Boardmaker 2 - dongle required

D

David Chapman

Guest
Hi,

I am the legitimate owner of a copy of the DOS based Tsien
Boardmaker 2 PCB design program which operates with a 'dongle' unit
connected to the parallel printer port.

Of late, the dongle has become rather erratic in operation and Tsien
refuse to supply a replacement or offer any support for customers using
Boardmaker 2. All they are prepared to offer is an expensive annual
rental contract for their new Boardmaker 3 software.

We are very happy with the DOS based system which does everything that
we require. We have a DOS PC dedicated to running this program and we do
not wish to have to spend a lot of unnecessary money or learning time on
the new version just because Tsien won't help.

If anyone in this NG has replaced their Boardmaker 2 with Boardmaker 3
and is willing to sell me a working dongle, I'd appreciate hearing from
them.

Please note, this appeal is not a devious attempt to obtain an illegal
copy of the old Boardmaker 2 program since I already have, and use, a
registered, but unreliable copy.

All sensible replies and/or suggestions will be much appreciated,

- Dave Chapman


David C.Chapman - Chartered Engineer. FIEE. (dcchapman@minda.co.uk)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPMAN ASSOCIATES is a Consultancy offering practical expertise and
design skills in the fields of counter-surveillance, electronic protection
and security. Visit our Web site at http://www.minda.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Hello David,

Check the contacts of your dongle. If it contains a cheap connector
without gold-plated pins or the one in the PC is cheap they can oxydize
or wear out.

As far as dongles are concerned I have always refused to buy any SW that
requires a dongle. If they don't trust me I don't trust them ;-)

BTW, sometimes it does help to bypass anyone else and bring an issue
like this before the CEO of the manufacturer. Should be the last resort
but sometimes that gets things moving.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
 
Joerg wrote:

[...]

As far as dongles are concerned I have always refused to buy any SW that
requires a dongle.
Click to expand...
[...]

Regards, Joerg
Click to expand...
Hear, Hear. I have also wasted too much time on malfunctions due to
dongles. They break or interfere with other previously working software.

After all these years, there is no excuse for these abominations. I don't
want to have to deal with them. Down with the companies that use them.

If I can't find a non-dongle subsititute, I'll figure a way around it, or
write my own code to solve the problem.

Die, dongles.

Mike Monett
 
Hello Mike,

Die, dongles.
Click to expand...
Here is the weirdest way one of these died at a client. There was a
jack-of-all-trades engineer. Consequently he had licensed copies of CAD,
compilers, debuggers, mechanical CAD and what not on his PC. That
required about half a dozen dongles, all neatly stacked on top of each
other but facing horizontal. One night the janitors must have pushed the
PC a bit and.... ka-crunch.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
 
Joerg wrote:
Hello Mike,

Die, dongles.

Here is the weirdest way one of these died at a client. There was a
jack-of-all-trades engineer. Consequently he had licensed copies of CAD,
compilers, debuggers, mechanical CAD and what not on his PC. That
required about half a dozen dongles, all neatly stacked on top of each
other but facing horizontal. One night the janitors must have pushed the
PC a bit and.... ka-crunch.

Regards, Joerg
Click to expand...
Hi Joerg,

He must have been some engineer. He looked at it while putting it together, and
never gave a thought of what might happen if unknown forces happened to apply
unwanted forces in an undesired direction. No foresight, and no protection.
Typical of those who put up with dongles. They deserve every problem that
occurs.

Get him to get his pilot's license and fly back and forth across the US for a
couple of years. That will cure his optimism:)

I put over 750 hours in my bird, and never bent it or wrinkled it in any way.
Here's the only incident that happened - note it was not my fault:)

http://tinyurl.com/ak36d (NTSB Incident Report)

Actually, we were doing a run to check out repairs to the nav system. It had
previously failed near Reno, so we took off from San Jose and climbed to 25,000
feet enroute to Reno.

On arrival, the equipment checked out fine, so we were just about ready to turn
the heading bug on the autopilot 180 degrees, when there was a loud bang and the
prop stopped turning. That is not good. First off, you start to lose
pressurization. At 25kft, you may have 30 seconds of consciousness. But you have
a whole bunch of other problems following in split-second intervals.

My copilot and flight instuctor, Barbara Mock, said "What did you do now??"

I said "Never mind. It's your plane - YOU fly it." (Note this is the official
language required by the FAA when a terrified owner/primary pilot relinquishes
command to a mere mortal employee who happens to be able to fly rings around
him in an emergency.)

So she got on the horn and told ATC we had an engine failure and were going
down. Meanwhile, I got the flight manual and madly scrambled through the
emergency procedures to find the instructions for engine failure.

Found it! Step 1 - Turn the Emergency Boost Pump to Maximum.

Step 2. NOTE - Do Not Do Step 1 above 18,000 feet. It will flood the engine. Use
Minimum Boost instead.

Too late. I flooded the engine. We are now doomed. Over the mountains at
midnight, with no engine and full fuel. We will end up in a flaming ball of
crumpled aluminum.

But Wait - the navigation system. It knows where the nearest airpoirt is.

Punch the emergency button. The nearest airport is about 4nm away. Direction is
straight down through the clouds. We happen to be directly over the Reno, Nevada
airport. Very convenient, but we don't know the thickness of the cloud layer.
Deadstick at night in IFR has a very low success rate.

