DOS 6.2 Windows 3.11 Bridgeport CNC Software BXX

The title of this blog contains few of the legacy software that I had to configure to solve a problem faced by one of my friend. Let me explain my interesting experience with all these old softwares below.

The Requirement:

• My friend(Fazni Aziz) has bought a CNC machine for his newly established company and it is working fine with a computer which is running DOS 6.2. The only interface that computer has is the floppy disk driver and he has to transfer all his design files in floppies in order to use them with the CNC machine. If he did any changes then the files have to be copied again using floppies. The process is really painstaking.
• The only copy of the Bridgeport software that he has is the installed copy.
• He wanted something like file sharing so that he can simply transfer files between this legacy machine and his laptop. (This was his goal)
• He also suggested that we setup a different computer so that he can use the old computer till I get a new one setup.

Approach:

First I had to find the requirements for the Bridgeport software.
I decided to give it a try in my computer running windows XP.
I copied the required files as they were in the original computer and try running it in my computer. It did not work.

In the mean time a friend of my friend has suggested him using a virtual machine running DOS. So I setup VMWare and installed DOS6.22. Then I setup the Bridgeport software in the virtual machine. It did not work as well.

Then I decided to try the exact DOS version that the original computer has. That is DOS 6.2.
I got a copy of the hard disk of the original computer and an old computer(let's call this computer X).
I formatted the computer X for FAT16 file system. (Although I could not find any confirmation, this is one of the requirement for the Bridgeport software)
Then I copied all the files in the hard disk copy that I got to the hard disk of computer X.
Next, I use a DOS 6.2 boot disc to setup DOS 6.2 in the computer X.
This time for my amazement I was able to see the blue screen (The initial screen of Bridgeport software). Needless to say that it is working now!!!

One barrier is over, but now I have to setup file sharing.

One of my friend (Eran Chinthaka) gave me a valuable piece of information. That is Windows 3.1 can be installed on top of DOS 6.2 and it won't update the DOS version.

After searching on ebay, amazon etc... we were able to find a Windows for Workgroups( WFW) installation diskettes in ebay.

I installed WFW in the computer X on top of the DOS6.2. I have used WFW about 12 years back and that time it was really a big thing with the windows and mouse. This time it is the rescuer.
WFW supports file sharing for work group computers and hence we were nearing our goal.

Next hurdle is configuring a network card. (Computer X had a Realteck PCI network card but I could not find a driver for that for WFW)

From all the NIC's supported by WFW I found that SMC Elite 16 Combo card on ebay which supports 10 BaseT connections.

The disk came with the NIC card contained a software named EZStart.exe which supposed to help configuring the network card. However it did not work in our computer X. It simply could not identify the network card.

Luckily the disk contained another sofware named SMCA70.exe which extracts all the configuration files in it to different location. I use this and copied the configuration files to another floppy disk.

After several attempts I was able to configure the NIC card with WFW. However, still the network (TCP/IP) was not working and WFW does not support TCP/IP by default.
A Google search pointed me to this site where they have a TCP/IP version for WFW.

I installed it in the computer X and WOW!!! The computer X running WFW was able to connect to the network using DHCP.

Now the file sharing is just matter of enabling it using WFW and accessing them using any other machine in the same workgroup.

After a long battle the goal is now not a dream any more.

Bottom line:

The version of the Bridgeport software that we have: BOSS DX/32
So far we were only able to run this software on DOS6.2
Windows for Workgroups can be installed on top of DOS 6.2 without changing it.
With WFW we can configure file sharing.

This enabled my friend to do the following:

Design the parts(machine parts) on his laptop
Transfer those files to the computer X
Drive the CNC using computer X
If he notice any changes to be made to the design:
Stop the CNC
Access the file using his laptop (using file sharing) and modify the design
Start the CNC process.

I tried to explain some of the challenges that I faced during setting up the above computer and the software for my friend. Hope this helps someone trying to reach the same goal as him.

Most beautiful photo I saw

This baby boy was stolen after a few hours of the birth. After a one week of nation wide search, the Police have found the boy. What a sorrow and what a joy.
Photo: http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2007/12/22948_space.html

Mesh of roads

We were able to find our way from this mesh of roads in Cincinnati Ohio.

Unknown Unknowns

Found this nice saying from Donald Rumsfeld in LSST web site, highlighting our knowledge on universes.

 "As we know, there are known knowns.
   There are things we know we know.
   We also know there are known unknowns.
   That is to say we know there are
   some things we do not know.
   But there are also unknown unknowns,
   the ones we don't know we don't know."
                         

Lord Buddha said; " The subject of universe is infinite and only a Buddha can understand"
With unknown unknowns this is very true.

Need to check the speed of your internet connection ?

The following link will estimate the upload and download speed of your internet connection and it is nice to see that I am getting the exact speed that I pay for.
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Fedora 7 Installation with a SATA Drive

I tried to install Fedora 7 on a Dell machine with a SATA hard drive and it hangs after initrd just showing "Ready"

Tried both live CD and the DVD but both gave the same problem. Google search shows that the problem is a common one and there are many suggested solutions. I tried few, but this one got it working.
[when the computer has booted from the Fedora 7 DVD and "Welcome to Fedora 7" screen displays.
Press TAB and add edd=skipmbr at the tail of the line.Then it's OK.] link

After installing it successfully I got to know that IU students can install Redhat OS. Another linux installation, but I decided to go for it and it simply handled the SATA and everything is working fine.
IU also have a RHN Satellite update site for RedHat as well.
http://www.ussg.iu.edu/linux/rhel/

TSUNAMI Again??

