[darkexphos1]

Hello everyone! :wave: Me and my friend recently got permission from our shop teacher to resurrect a old Lab-Volt 5600 Milling Machine at our High School and need some advise/help. Our predicament is the following: We need a Software key that connects to the parallel port (printer) on our milling computer to allow the Lab-Volt Level 4 Milling Software to work, and we need to know if we need any special hardware (other than a serial port) as the original computer has a motherboard BIOS password that nobody knows. If anyone can give us some knowledge that would benefit us immensely.

Thank You,
Jason

[awerby]

Have you tried asking Lab-volt? They still seem to be around, and mention their educational 5600 machine on their site: https://www.labvolt.com/solutions/1_...nc_mill_system

If your school is registered as the owner, they might send you a new password (or show you how to reset it) without charging for new software (although if this machine is really old, migrating to new software might be called for.)

[darkexphos1]

Thanks for the reply! I managed to remove the password for the old computer so that we are able to get on it. So we won't need to use a different computer. However we still need the software key, and it is not a code it's an actual physical piece of hardware that plugs into the parallel port on the back of the computer according to the manual. I will try to call Lab-Volt to see if I can still purchase one from them. But I'm wondering what the pinout for it is and if I can just jump some pins to make it work?

[Fastest1]

I do wish you the best of luck on being able to use it as is. This is a common problem on many educational machines, the dongles are long lost and not available or replaceable. Dealing with the original company usually is cost prohibitive. As most of us know, a government entity will spend much more money on an item than anyone who uses their own money.

[awerby]

I doubt you'll be able to circumvent the hardware lock that easily. If LabVolt won't sell you a new dongle for a reasonable price, your only alternative might be to replace the whole motion-control system. This might not be a totally bad thing, since it sounds like your existing control is fairly obsolete, and probably wants to run in DOS. You should be able to put together a new system using a Gecko540 and Mach3 for under $1000, which will let you use a more modern computer to run it.

[darkexphos1]

Great news! Today I was looking around the shop and I found the Lock hiding under a very dusty desk. I plugged it into the computer but the software says that It is still missing. My Friend from the local computer repair shop says that you might have to plug the CNC into the computer at the same time to make it work. I am hoping to test it out tomorrow, wish me luck. (Also on a side note the computer is running windows 95.)

[blitz355]

I was a student teacher at a school with a similar machine about 2 years ago, i got theirs running again. I recall having to mess around with some parallel/serial driver settings at the windows level.

[darkexphos1]

Thanks blitz355 I did some research and found that drivers are indeed one of the problems that can cause the Key not to work. I have found a copy of the drivers and will install them later tonight and adjust the settings. (I have the computer with me)

[DSpeck]

Did you ever get the software to work? I have a D&M 6 mill, which is the predecessor to your 5600, I think. I think the machine still works, (not tested yet), but have no software or anything for it. I'm curious if yours works.

[darkexphos1]

Did you ever get the software to work? I have a D&M 6 mill, which is the predecessor to your 5600, I think. I think the machine still works, (not tested yet), but have no software or anything for it. I'm curious if yours works.

No I never got it working. How ever I am going to buy what is referred as a "Breakout Board" an see if that works.

[Fastest1]

The BOB will work fine if you can interface the drives. How about some pics? There are many here who have converted machines of all types. The electronics of each generation are similar and understood.