PMCIA Card from Siemens Drive

Still battling one of my controls, and it seems that I need some progs that are in that machine.

I pulled out the PMCIA card only to find that it is the next size bigger than I have a reader port for.

Plan to stop of an Office Max or ??? tonight to see if I can find a port for it.
If not - any ideas?

Even if I doo find a port for it, I don't know what kind of file that it would have that I would need to open. ....


Option B, and I don't know how good this is?

The control that I pulled this from is a PCU50, and I have a PCU20 right next to it.
Would anyone know if I dared to put this card in the other machine to pull the program from?

They are both "810D" controls, but not exactly the same thing...



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

The card that I want to read is 2" wide, and the one from my Fanuc is 1.75" wide.
I stopped by an office supply box store, and all they had there was USB this and USB that.
The fella there directed me to a 'putor store that was of course closed after supper, and said that it was just outside of "down town".
I asked "which side? E? W? N? S?

He gave me one of the most honest answers I have heard in quite some time....

"Uh .... not sure. I grew up on GPS and don't know my directions real well...."

Oh bother ......



Went to Best Buy and the fella there never saw a PMCIA card before either....





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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Ox said:

The card that I want to read is 2" wide, and the one from my Fanuc is 1.75" wide.
I stopped by an office supply box store, and all they had there was USB this and USB that.
The fella there directed me to a 'putor store that was of course closed after supper, and said that it was just outside of "down town".
I asked "which side? E? W? N? S?

He gave me one of the most honest answers I have heard in quite some time....

"Uh .... not sure. I grew up on GPS and don't know my directions real well...."

Oh bother ......

Went to Best Buy and the fella there never saw a PMCIA card before either....





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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Click to expand...

I don't know if you have been to a "Micro Center " There are some in Columbus and elsewhere but still probably about 50 miles away from where your shop is.

Micro Center are pretty good as they seem to have really not changed much since the 1970's (has that 70's electronics "vibe" about it in a good way) in spite of selling contemporary equipment. So they have various generations of electronic and consumer electronics folks tat work there that can spend 1/2 a day (in some cases) trying to find just one obscure cable or seemingly archaic convertor.

So you can phone up and there are specialists in different departments and they may take your details to set up an account (old school ) but you can email them from there pictures / specs and they may be able to find what you need and order it and snail mail it to you ?

So PMCIA was phased out / disbanded in around 2003.

"The PCMCIA association was dissolved in 2009 and all of its activities have since been managed by the USB Implementer's Forum, according to the PCMCIA website " ~Wikki.

Possibly if you send a picture with a scale in the shot and numbers of pins , they might be able to help remotely.

There seem to be a lot of different readers and convertors out there on Ebay etc. but that could take many fails and weeks to stumble across the one that actually works.

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Maybe post some pics with a scale (close up or use a magnifying glass or shop microscope etc.) I'm clearing out some older offices Marie Kondo style so I might see if I have anything kicking around in an old drawer somewhere while I'm on a two week++ rummage / packup and throw sh*t out Decemeber.

Thanks for the reply.
I was 50 miles the other direction last night. (Jackson, Mich)
Interesting info about the PMCIA card.


I got a mail back from my [remote] Siemens tech, and he said that I could try puting the card in the wrong machine and see if it would pull up the info.
He didn't think that it would hurt anything.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Well, the sister machine didn't like the foreign card.

Put original back in and at least that machine is still fine.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

So, just fer grins, I pulled the card ADAPTOR out of my 18i Fanuc, only to realize that it was the same.
It uses a "flash card" that I pull and go back and forth with regularly, but I never pull the adaptor - which I didn't realize was a little larger in size. (my bad)

So - I thought .... "why not eh?"

So I plugged the Siemens card into the Fanuc and as soon as I hit the "card" soft key - the whole machine died!

Boy - I didn't see THAT commin'!


I wasn't especially expecting it to read or even find my part program, but I wasn't expecting it to put the machine in a Def Con 1 status either!


I may just have to start over on my program.....
(It may not be as bad as I envision .....


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Any chance your Siemens uses an SRAM card and not the flash type pcmcia card?

Older Fanuc i controls (maybe all iA controls?) use an SRAM card, which seems identical in form to the flash ones, but don't function the same.

I've tried to get our 16iA robodrill to play with our flash pcmcia card that I use for our makino with 16iB control, but it never worked. I did get the control to give an alarm when trying to receive. I am pretty sure it froze when trying to send.

Maybe that's what you've got going on there?


Going further, if you don't already have an SRAM card and you try to get one, they are pretty pricey, probably a couple hundred bucks. You'd also need a reader. We have an old IBM Thinkpad with XP on it and a pcmcia slot in the side that accepts and reads SRAM cards. Otherwise the usb-sram adapters are about 500$

Ox said:

The card that I want to read is 2" wide, and the one from my Fanuc is 1.75" wide.
I stopped by an office supply box store, and all they had there was USB this and USB that.

...Went to Best Buy and the fella there never saw a PMCIA card before either....

Click to expand...

I am assuming the card you pulleded from your Fanuc was CF?

All PCMCIA cards should be 2.1" wide. The difference between types is in the thickness.

You can still find PCI to PCMCIA adapters for desktops.

Amazon.com: Sedna - PCI to PCMCIA (16 bit) and Cardbus (32 bit) Converter Adapter with Low Profile Bracket: Computers & Accessories

Almost any older windows laptop will have the older pc card reader built in.

As dandrummerman21 said you most likely have an SRAM or linear flash card in the broken machine. Yes, your best bet is to find an old laptop with a PCMCIA slot that can read your card, but finding a laptop with a card slot that is big enough for you card might be an issue. You most likely have a type II or type III card and most laptops only come with a type I slot.

You could try and find a type I card that is the same as the one in the broken machine to increase your chances (You should be able to fit a type I card in a type II slot), but getting the same card is a minefield because you need to know if it is SRAM or linear flash (sometimes interchangeable), if it is 8 bit or 16 and if it needs the attribute memory. Your manual should have some info and then you will need to do some research.

I'm not after replacing the card.
I was attempting to read what is already on one.

By the time I order something in, it won't matter anymore.
(I think)


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox