Urgent request for assistance - Bridgeport-related

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lawlessman

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Help! I have a Bridgeport BOSS 6 in it's original state. I have used everything from a teletype (back in the early 80's) to a "dumb terminal" to a computer to communicate with it. My latest setup was an old 486 computer running Dos 6.22 and Windows 3.11. Since I still cling to my old EZ-CAM (Ver 6) I was able to use the "windows-based" applet UTLS.EXE from Bridgeport EZ-CAM to upload programs to the machine, and had configured Windows 3.11's TERMINAL EXE applet to do the editing. All has worked well for many years. However, the power supply on the comuter died and I don't have another old machine to put the hard drive in. I have been trying to find a reasonably priced "AT" style power supply. I finally bought one on EBAY, but it won't get here for 10 days. I have tried installing the hard drive on a newer computer, but it won't boot the Windows 3.11 program because of the old memory configurations and such.
What I am looking for is a utility or applet compatible with Windows XP or 98 that can do the same extremely simple job as the old Terminal exe. I tried Hyperterminal in XP, but I couldn't get it to communicate. I downloaded the Terminal.EXE applet from Windows 3.11, but the machine I tried to use HAS NO USEABLE COM PORTS, except LPT1, which Terminal.Exe doesn't recognize.
Has anybody faced this situation (dealing with a 45 year-old communication protocol with a much newer computer)? And, more important, how did you fix it? Yup, the teletype-to-cnc protocol was first used over 45 years ago. Hard to believe, isn't it?
Any help would be appreciated until I can get the old computer fixed. If the "temporary" fix works, I may abandon Windows 3.11 for good. Feel free to communicate directly with me at lawlessman1@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Fred


 
Did you try installing the hard drive as a secondary hard drive and using the existing c: drive to boot with. An alternative to this might be to use a boot disc to acces the files. what you don't want to do is attempt to boot from the old drive on the new computer. If you can boot from the new computers drive and then you shold be able to navigate through the files on the old drive. The other problem might be the file format on the old drive. I'm not sure if you can have different file format drives on the same computer but I think you can, provided that you make sure you setup the drive properties correctly when you install the drive. Just make sure that the drive assignment for the old drive is not your c: drive so that the new machine doesn't attempt to boot from it.

It's a pita. It might take you a couple of days just to get it figured out. It might just be easier in the long run to just wait for the power supply.
 
Google ''usb to serial adapter'' You should be able to buy one locally for about $25. I have successfully used these in some industrial applications. I don't know if it will work in your application. In the XP computer, it handles just like a comm port.

I wish they still put hardware comm ports on the new computers, a lot of the stuff I work with only communicates via serial.
 
Ok - you really didn't say what you needed hardware wise to talk to the mill, but I'm guessing that it is a serial port - if that is the case, and the XP machine does not have one, getting to the files is pretty much a moot point. As for adding a serial port, there are add on cards that would add a hardware based serial port, which would get you closer. Do you know what type of expansion slots you have open (if any) in the XP machine? I agree that you should be able to add the old hard drive as a second hard drive to the XP machine, assuming you have the right type of controller available (most likely a parallel IDE since it is from a 486, but it could be SCSI). If not, you should be able to get an external USB enclosure to put the old drive in and connect it to the XP machine using USB. Hopefully, the XP machine is a desk top and not a laptop machine. Once you get the hardware you need, there are other options, including a virtual PC program, that would allow you to run the original software.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't explain it all in my first posting, but I tried most of that already, and my biggest problem is the computer that I have available cannot be configured to have a COM1 or 2, or 3, or 4, which are the only ports recognized by the old Terminal EXE program.
As you suggest, it may be easier in the long run to wait, but I'm losing money every day it's down. I'm looking at an older computer on craigslist locally that may be sufficiently "un-advanced" to fill the need. At least, maybe it will have COM ports. Terminal.EXE will work as a standalone program, but you gotta have a com port.
Here's a crazy thing, the computer I have been trying to use has 7, yes, 7 ports configured, between 4 USB, an SD card/micro-sd card reader, and a "micro-drive" port, plus the one and only serial port, the LPT1 port. It will not accept the change of the LPT1 to a COM1 port. In the common phraseology, How dumb is that???
Fred

xalky said:
Did you try installing the hard drive as a secondary hard drive and using the existing c: drive to boot with. An alternative to this might be to use a boot disc to acces the files. what you don't want to do is attempt to boot from the old drive on the new computer. If you can boot from the new computers drive and then you shold be able to navigate through the files on the old drive. The other problem might be the file format on the old drive. I'm not sure if you can have different file format drives on the same computer but I think you can, provided that you make sure you setup the drive properties correctly when you install the drive. Just make sure that the drive assignment for the old drive is not your c: drive so that the new machine doesn't attempt to boot from it.

