ISA Slot

IndustrialUser

Hi, first off I have to say I do not know to much about computer hardware and compatibility issues etc.
I work for a company that still uses old PLC programs and PC hardware for automation, specifically GE Series 6 PLCs which use Logicmaster 6 software. It is a DOS based program, originally intended for DOS 3.2. This is currently been run off of a late 80s/early 90s pc, do not have the specifics at the moment. We are having issues backing up our programs due to floppy disk failures and i am trying to come up with a way to introduce the ability to back up via USB.
This system communicates with an 8 bit interface card in an ISA slot.
I have a newer mobo with 2 isa slots, running windows XP and using Dosbox to run the software. (I know Dosbox is not the best program for applications, however i am restricted to what i can download on the corp. network and that is what i had available.) So far i can run the program in Dosbox, but it does not seem to see or talk to the interface card.

I have also tried running this program in DOS 6.22, however when trying to load the program i get a matrix like screen of letters scrolling by.

Does anyone have an suggestions or ideas for me?
Thanks.

SomeGuy

Number one thing: Is this system your responsibility? If not, then I doubt you should be fucking with it.

No, Dosbox can not directly access hardware. It is an emulator, and all "hardware" presented to the the guest OS is emulated by software.

Automation systems often require real-time operation and direct hardware access which is NOT POSSIBLE inside Microsoft windows.

This should not be treated as a consumer PC. These sorts of things can cost huge amounts of money to implement. They are designed to run as-is unmodified for a very long lifetime (30 years or more). If it is still under any kind of support contract, changing the configuration might invalidate that.

If the floppy drive is borked, get a replacement. Get some fresh floppy disks, and some USB floppy drives for your newer consumer desktop systems.

Another not-too intrusive option to consider is a floppy disk emulator: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/

Does this machine even have a USB port? There is a USB mass storage driver for DOS, but you can't hot-plug drives.

Another possibility is to install something like an iOmega Zip drive. Put a SCSI, IDE, or Parallel version on that on one and then put a USB Zip drive on the newer equipment.

Similarly perhaps you could add a network card and have it talk to an intermediate system. But you DO NOT want this connected to larger network.

Or, if it has IDE, you might be able to use a CF card as a secondary removable hard drive. But again, that will not be hot-pluggable.

AiO_Inc.

This is something I was planning on asking myself, I've got a system or two that I manage at the workshop with what I would call custom ISA adapters and drivers built for DOS 3.3 that need to be moved to Windows 7. As far as I know the drivers should work fine but I'm not sure where in the heck I'm gonna find a motherboard that can run 7 with ISA slots. Apparently some PCI-ISA adapters were made at some point but I can't find them on eBay.

I can easily get software on and off the DOS machine, it's got a 3.5" diskette drive and the software is fairly small (around 290KB), so there's no problem there.

Suggestions? The cards appear to be custom made, they're single sided and not printed, look to be hand soldered. They are used for controlling large relay circuits (not timed, just when certain events are triggered).

The boards do not use serial or parallel to communicate, they directly switch the relays independent of any outside electronics. Relays are fairly large industrial type (markings on the two I've seen in person indicate they're rated 440 volts).

SomeGuy

While not impossible, I find it insanely unlikely that such cards would have Windows 7 drivers, unless you just mean you just plan to boot your DOS disk when you want to use this apparatus.

And again, I question why you would NEED to change things around for any other purpose than having backup spares.

Anyway, the last few consumer motherboards with ISA slots were produced around 2001 or so. Athlon XP socket A stuff, but can run Windows 7 32-bit. But you may need to go earlier for more than one ISA slot.

AiO_Inc.

SomeGuy wrote:

While not impossible, I find it insanely unlikely that such cards would have Windows 7 drivers, unless you just mean you just plan to boot your DOS disk when you want to use this apparatus.

And again, I question why you would NEED to change things around for any other purpose than having backup spares.

Anyway, the last few consumer motherboards with ISA slots were produced around 2001 or so. Athlon XP socket A stuff, but can run Windows 7 32-bit. But you may need to go earlier for more than one ISA slot.

The systems have 2 cards each. Was hoping to consolidate some other menial computers into these two systems as well since theres some other random network stuff going on that required Windows Vista / 7 to work correctly. Having 8 computers controlling industrial equipment in the same room makes A/C expensive, you know.

This is certainly a case in which less is better.

P.S. by "DOS disk" I mean I've copied the drivers and software off of the machine and confirmed it works in Windows 2000, albeit without a proper listing in device manager.

epguy7

Also note that most ISA cards are not "plug-n-play" aware and therefore you will need to use the "Add legacy hardware" option in Device Manager to set up your ISA based hardware in Win7.