Ran into a service tech the other day he told me of software issues with older control software on his new laptop and had to go buy an old 486. I told him about how I just ordered a new laptop with a serial port built into the hardware. No small feat nowadays with fire-wire and usb.

I want to know what problems any of ya have come up with in running older control software on the faster bus (hardware comm.) systems available with todays new laptops. I plan on unloading the WInXP and go Win2000pro.

Any feed back would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jim May

 

I also had to track down and purchase an old 486. We have an old Moore DCS, and the configuration and maintenance software will not reliably communicate with the controllers (MMLC) on a Pentium PC.

 

Hi Jim, believe it or not, we still have an old IBM XT running software to serve up batch parameters to four controllers via a RS-232 current loop network. Yep, a 4.7mHz 8088, DOS3.1, boots from 5.25 floppy, green monochrome monitor. I think the software uses for/next loops for timing because if we try and run it on anything faster the network won't work. Try finding parts for something like that. The controller manufacturer has been out of business for 18+ years. When they went out someone here snatched up a bunch of spares, but now we've used our last spare. We built the machines ourselves years ago, so there is no exteranl tech support. We've since built many more of these, but I put AB PLCs on them, but getting management to replace the old ones is impossible. But when the next one dies I am sure they will expect me to work around the clock to get one in.

 

I once worked for a company that sold a software tool for which the sources were lost in reorganisations, mergers, de-mergers and the associated physical moves... there was a delay programmed in the tool which was just a busy-waiting loop. With the coming of faster and faster PC's, the loop got executed faster and faster up to a point where the tool started to fail. To fix this, they developed a small program to 'eat up' lots of Pentium CPU cyclus, so the busy-waiting loop didn't get so time to execute, and 'thus' worked fine again...

Another company nearby ran into trouble when a machine got controlled too fast, and the static electricity generated internally didn't get a chance to leak away... so sometimes a spark caused a cpu reset to occur... they slowed down the machine in software (instead of fixing the electronics) so the static electricity had again time to leak away!

Rob Hulsebos

 

Jim,

Too many to mention:

- CPU too fast for one DOS package, have to carry around an old laptop (mfgr. has a Windows version, but it won't work with older field devices) - Chipset would not support extended memory mapping via EMM386, QEMM, 386MAX et cetera, too bad for PharLap et cetera
- Too much fighting between real-time executive and DOS apps. that expect access to everything
- Serial ports that turn on and off almost at will because of power management that cannot be disabled
- Licence key software (DOS) that just refuses to install on new machines, even small FAT volumes on a DOS boot
- &c &c

This is with Win 2000 Pro and NT 4, never mind the beast XP (just a window dressing rev up of 2000).

R

 

welcome to the bright and beautiful fast paced future which will be the horid and slothy past tomorrow. Sorry this one irritates me too but it is a fact. Try to work for a control company that has been around for 30 years and has released 10 next best products per year and 10 revisions per release on 3 or 4 operating systems simultaneously for at least the last 10 years. Then have someone tell you you have to go fix an old machine and they have no idea what the customer has. Someone should stockpile a bunch of old 386 and 486's then sell them for 10 grand a piece. Believe me, they would sell out. Good thing i'm not a service engineer anymore. I get to cause problems not fix them. muhuhuha!

 

Think how many of these would be fixable with OSS. :^)
My favorite pinball game now comes up game over without
visibly doing anything. Software loop timing isn't even
a good idea for games. Wish I had the source. I have to
fire up an antique to play.

Regards

cww

 

Jim:

Here are a couple of potential solutions to try of the software will launce but not communicate when using Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP.

1. Create a shortcut at set the compatibility mode ot a operating system that it will support. (NOTE: This typically will not fix the communication to the serial and parallel ports duce to the differences between operating systems.)

2. If the programn will run but not print to a network printer then you need to do the following: Configure a printer to print to the LPT1 port that is identical to the printer you have connected to the network. On the printer configured to communicate to LPT1 go to the properties tab and then select the option to enable printer pooling. Once you enable the printer pooling option you can then select the network printer also. When the DOS based program attempts to print to LPT1, Windows XP will properly accept the printout and then determine that the printer that is suppose to be physically connetced to the port is unavailable and it will re-direct it to the network printer.

