23 Dec
2009
23 Dec
'09
10:35 p.m.
From: "Rick Bensene" <rickb at
bensene.com>
Earlier controls had RS-232 ports. I wrote a system
on a PC running
FreeBSD Linux using Perl (a very early version) that would send and
receive programs to all of the controls in the shop over RS-232. I used
a SCSI terminal server box from Central Data that hooked up to the PC
over a SCSI channel, and provided 16 RS-232 serial ports that went out
to all of the machines. Amazingly enough, this thing is still in
service (in a shop environment) after over 15 years, providing an easy
way to load programs on some of the older controls.
I wrote a similar program in 1979 to do a similar job with an Apple ][ europlus (to a
Bridgeport Series 1). It was written in my own high level assembler (for the 6502) and
worked with only one machine at a time and included Apple's word processor integrated
in (by disassembly, converting to high level and inclusion in the source with suitable
links) and we sold a normal version with it with permission from Apple.We also had a
program which emulated a vertical mill and drew the programmed path on screen or on a pen
plotter. I know they were in use about 20 years later but probably all dead by now. We
also did a version which allowed operators to program a Heidenheim 131 or 145(?)
controller on the Apple 2 without tying up the real machine which cost about 30 times as
much as an Apple 2.