Excellent - I have all the original software and serial numbers... Ya I have a several PCs to choose from here and all with dedicated serial ports. I'll give that a try. Thanks for all the useful info. I Googled LPFK and there are several college level papers on using similar machines so those will help me ramp up to being able to use the machine better.
________________________________
From: Trevor White <
trevor.white100@...>
To:
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.comSent: Thu, April 15, 2010 6:23:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: LPKF 93s
Well copying the drive or not, you need a faster machine because the
processsing of gerber data through CircuitCam used to take an age. On modern
PCs it takes a matter of a minute or so. I remember back in the day when I
first used the system. I would start the software and just go do something
else for 15mins.
Well regarding the software, I understand your situation. Can you get the
serial numbers from the original CircuitCam so you are able to reinstall?
What version of CircuitCam are you using? I might have my original discs
somewhere for version 3 software. So, I would be able to send you a backup
version of your own software. I think that would all be legal.
Also, you really want to make sure you get a PC with a dedicated COM port. A
USB converter just causes more problems than its worth. It is to do with
overflow on buffers, etc and well the machine can easily lose data and mess
things up. It is best just to make sure you get the right PC. I bought an
old IBM off ebay that came with an XP license. It is a 3GhZ machine and
works great. It cost me £40.
As said, the Boardmaster software should just reinstall on a new machine.
You can give this a try yourself.
Actually, I just remembered and found the following link
http://www.lpkfusa.com/downloads.asp?category=SupportSoftwareThis might help?
Trev
On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 2:14 PM, Dylan Smith <dyls@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 06:06:56AM -0700, John Michaud wrote:
> > Trevor - Yes the old PC is a 486DX system that is running a very old
> > version of CircuitCam/Boardmaster on a Windows 3.11 platform. The PC
> > runs but I'm so afraid that due to the age the hard drive won't
> > operate very long. The real tragedy is the LPFK folks installed 2 hard
> > drives in the system so there is really no way to ghost the system
> > since there is no USB on the system and all the expansion is so out of
> > date (ISA bus)
>
> There are several options for you. The hard discs, I suspect, are IDE
> drives and will probably be readable by any pre-SATA PC motherboard. You
> can boot the newer motherboard with a Linux live CD, and then make a
> bitwise copy of the disc to another IDE disc, or alternatively use some
> disc imaging software for Windows.
>
> If that's not going to fly, you can also use a Linux live CD with the
> old PC, something lightweight like the Trinity Rescue Kit, and then make
> a bitwise copy of the discs over ethernet to another machine. You can do
> this with something like:
>
> dd if=/dev/hda bs=128K | gzip -c | nc someothermachine 2000
>
> and on the receiving machine:
>
> nc -l 2000 > discdump.gz
>
> I suspect you may also find ISA cards on eBay, there certainly should be
> ethernet cards and USB adapters. Win 3.1 may not support them but a
> Linux livecd may.
>
>
>
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