IS400 Finally got it home

[doug]

As some may know I've been here asking questions for 12 years while learning how to operate our IS400

Now that my work finally moved up to a Lazer machine I was able to bring it home

YEAH! 

I loaded GS7-B6 from the link that Beware provided on my windows 10 machine hoping that I could run it in compatibility mode for windows 7, It does not recognize my dongle

Now What?

[doug]

I retried it and noticed that it says no dongle where before it was looking for the hasp, not sure if that helps with why it isn't recognizing it

Any ideas?

Also I can't find how to run GS7 in compatibility mode (windows 7) in windows 10

[grahamparker]

Get another PC with windows xp on it.

That's what i did to sort my LS100 out before selling it.

[Gray]

3 minutes ago, grahamparker said:

Get another PC with windows xp on it.

That's what i did to sort my LS100 out before selling it.

I had to do this with my Roland EGX300. Computers with XP on them are easy to find. Still going strong

[doug]

I have a pentium 2 W/XP out getting the hard drive replaced. When I loaded the GS7 exe it crashed! 

I was trying to set it up on my W-10 machine to get a head start on sorting out old files

[k4mrc]

call marino - he will sort for you

[beware]

Gs7 B6 is fine on windows 10.

Try newest dongle drivers

Www.gravotechsupport.co.uk/HAS

Thanks

 

Ben

[doug]

Thanks Beware, After loading the new driver I was able to access GS7 and view actual files. After that I closed the program and  removed the dongle.

Next day I plugged the dongle back in and it sends my pc right into error recovery mode, I tried both regular and SS USB ports

Any ideas? 

 

(Edit) I put the dongle back into the port that it was in when I loaded the new drivers and it works!

Stupid computer!!!

[doug]

Now onto sharpening some of my older cutters

By hand?

Machine? 

Send them out? 

[doug]

It is all cleaned up and ready for action 

[beware]

Very nice!  best looking engraving workshop I've seen so far.

 

Consider putting your dongle in the back of the PC in case you knock it with your leg.

[doug]

Good observation 

When I move it (dongle) the pc goes crazy and I don't know how to reassign it to the rear port

Still waiting for my XP PC to actually be able to start engraving 

I am using my Windows 10 to sort out 12 years of files, most from work that I will not need again 

[doug]

9 minutes ago, doug said:

Still waiting for my XP PC to actually be able to start engraving 

 

I was just told that my old hard drive can't be cloned Can I run my IS400 from my windows 10 through a parallel to USB adapter? If so what about the communications cable? My HP Z420 has room for a card if they are available

[doug]

Can I install a parallel port card and a communication card to this? 

If so are there drivers for it? 

[beware]

plenty of space there for a PCI or PCI express Parallel port card.  You might need someone to recommend one that's compatible.

[Trev]

Depending upon whether the connector on your motherboard  is PCI or PCI express:

https://pediaa.com/what-is-the-difference-between-pci-and-pci-express/

You will either need something like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261218420120?hash=item3cd1d4c598:g:LUYAAOxyXDhSg0aY

or this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373644053925?hash=item56feebcda5:g:FAsAAOSwNWxaO2Gm

They both come with a driver disk.

If you choose to install it yourself, try not to touch any of the chips or bare connectors on the card or motherboard unless you are using a proper anti-static wrist strap to avoid component damage.  (although you would probably not have any problems even without precautions - unless you were very unlucky).

According to this:

https://support.hp.com/ph-en/document/c03274125

Assuming your PC is the same as the one shown, the HP Z420 has both PCI and PCI express slots, so you could choose which card type to purchase.

[Trev]

My answer above assumes that the IS400 doesn't need a specialist communications card and that a standard PC parallel and serial port are what you require.

[beware]

A normal parallel port card is fine.

It has a custom connector at the machine end so you need a special cable which I assume Doug already has

[doug]

Thanks guys

This is what I have waiting to mate to a pc

I'll look into them

 

[beware]

That's an old style serial cable. Assuming the 9 pin end goes to the machine you need a serial card and a new serial 9 pin to 9 pin null modem cable.

[Trev]

Hi,

The two cards I suggested earlier would work as they both have more than one serial 9 pin (male to plug your female 9 pin into) connectors and one parallel 25 pin (female to plug your male 25 pin into) connector..

Although I checked they both came with software, I wasn't quite sure what version of windows you are going to use so it will be worth checking the card you get has drivers that support the windows version you are using.

Best Regards

Trev

[doug]

Those are the cables that came with the machine 18 years ago

New 9 pin cable or will build 6 support serial to USB?

At this point windows 10

 

[Trev]

The PCI-E card (2nd link to a card that I provided) says it supports Windows 10.

Although if you click on the link for the PCI-E card it says it is the last one, the seller has lots of the same product listed on ebay, so don't feel rushed.

Another benefit of getting a PCI-E card (assuming you have the same slots as detailed in the spec for the HP Z420 linked to above) is that you have a choice of positions where you can insert the card.

The cables look fine to me, I don't know why you would need to replace either.

 

[doug]

When I get it plugged in will my pc recognize the engraver? 

[Trev]

Beware has previously posted links to gravostyle and the dongle driver software, assuming you can get the software up and running on Windows 10, there is a pdf manual included with the gravostyle software which has the settings you will need to get the engraver communicating with the PC.