It has started again and my parents had to move to a higher grounds for one more night. USGS now offers this really useful service, SMS alerts. Please have a look.
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/subscribe.php
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/cell-phones/send-sms-from-email-127033.php

Atlantium - Very Interesting Blog

http://atlantium.blogspot.com/2006/11/atlantium-episode-ii_08.html

No Sound Flash Player - Firefox

I recently updated my flash player and found that sound is not working after that for the flash movies. I tried reinstalling, upgrading Firefox abut non of them was able to get it working. Then I found this link from Adobe explaining a fix to the problem and my flash player can talk :)

Adobe Link 1
Adobe Link 2

Configuring ATI Radeon for Ubuntu

I installed Ubuntu in my desktop machine and found that it has not picked up the correct driver for my ATI RADEON graphics card. So tried few links but could not get it working correctly. Then I found this page and it simply did the trick. So simple steps are:

Start Ubuntu in the command line
Install the diver
Backup the /ect/X11/xorg.conf
Modify it as shown
Restart :)

Lexus - Automatic Parallel Parking

The can park itself and see the vedio, it park really well.
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2006/09/ls_460_parking.html

Beautiful IU

Last weekend me and my wife took some photos of Indiana University. No question why it is one of the most beautiful universities in USA.

Sample Gates

Student Building and the Clock Tower

Another Beautiful Building

Flowers

Free Sticky Notes

Found a nice free sticky note tool + a calendar
http://atnotes.free.fr/

Trip to Champaign

Yesterday we went to see a one of our friend who came to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Trip was about 165 miles (one way) and had to drive in few interstate roads. We were able to see one side of Indiana border as well.

And also I was able to break my land speed limit and the new record is 160 kmph. (My wife realized the speed after she took the photo and had to reduce immediately though :) )

More cores more power

Mac Pro is coming with two Intel Xeons each with 2 cores. The next few years will be the time for cores.
http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6102921.html?tag=ne.vid

Recently I tested Axis2 performance on a similar HP machine with two dual core processors and it could handle up to 3000 msg/second. (I tested this with simple echo test where the Web Service has minimum processing) Some more results after my qualifying examination which is on August 22nd :)

Bindings and Channels

A nice explanation of the Bindings and Channels
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episodes/en/20060615wcfcv/manifest.xml

A Trip to 19th Century - America

Today we went to the “Corner Prairie” a living museum that resembles the lives of people lived in early 19^th century in the central part of the USA. I have never been to a live museum where people actually show the events of the day today life by living that life in the olden days rather than dummies or photos. It was a one day tour and just thought of highlighting few interesting incidents.

A preserved house from mid 19^th century.

Getting ready for the independence day ceremony. They are celebrating 60^th Independence day in 1837. They have never heard of the new world that we are seen today.

Doing carpentry in old way.

Look at the pots created by this lady at the left most corner.

Parade to celebrate the independence.

Some Interesting Dialogues:

A Villager: What do you study?
Me: Computer Science?
I have never heard about it, may be some complicated subject.
(I forgot that they are in 19th century and no computers at that time)

A Villager: Where are you from?
We: From Sri Lanka
He: Oh, how long did it take to come to America? probably few months?
(By that time no there were no planes and according to them we should have come by sea)

We: What are you going to cook tonight.
The Villager: My brother and father went to hunt something, probably we will have potatoes, peas and some meat.

A Villager: The slavery should be stopped in America.
We: Hope it will end soon.
(Now we also know how to act according to their behavior :))

There are many more incidents that we all remember and never forget during our trip to Corner Prairie and it is truly a history lesson with time traveling.

btw; One our way we saw this as well. (This is the first time I have seen this many Hummers - The photo captures only a few of them on sale)

Driving in US

Just started driving in US after about 9 months break! Initially I thought getting used to driving in the "right" side (are we driving in the wrong side back home? ;) ) will be a problem but for my amazement it was not a big issue; mind switched fast. Still turn wiper on for the signals though :)

One interesting thing I noticed in my few weeks of driving experience is the role of "right-of-the-way". Back home we never cross a signal (even it is green for us) without looking both sides, but here people just assume that everybody obeys the rules (I am not certain about this assumption though) I am still scared to think what if some one just cross the signal when it is red. It will end up in multiple collisions as nobody is expecting it.

Anyway, having fun with missing exit points and coming back after a long way, turning around blocks to find roads and driving without touching the horn (it was an essential tool in the vehicle back home); a different experience after all.

BitchX - Command line IRC Chat Client

http://bitchx.org/download.php

At last I found a command line IRC chat client that works without any installation and works on Linux. I missed Sandesha chat today since I was connecting through a proxy. BitchX simply works in a ssh shell(in a server which allows IRC) and looking forward to tomorrow's Synapse chat :)

Axis2 1.0 Released

It is a great achievement for everybody involved in Aixs2 project and now we have a “true open source” web services substrate for the next generation web services.
http://ws.apache.org/axis2/

Dr. Sanjiva’s blog has a really nice description of the path of the project from its inception.
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/sanjiva?id=128