Cadem lite can be used on the Windows side, use a 3 wire RS232 cable and software handshake.
Al.

[ropewrench]

In my case I loaded Dos 7.1 first to 1st partition
Then loaded XP to 2nd partition
on bootup it gives me option to boot to DOS or XP

I had the same problem I didn't have another floppy drive in the house.
XP puts me back in my network