It's a pita. It might take you a couple of days just to get it figured out. It might just be easier in the long run to just wait for the power supply.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for the response.
I need an identified COM port, LPT1 won't work. I haven't been able to define a COM port on the computer I have, it is elegantly dumb. For hardware. I can communicate with the B'port with the simplest of equipment. It takes 3 wires to connect to the machine--send, receive, common. I can communicate at a whopping 2400 baud. That's about 5 minutes to load a 8 k-byte program. As far as the editing, I can use a simple data terminal. I had some luck with using data terminals (in the 90's they were super cheap) but it was often difficult to get the program into the machine, so I ended up typing it in on the terminal. Cumbersome. Ever type a manuscript-length program into a machine that doesn't talk back? Then try to de-bug it one line at a time? Even more cumbersome. When I found the Terminal.exe program in Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups), it worked well for the editing, emulating a dumb terminal very well, and I could use the EZ-Cam UTLS.EXE program as a standalone for up and down loading. Since they both used the com1 port, I had to switch back and forth, closing one to use the other, but that was relatively easy. Now, I can do neither.
Fred



SEK_22Hornet said:
Ok - you really didn't say what you needed hardware wise to talk to the mill, but I'm guessing that it is a serial port - if that is the case, and the XP machine does not have one, getting to the files is pretty much a moot point. As for adding a serial port, there are add on cards that would add a hardware based serial port, which would get you closer. Do you know what type of expansion slots you have open (if any) in the XP machine? I agree that you should be able to add the old hard drive as a second hard drive to the XP machine, assuming you have the right type of controller available (most likely a parallel IDE since it is from a 486, but it could be SCSI). If not, you should be able to get an external USB enclosure to put the old drive in and connect it to the XP machine using USB. Hopefully, the XP machine is a desk top and not a laptop machine. Once you get the hardware you need, there are other options, including a virtual PC program, that would allow you to run the original software.
Click to expand...
 
lawlessman said:
....plus the one and only serial port, the LPT1 port. It will not accept the change of the LPT1 to a COM1 port. In the common phraseology, How dumb is that???
Fred
Click to expand...


Unfortunately, the LPT1 port is not a serial port. It's a parallel port, and as far as I know, there is no way to make a serial port out of it.

What you might try to do is disable all of the ports in the device manager, and try to get Windows to reassign the ports to something more useful to you. But you are still going to need a USB to serial adapter, or a hardware add-in card with a serial port.
 
lawlessman said:
Thank you for the response.
I need an identified COM port, LPT1 won't work. I haven't been able to define a COM port on the computer I have, it is elegantly dumb. For hardware. I can communicate with the B'port with the simplest of equipment. It takes 3 wires to connect to the machine--send, receive, common. I can communicate at a whopping 2400 baud. That's about 5 minutes to load a 8 k-byte program. As far as the editing, I can use a simple data terminal. I had some luck with using data terminals (in the 90's they were super cheap) but it was often difficult to get the program into the machine, so I ended up typing it in on the terminal. Cumbersome. Ever type a manuscript-length program into a machine that doesn't talk back? Then try to de-bug it one line at a time? Even more cumbersome. When I found the Terminal.exe program in Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups), it worked well for the editing, emulating a dumb terminal very well, and I could use the EZ-Cam UTLS.EXE program as a standalone for up and down loading. Since they both used the com1 port, I had to switch back and forth, closing one to use the other, but that was relatively easy. Now, I can do neither.
Fred
Click to expand...

Do you have USB? USB to serial adapters are readily available. With the right drivers they will appear as COM ports in your OS.
 
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