Denford Software & Machines

Hi,
Having got to grips with my novamill (which is excellent by the way), i've taken the next step and got a novaturn on the basis that the flstep software was availble here. I've read the forum fairly thoroughly but cant seem to get FLSTEP to connect to the novaturn.

The novaturn seems to power up as per my novamill, the 7 segment display displays 0, L (flashing dot), 8 then the machine powers up and you hear the faint hissing sound from the machine as per the novamill.

Ive unpacked flstep, copied in the novaturn subdirectory and driver pack 2. I'm using the same usb serial dongle as used on the novamill, 19200 baud, 8 data bits, with 1 stop bit, no parity and no flow control. FLSTEP must recognise it as if the serial dongle isnt attached it wont get past loading the serial driver line as windows reports an error. saying flstep is trying to access a non-existant port (note this error doesn't happen in dosbox).

I've tried changing the com ports from 1 to 4 (the novamill runs on 4) and updating the go file to suit but no change.

The provided cables have been bypassed with a known good null modem cable direct to the control board to eliminate a physical fault.

Tried running native in windows and via dosbox, but the application always hangs at loading the mint file with a flashing cursor. See pic below. It seems to me its jut a comms issue or flstep is hanging, but the cursor is still flashing so i dont think its hung.

Some other pics are provided for info below.

Any ideas???

As an aside the main control card looks identical to my novamill, it even has a later standard eeprom than the novamill at v2.1, does this mean its been upgaded to work with vrturning?

have also included a zip of my flstep directory for you to check.

Any help much appreciated,

Cheers
Barry M

ooops zip attached

It's more than likely the wrong cable.
Use this post to check the RS232 wiring from the PC direct to the board...
viewtopic.php?f=54&t=544

Oh and yes it looks like its been upgraded to run from VR Turning...

Yes, The Eprom looks to be version 2.1 so therfore the dos software will not connect. It should be VRTurning unless you can find the Dos Eprom.

Thanks to all, she's ALIVE!! )

An old V1.6 EEPROM that came in a box of bits with my Novamill (compatible with FLSTEP) helped alot and Dosbox is essential, otherwise you get intermittent comms issues.

Dont miss that you need to enable the comms ports in dosbox as real ports, that cost me a hour or so.

Very chuffed!

Thanks again.

Cheers
Barry M

For ther record the zip file attached above worked seemlessly when installing onto my "new" Toughbook within DOS (Win2k / Dos optional boot with 300mhz celeron processor, see my post re VRmilling in the software section). Glad I uploaded it 'cos to be honest I couldnt remember how to set FLStep up.

All I had to do was replace the FLSTEP.go file (which was set for com4) with the FLSTEP_COM1.go file I made first time round to get it connected on com 1 and again it works seemlessly (how to set com designations can be found in the forum easily). Much smoother and less glitchy than on XP with Dosbox and a usb to rs232 cable.

Again getting a cheep old laptop with hardware rs232 seems to be the best solution for running these machines.

Cheers
BPM