old device, need help running

Well, lets just say you will be earning your money on this project.

Lets start with the simple parts. What is it connected to? sensors? motors of some kind? a switch? What sort of software is in the old computer? quick basic? labview a data acquisition program? Is this a home brew unit, or is it a supplied unit? Is there a manufacturer's name on it? Is there a commercial board inside the black box? What sort of board is used to talk to it? A/D, serial, parallel, DIIK?

I think it might be worth it to wind up the 386 and see what happens. (put those squirrels to work).

Please keep us posted. Google any big part numbers. There might be some sort of manual to be had.

Michael

It is connected to motors (black round things) that raise and lower a metal rod.

The computer had no labview installed, and I didn't see any programs related to this device.

This is a custom built unit, and there is no power switch.

Is there a manufacturer's name on it? Nope

I already turned on the computer, but device doesn't respond.

You already identified the PC and the operating system. Now the application. Is there an executable? a source? is it written in assembler, fortran, pascal, C ?

Is there a maker's name for the system as a whole? This might be a fingerhold to get started. I couldn't tell if I was looking at an ethernet hook up or IEEE something.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

I would suggest doing a careful inventory of all the software installed on that computer.

Open the black box and try to determine what hardware is in there (on the PCB). Most likely you are dealing with a homebrew program that uses the parallel port to drive a stepper or servo motor.

Don't worry about software until you identify the hardware and all the interconnections between the devices external to the PC. Start from the motors and work back until you identify where the add-on stuff interfaces with the PC. Presumably some variation of: motors -> drives

-> controller -> interface. Photos and any identifying markings on the various components would help.

Ned Simmons

Ok, we're on the right track. Can you tell how many wires each mortor has? They are probably stepper motors.

Is it connected to anything else besides the motors? If not, we're looking at just some sort of motor controller.

The device won't respond to just turning on the computer. There is a program in there that runs it. Look for any programming language, especially quick basic, quick c (qb, qc), and look at the directory structure. Chances are there is a directory with some indication of the device. A program has to send data to the address of the board inside the computer to make anything happen.

Open the black box up, and look for a name on the internal board. It's probably something like TI, or Analog Devices.

Dear nea:

Hopefully you don't mean the computer doesn't boot up...

It would be good to run "sysedit" and note what device drivers are loaded in config.sys, autoexec.bat, and in the [Run] section of win.ini.

Most likely, there will be an icon on the desktop that will trigger the application that drives/records what the system does.

David A. Smith

I would suggest starting with something more simple which doesn't have the ability to actually edit the files, as the OP sound like he lacks the basic knowledge of the old DOS system setup. If it's not backed up somewhere and it getting hosed it's gone forever. Something along the lines of:

TYPE autoexec.bat | more

should list the contents to the screen, IIRC. Piping the output through the more command, will parse screenfuls if the file contexts fill more than one screen.

-- Ed Ruf ( snipped-for-privacy@EdwardG.Ruf.com)

Dear Ed Ruf:

"Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!)" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

He said it was running Windows 3.1. You don't trust him to run "sysedit", but you do trust him at the DOS prompt? Hopefully he knows how to get there...

Agreed. A backup might be worthwhile.

TYPE config.sys | more TYPE \windows\win.ini | more

Yes, that is correct. And up until Win98, the More command actually worked to produce screenfulls rather than line-at-a-time.

David A. Smith

Still works that way. Just use the spacebar to get to the next screen, not the return key.

-- Ed Ruf ( snipped-for-privacy@EdwardG.Ruf.com)

I finaly found info on this device. It is the MASCIS impactor, a custom made device by Wise Young et al back in the 1990s. It is now used by many labs to perform spinal chord injuries.

Here is a link that explains more

For the centennial of flight they tried to redo the Wright Bros. plane. They had drawings and money and every other advantage.

They failed.

There's something about technology that doesn't happen in the arts. Once it's gone it's GONE.

It may be easier to come up with something new or to convince patients that back pain isn't so bad.

Bret Cahill

If that's what you think, then you don't know the full story. They didn't have the weather and the weather turned out to be quite important in the original flights. Particularly the winds.

-- Ed Ruf ( snipped-for-privacy@EdwardG.Ruf.com)

And we have "Bret Cahill", another source of failure, not available to the Wrights.

and the temperature or better stated, the resulting density altitude. IIRC when they returned to Huffman prairie in Dayton the following summer their first ~50 flight attempts also failed and they did not become airborne until they developed their drop weight catapult.