3. Now, getting DOS programs to communicate properly through a communication port that is managed by Microsoft Windows NT, 2000 or XP is a differnet issue and usually cannot be resolved without re-writing the communication drivers.

Regards
Robert Willis

 

I bought a new laptop taking care it has rs 232 port and afterwards found it does not support dos high memory or any dos memory managers All my favorite Dos sftware crashed or failed to run. I have to upgrade all software where possible.

With Win 2K I had problems with number of drivers and downgraded to Win 98. Lots of sad stories with upgrading.

Regards,
Sekar

 

In my short stint as a plant electrical engineer, I had a problem with some Macintosh 40SE's. A machine vendor apparently thought Mac was great stuff and built their HMI's using the SE's. The had custom "touch screens, which were simply an array of LED's and photocells with a custom
board and software that just put the mouse cursor in a certain position. If you held you finger on a spot for long enough, it simulated a mouse
click. There were 4 lines each with 3 of these hunks of junk.

The systems were backed-up to DD floppies which could only be read with a Mac because Mac DD drives are different from the PC spec and the usual conversion software on a PC would not read them. In short, my HMI's were dilapidated failing Mac's that were backed-up to floppy disks that could not be read on any other platform.

Of course, the vendor had updated their technology and had a DDE server to communicate with their proprietary systems. I wanted to start trials with Wonderware on a PC, but the plant manager didn't want to spend the money on the DDE server and more expensive PC's. (I didn't even get to tell him how much WW cost before it was rejected.)

I found a Mac repair shop that had enough spare parts to assemble 10 at $200 each.

The plant closed 2 months after I quit.

Anthony Kerstens P.Eng.

 

Just a couple of months back one of the execs here brought in an old 386 portable, said it had been sitting in his closet at home through several laptop upgrades. The IT guy realized we could use it and sent it right over. Are we ever grateful, had he turned it back in on time it would have been discarded long ago. EGA monitor and 10meg HDD, but it runs all the programs for our legacy controllers. I should come as no surprise that this thing is more closely guarded than our newest laptops.

 

You might try booting Linux with dosemu. It will work
with the laptop resources and emulate the old dos
features. I'm not a big fan of emulators, but I have
run some of the more exotic dos stuff this way. I had
it all crammed on a floppy. I don't know it this is still
possible with later versions, I've found native Linux
replacements for all the old stuff now that PCB does
Gerber plots. DOS CAD was notorious for using gimmicks.

Regards

cww

 

I am using seriously obsolete version of editor T602, (running DOS graphics) in Linux dosemu environment. Runs better than in original DOS (or any Windows based emulator). You can also have a few of them running happily in their own windows
at the same time.

If you need to run dos program on a new hardware Linux dosemu is definitively worth try.

Petr

--
Petr Baum, Senior Design Engineer
<pbaum(AT)niksar.com.au>
Niksar Pty Ltd
Unit 135/45 Gilby Rd, Mount Waverley, 3149
Phone: +61-3-9558 9924 Fax: +61-3-9558 9927
www.niksar.com.au
====================================

 

I have attempted to do exactly this, running a DOS program on a Win2K computer, with a USB HP1200 printer. The DOS program crashes as soon as I try to print.

I set up the USB printer, then selected Printer Pooling, and LPT1. Is there anything else you can suggest to do?

Thanks,

Chris

Robert Willis wrote:
> 2. If the programn will run but not print to a network printer then you need to do the following: Configure a printer to print to the LPT1 port that is identical to the printer you have connected to the network. On the printer configured to communicate to LPT1 go to the properties tab and then select the option to enable printer pooling. Once you enable the printer pooling option you can then select the network printer also. When the DOS based program attempts to print to LPT1, Windows XP will properly accept the printout and then determine that the printer that is suppose to be physically connetced to the port is unavailable and it will re-direct it to the network printer.
>