pc104 board replacment source? hfo says controler upgrade...no

[Stirling]

hey guys, looking for a source for either a new(used) pc104 board for coldfire ii controler. its the small (4x4) daughterboard that they used to add hard drive, eithernet options. its not a haas make, it was a commonly availible board back in the day used by lots of manufactures to ass such features.

OR

Does anyone have the boot files that are on these boards? my button battery went low voltage and it ost the programing that was stock (again, not haas programing, just generic) (im looking at you countryguy, you know this kind stuff it seems)

its a pita as without it my usb,hd,ethernet does not work and it forces me to use r232 to move programs, i prefered usb!

 

[Stirling]

how do you delete a thread??????????, i totally missed that someone started a similar thread last week and is posting great info. ill use that thread for furthr communication on this topic to make "the next guys" life easier

 

[Danvil]

Hey I’m in the same boat, what was the conclusion on this ?
Did you find a replacement, place to fix them, buy them ?

 

[Donkey Hotey]

I do not have one of the systems but, I dug into this quite a bit. The PC104 board is literally a small, industrial PC on a single board. It's a whole subset of the computer industry. I tried numerous times to find the exact, original board used on the Haas and couldn't. The secondary problem with them is they aren't compatible with current Windows network protocols and won't talk. Something security related.

Under the hood, the PC104 board is running Windows CE and that's the root of the problem (no pun intended). I was searching for the hardware information because apparently you can hook a monitor to those little boards, connect a conventional keyboard and work on it like any other PC.

The Haas control is just sending commands to Windows to log in on the network and do whatever it needs to do each time you power it up.

With a monitor, you could theoretically upgrade the Windows CE to something later, with the new networking, etc, etc. Or at very least, you could restore your operating Windows CE environment. Can't do much if you're blind though and without the right plugs, you aren't connecting a monitor to the thing.

No real point to this post except to tell you that's how far I got before deciding a micro PC hooked to a nice big monitor on the front of the cabinet was easier to handle file transfers. It also gives the added bonus of having a PC to review drawings or other information right at the machine.

 

[Stirling]

I do not have one of the systems but, I dug into this quite a bit. The PC104 board is literally a small, industrial PC on a single board. It's a whole subset of the computer industry. I tried numerous times to find the exact, original board used on the Haas and couldn't. The secondary problem with them is they aren't compatible with current Windows network protocols and won't talk. Something security related.

Under the hood, the PC104 board is running Windows CE and that's the root of the problem (no pun intended). I was searching for the hardware information because apparently you can hook a monitor to those little boards, connect a conventional keyboard and work on it like any other PC.

The Haas control is just sending commands to Windows to log in on the network and do whatever it needs to do each time you power it up.

With a monitor, you could theoretically upgrade the Windows CE to something later, with the new networking, etc, etc. Or at very least, you could restore your operating Windows CE environment. Can't do much if you're blind though and without the right plugs, you aren't connecting a monitor to the thing.

No real point to this post except to tell you that's how far I got before deciding a micro PC hooked to a nice big monitor on the front of the cabinet was easier to handle file transfers. It also gives the added bonus of having a PC to review drawings or other information right at the machine.

Interesting.
The haas main bird the pc104 plugs into has plugs (or at least traces, I cannot remember) that are labels keyboard, monitor… and the such.
I wonder if all you need to do is plug in and do your update as proposed


As for my journey. I ended up inplughing the 5v poser supply to the board the pc104 mounts to
If you turn in your machine when this board is not powered the controller will recognize the new condition and load a different boot condition that does not need the pc104 board. It will take a longer time than usual to boot and display some messages at the bottom while doing it
On a it’s done this first boot with the network board “missing” ot acts as if it was never there and does n look for or try and load the drivers. So you won’t get that error anymore and will not have the networking/hard drive options/functionality tabs(it also boots much faster after this)

The end result. You can use the USB port on the haas main board and not the one on tue pc104 board now.
(2nd or 3rd board stack in. The only USB plug in the stack)
Just take the USB extension that was plugged to the pc104 and plug ot into the haas main board stack plug and you can load/unload programs like all your friends that never had the hard drive option.

I tried fooling with the board a bunch.
Button battery had good voltages, I c formed the hard drive was in good working order. Never did find out what’s wrong.
Lame sauce. But I’m perfectly happy now that I got the USB function working again