Re: Programming the Fluke 9100 - Am I out of luck?

> According to the docs you can copy from the hard drive to a floppy, however
> there is no way to copy the operating system from the hard drive onto
> another hard drive, it appears that Fluke used a copy protection system to
> prevent that. The docs mention that the floppy used to upload the new
> operating system must have their write-protect tab set to write, and then
> you can't reload the new operating system. I tried to hook up a second hard
> drive to the outboard SCSI port, but the system did not appear to identify
> it, wouldn't even ask if I wanted to format it. My W2K SCSI card did not
> identify the drive in the 9100 either...rats...
The software is keyed to the serial number encoded on each machine.
After install, even if you could copy it, you'd have to break the
protection scheme to use it on another 9100. Although I had emails from
previous members (maybe not on Techtools, but another list) of someone
that had found never-installed disks and was going to make images of
them for others to download.

Also note that both drives in my 9100's are MFM. They have a WD1006
"adaptor" card which translates them into ESDI, which is a precursor of
SCSI.

Also, from what little poking around I've done of the original code, the
software is keyed to several drive types. If a new drive installed
doesn't match specific parameters, it won't recognize it.

> Certainly an IBM keyboard will plug in, and it is set up correctly for the
> power, but with no schematics on the 9100 I can't tell if the signal lines
> are configured correctly. Neither the AT or PC settings work, although the
> PC setting will allow the Num/Cap key LEDs to lit on/off.
I believe this has been investigated before. I think the
implementation is different enough to not allow a PC keyboard to just
plug in. An adaptor (as suggested, perhaps using a simple PIC) would
probably have to be developed.

Also note that when using the keyboard, you also have to use the
external monitor. The internal display is only used for "operation",
the monitor/keyboard for "programming". Kinda wierd.

I have a keyboard, perhaps if I get time (and it would help someone) I
could poke around to see how it works.
Received on Sun Apr 14 22:12:18 2002