Novamill resurrection

[pcandrew]

This is probably a familiar story - Novamill, unused for 10 years which I am trying to resurrect.
I have spent many hours trying to make the FANUCMD application control the machine and have scoured every post on the forum so hopefully someone can give me a lift with this! The program waits for a few seconds on loading and then quits with a <128> error, indicating a comms problem.
Things I know:
-Novamill with EPROM labelled V2.1
-Original Novamill Fanucmd disks versions 2.101 and 2.87
-Dongle is present
-PC is Win98, although both the original floppies are also DOS boot disks and I have tried with all combinations of OS and disks
-Both serial ports are onboard, tested and work in Win and DOS with standard IRQs and addresses
-I have tested the Desktop Tutor kb with the Fanucm application in offline mode and it works fine on whichever serial port it is assigned to.
-I have tried Fanucmd with different customisations of the fanucmd.go file to change serial ports. I have physically swapped the tutor and the machine round without success. I have also used the QDENFORD ASCII driver with only the machine plugged in without success.
-I have used Mintman, which does connect to the Baldor board and returns the following version info:
verdenMINT v2.01.b6/S/B19(c) Baldor (UK) Ltd 1988-2001
I guess this indicates that the firmware has been upgraded since manufacture.
-From the fact that Mintman talks to the machine, I would surmise that the board functions at a basic level and that the RS232 comms are operating.
But I still can't get the DOS machine software to operate. It looks like a stateful problem rather than a hardware issue but I have exhausted my powers and wonder if anyone has any ideas?
I really would like to test the machine in its original state to see that it is workable before we look at upgrades, etc.
Many thanks,
Phil.

[Martin]

You should be connecting using VRMilling software when using the Version V2.1 Eprom. I presume this machine has been updated at some point. You can download VRMilling version 2.31 from the Denford website but you will need a licence. On the earlier installations this was on a dongle which was connected to the computer parallel port. On later installations the licence was on a floppy disc. If you can't locate. A licence then look for the original Eprom.

[pcandrew]

Many thanks Martin, that is very useful information and at least I know what the problem is now.

I haven't found an earlier EPROM or VRMilling licence disk and drights.exe indicates that the dongle with the machine is for Mill Cam Designer.

Is it possible to obtain a new licence for V2.31 VRMilling?

Phil.

[pcandrew]

My thanks go to Martin and Graham.

The machine is now working with VRMilling.

Phil