acramatic 2100 and board replacement

[WILLEO6709]

I have (4) Cincinnati Milacron VMC's with 2100 controls. The one has been acting up and finally won't run at all. The Realtime Processor is totally dead as far s I can tell. The machine thats dead is a standard 1995 model, 486dx100, 8 mb ram, 5 isa slots( 1 used), 4 pci slots( not used) jumpered to power from anopther board and nothing else attached. The realtime processor runs the conversational servo on the machine. The error was " cnc.exe failed to start". So I tear down the 1998 high speed die and mold machine. It is running a Pentium 166 in a socket 7, much easier to find than a 486 board with a socket 3. I find a new board to match the 1998 high speed 2100 realtime board and ship it in. I get the new board in place, and the machine starts with the same error, sort of. Now every board recognizes except the part number on the realtime and the conversational servo fails to start. Before only the workstation processor recognized. I know the new board works, I know the machine runs with the actual board from the 1998 machine. How do I copy the data on the insertable chips from board to board? I assume there has to be a cache or eeprom that is the glitch right now. Anybody done anything like this? Siemens wants almost $2800.00 for a new board, I have some room to work on getting the chips copied. I can't use the old chips as I am upgrading the board to one more readily available and they are completely different. I hate to have to send the board to siemens to get it loaded if its something I can do myself. I will have 4 identical boards when I get done, I want to be able to bring them back from the dead without siemens, as I see myself running these controls past their support timeline.

 

[3t3d]

I (have heard) that you can attatch a keyboard and monitor to the Real time board, and get into the CMOS data.
Take a look at the working one, and set up the replaecment the same way.

Also, in my experimenting with different WS boards, running the Bus clock too fast on the WS board will fail to get the cnc.exe running.
Basically, as I understand it, the WS boots to the Basic Bridge Board, then boots up the Real Time processor. You can watch the progress on the lights on the BBB, in the lower left corner.

And you can watch the bootup progress on the screen.

I'm sure you already knew all of that, though.

Finding the older motherboards is the real puzzle!!
I had a renter who was into computer recycling.
He most likely cut up hundreds of suitable replacements, but wasn't about to "look" for anything in particular. They went throught Thousands! of old systems, for the copper, and gold, and steel...


Pete

 

[WILLEO6709]

The I hooked up a video card, monitor, and keyboard. I changed all neccesary cmos settings to get them equal, and I still get a cnc.exe failed to start. I have an email into siemens... we'll see what they say. I still think that there is a batch file or something flashed into an eeprom that may be an issue.

 

[jorsborn]

The I hooked up a video card, monitor, and keyboard. I changed all neccesary cmos settings to get them equal, and I still get a cnc.exe failed to start. I have an email into siemens... we'll see what they say. I still think that there is a batch file or something flashed into an eeprom that may be an issue.

Reviving this post in hopes your experience might help me. I am just about in the same boat. I am getting real time faults and they are getting more and more frequent to the point I now can't get through a single 5 minute cycle. I was certain it was RAM as it is the most likely thing to fail next to electrolytic caps. I couldn't find replacement SIMMs so I ordered new RAM IC's and replaced the old on the existing SIMMs. The problem persists. The next component I likely swap is the processor but those aren't easy to come by. Anyways, that's my story and I was hoping to hear what you eventually did.

 

[WILLEO6709]

i sent them into siemens for a repair and worked when returned.....

 

[3t3d]

You need to take the RT board setting on the desk, with a FRESH NEW battery, attach a power supply, keyboard, video, and Floppy disk drive.

Then you need the MAGIC file form Siemens on the floppy drive to boot and install the magic potion into the RT board.

I had a local PC wizard do all of this for me.

Something about the files needing to be installed into the CMOS/BIOS (?) Not sure what it installed where...
But that was the ceremony.


Losing the CMOS battery kills the RT board, this is the recovery needed.

 

[GWood]

I have (4) Cincinnati Milacron VMC's with 2100 controls. The one has been acting up and finally won't run at all. The Realtime Processor is totally dead as far s I can tell. The machine thats dead is a standard 1995 model, 486dx100, 8 mb ram, 5 isa slots( 1 used), 4 pci slots( not used) jumpered to power from anopther board and nothing else attached. The realtime processor runs the conversational servo on the machine. The error was " cnc.exe failed to start". So I tear down the 1998 high speed die and mold machine. It is running a Pentium 166 in a socket 7, much easier to find than a 486 board with a socket 3. I find a new board to match the 1998 high speed 2100 realtime board and ship it in. I get the new board in place, and the machine starts with the same error, sort of. Now every board recognizes except the part number on the realtime and the conversational servo fails to start. Before only the workstation processor recognized. I know the new board works, I know the machine runs with the actual board from the 1998 machine. How do I copy the data on the insertable chips from board to board? I assume there has to be a cache or eeprom that is the glitch right now. Anybody done anything like this? Siemens wants almost $2800.00 for a new board, I have some room to work on getting the chips copied. I can't use the old chips as I am upgrading the board to one more readily available and they are completely different. I hate to have to send the board to siemens to get it loaded if its something I can do myself. I will have 4 identical boards when I get done, I want to be able to bring them back from the dead without siemens, as I see myself running these controls past their support timeline.

The Real-Time CPU RTCPU normally has a Battery backed up CMOS-BIOS parameters.
If lower than 3VDC it can be corrupted and needs to be reprogrammed with a Floppy drive.
Fives-MSI Cincinnati (Machine Tool Services & Solutions) charges a nominal fee to do this and tests the board on a simulator.
Call 1-859-534-4750 or 1-800-934-0735 and ask for Technical Support. No FEE!

 

[machtool]

The Real-Time CPU RTCPU normally has a Battery backed up CMOS-BIOS parameters.
If lower than 3VDC it can be corrupted and needs to be reprogrammed with a Floppy drive.
Fives-MSI Cincinnati (Machine Tool Services & Solutions) charges a nominal fee to do this and tests the board on a simulator.
Call 1-859-534-4750 or 1-800-934-0735 and ask for Technical Support. No FEE!

Whilst your running around digging up old threads. This one was from 2007. Lots of things happen in that time frame.

Willeo passed away in the last year or two. Bad form

 

[Joe Miranda]

Nothing wrong with resurrecting old threads - even when the op has passed away. That's history. Leo was a help to many on this board and is missed. This is how we honor him.

 

[Guest]

Nothing wrong with resurrecting old threads - even when the op has passed away. That's history. Leo was a help to many on this board and is missed. This is how we honor him.

That guy did dig up the thread to spam, he has posted that tech support phone number multiple times in old threads.

 

[3t3d]

I don't see how he was spamming.
Very good information and completely spot on.
Maybe a restating/amplification of my post number six.

But the factory support is FREE ! and he is not the factory support..