My HMI machine damaged and replace it with dell gx110 machine. i install the arcnet card and the hard disk to the new PC all. i check arcnet device is work but there is no data in complicity. i check with arcwho.exe its work fine, get arcnet address and another addresses and red led flash. but when i try card_id.exe, its said the communication is unhealthy. what should i do? any one have any idea?

thanks
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Emad,

TCI doesn't always work with every version of BIOS on any PC. Sometimes interrupt conflicts can cause problems. Unfortunately, I'm no expert on interrupts or interrupt conflicts so if that's the problem I can't offer any help.

Have you looked in the TCI Control Panel Applet and made sure the settings for the ARCnet card are correct?

GE did not (could not) qualify TCI for every possible PC ever made. I'm not familiar with the Dell PC you mentioned, how new it is, or how it is laid out (slots; etc.). It's very possible that TCI (and CIMBRIDGE) just won't work with that particular PC.

MANY times when people claim they were able to get a non-GE PC to work we get zero (as in NONE) information about how exactly it was made to work. Often when people do get it to finally work, they don't know what they did and can't document it for others.

So, if you're going to continue to try to get this to work--PLEASE, write down the changes you make each time you make changes (including what was undone, not just what was done) so that you can recreate what was done for yourself--and share it with others!

Best of luck with your endeavor!

 

Emad,

So, I had some time while listening to windbags on a conference call today to look up a Dell GX110 PC, and I presume it's an Optiplex GX110.

Those are pretty old PCs, with P3 and P4 microprocessors, and so it's likely that the "HMI" you are referring to is one running IDOS and NOT MS-Windows & CIMPLICITY. (Those early Mark V operator interfaces were called <I>s.) As such, there would be no TCI Control Panel Applet.

But, the same thing holds true: IDOS is NOT compatible with every BIOS chip which was produced. And it's IDOS that controls how the ARCNet card is used to talk to the PC and the Mark V. Yes; I imagine that one or more LEDs would flash or be lit even if communication was not fully working because the card is probably getting power.

But, if the interrupts expected are not those being used for the particular slot by the BIOS chipset, then things ain't gonna work. The list of PCs which IDOS doesn't run on is MUCH longer than the list that it does run on--and, again, GE can't--and shouldn't--be expected to qualify its products on any and every PC out there. The cost would be prohibitive. Even the manufacturers of so-called "plug-and-play" cards run into problems with the odd BIOS chipset and have to issue software updates. GE chose to qualify their software--and hardware--on a select few PCs and BIOS chipsets, and that was it.

I'm NOT saying it's not possible with the GX110, I'm just saying, one, it's not likely, and two, if it can be made to work it will take some effort and lot of trial and error. And, if you want to remember what it took to make it work, you had better be writing down every step you take for future reference. Because, that GX110 probably ain't gonna last that long, either.

By the way, I know of several people who have just installed new industrial single-board computers into the PC chassis of the rack-mount PC cases which used to be supplied back in the days of IDOS. They are more readily available (though not inexpensive) in older processors and configurations and new "in the box," and it's likely the BIOS chipset in use on them is more compatible with IDOS (or TCI and CIMBRIDGE if the operator interface was a GE Mark V HMI running MS-Windows & CIMPLICITY).

Please write back to let us know how you fare!