[marx911]

Bridgeport EZ Trak Flashdisk question:
We have a 97’ model Bridgeport EZ Trak II at work and its looking like we either lost a motherboard or a processor. The problem is the motherboard is a Baby AT form w/ a Pentium 75 Mhz processor. The system has no hard drive only a floppy and a M-Systems 8 Meg ISA Flashdisk card. When you start the machine it uses the Flashdisk to load the operating system. I have put the Flashdisk in another Bridgeport and it comes up so it’s ok. The problem is the motherboard and processor are very dated and while we might be able to get one now a time will come that they will no longer be available. So I was wondering if anyone has ever been able to download the program off the Flashdisk? In talking to M- Systems it should appear as a file but some concern has been raised that simply putting it into a more modern motherboard/CPU setup might cause the machine to crash because the new CPU will have a much faster data xfer rate than the older P75. My thoughts are to get the program off the Flashdisk and put it on a newer IDE hard drive with should not have the xfer issues.

Thanks in advance,
Mark

[machintek]

There are a few issues to answer. These ADVANTECH mother boards are still available. They have everything built in as far as video, serial and parrellel port, etc. The first ones used a piggy back Flash card. This is obsolete. The next generation used a device called a "disk on a chip." It was a removable IC. The newest version is a DISK ON a MODULE> It plugs into the IDE (hard drive) connector and works just like a hard drive. It can be "found" by the motherboard BIOS. Usually we purchase the 32MB version, load DOS and the machine software and it is ready. There is a special piece of software that formats and loads the necessary software onto the flash card. The hard drive settings are set to none. Same goes for the disk on chip but it has a different version of software.
Now what you should be aware of is that the motherboard does not run the machine. It is used for an interface to you, and as a way to get data to the BMDC board which has its own processor (slow) and actually runs the machine. When you save and load a program, it saves to the Flash card (or whatever device you have) and loads it to the BMDC board. The BMDC even converts your conversational program to G and M code. If your BUSS speed is too high, you will have communication errors with the BMDC. Sometimes I have to turn off caches and such on the motherboard to slow it down.

George W.

[marx911]

thank you for the info...
Mark

[cnckevinb]

Realize that there were two versions of EZtrak made - one that had a universal display and the other with a CRT. Having been a factory rep. for over 20 years I am familiar with both. The disk on chip had issues.
Another neat problem was the cmos's inability to converse with something of a later issue and more "up to date". Bridgeport personel, deciding it might be best to ensure a safe avenue of escape for their customers sold their support information to EMI. You CAN reinvent the wheel if you want to - no promises expressed or implied - but WHY would you?. You can obtain a disk on Module with newer hardware, newer software and expandability from EMI.
Mark at EMI Ph 610 287 4240
Also for those who browse this forum - Machintek is ACCURATE and informed.
You're welcom
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[machintek]

Thank you for the words of support/encouragement!
Sometimes there is a very steep learning curve for the people with these machines and time to publish all that is necessary here is difficult. Look at some of the other questions. Most have already been answered if they would just search and read.

George