The commercial airlines grumble when ATC kicks them to holding patterns over the
desert. I turn every light on in the plane. We break through the clouds. Reno
tower spots us and says "60 Victor, We have you in sight. You are cleared to
land. Runway of your choice."

This means we can land anywhere. On a runway. On a taxiway. In the parking lot.
Anywhere we can get this thing down.

She pulls a perfect three-point deadstick landing on the main runway. It is too
long and we cannot coast to the taxiway. So we stop and get out.

Then it hits you. Up to now, you are far too busy with procedures and switches
to have time for fear.

With your feet on solid ground, your legs turn to rubber and you can barely
walk.

We accept a ride from the airport police and check in at the nearest hotel. They
will tow the plane to a safe spot and tie it down. We are done for the night.

So die dongles. There is nothing you can do to match that.

Mike Monett
 
David Chapman wrote:

Of late, the dongle has become rather erratic in operation and Tsien
refuse to supply a replacement or offer any support for customers using
Boardmaker 2. All they are prepared to offer is an expensive annual
rental contract for their new Boardmaker 3 software.
Click to expand...
If you are anywhere near Derbyshire, you can borrow mine for a bit. It's
only the original BM though, without schematic integration or power
plane support. I never upgraded it because of Tsien's predatory upgrades
policy- practically full price. I only keep it in case I have to support
some very old designs that I can't be bothered translating.

Easy PC can import BM designs, and if you decide to upgrade, I think you
would probably find it worthwhile, after all, 10 years is a long time in
PCB design.

Paul Burke
 
Ah memories, I have hacked code like this years ago to remove the
requirement of having the stupid dongle. I would make sure the contacts
between dongle and system and tight, short of that you are at their mercy. I
can't believe the company would not simply swap out the old for a new one!


"David Chapman" <dave@minda.co.uk> wrote in message
news:22l6kLAcVovCFwuV@chassis.demon.co.uk...
Hi,

I am the legitimate owner of a copy of the DOS based Tsien
Boardmaker 2 PCB design program which operates with a 'dongle' unit
connected to the parallel printer port.

Of late, the dongle has become rather erratic in operation and Tsien
refuse to supply a replacement or offer any support for customers using
Boardmaker 2. All they are prepared to offer is an expensive annual
rental contract for their new Boardmaker 3 software.

We are very happy with the DOS based system which does everything that
we require. We have a DOS PC dedicated to running this program and we do
not wish to have to spend a lot of unnecessary money or learning time on
the new version just because Tsien won't help.

If anyone in this NG has replaced their Boardmaker 2 with Boardmaker 3
and is willing to sell me a working dongle, I'd appreciate hearing from
them.

Please note, this appeal is not a devious attempt to obtain an illegal
copy of the old Boardmaker 2 program since I already have, and use, a
registered, but unreliable copy.

All sensible replies and/or suggestions will be much appreciated,

- Dave Chapman


David C.Chapman - Chartered Engineer. FIEE. (dcchapman@minda.co.uk)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPMAN ASSOCIATES is a Consultancy offering practical expertise and
design skills in the fields of counter-surveillance, electronic protection
and security. Visit our Web site at http://www.minda.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...
 
Hmmmm....

Seems like they are saying you bought it now it your baby.

With that I would have no problems putting a logic probe on the parallel
port bus and creating a device that would mimic the response from the
dingle.

I would try replacing or cleaning the connectors first as is a usual
culprit, however some MVRAM products do get forgetful after a while short
while 5-10 years. programmed obsolescence? You could build it right into
your old dongle if you wnat to avoid obsolescence issues.

I'm sure there are "dongle buster" hacks all over google if you care to
look.

Like you said you're not trying to steal, your only trying to keep something
you paid for working.






"Jim Douglas" <james.douglas@genesis-software.com> wrote in message
news:OfGdnQF-lsJeRCLfRVn-sg@comcast.com...
Ah memories, I have hacked code like this years ago to remove the
requirement of having the stupid dongle. I would make sure the contacts
between dongle and system and tight, short of that you are at their mercy.
I
can't believe the company would not simply swap out the old for a new one!


"David Chapman" <dave@minda.co.uk> wrote in message
news:22l6kLAcVovCFwuV@chassis.demon.co.uk...

Hi,

I am the legitimate owner of a copy of the DOS based Tsien
Boardmaker 2 PCB design program which operates with a 'dongle' unit
connected to the parallel printer port.

Of late, the dongle has become rather erratic in operation and Tsien
refuse to supply a replacement or offer any support for customers using
Boardmaker 2. All they are prepared to offer is an expensive annual
rental contract for their new Boardmaker 3 software.

We are very happy with the DOS based system which does everything that
we require. We have a DOS PC dedicated to running this program and we do
not wish to have to spend a lot of unnecessary money or learning time on
the new version just because Tsien won't help.

If anyone in this NG has replaced their Boardmaker 2 with Boardmaker 3
and is willing to sell me a working dongle, I'd appreciate hearing from
them.

Please note, this appeal is not a devious attempt to obtain an illegal
copy of the old Boardmaker 2 program since I already have, and use, a
registered, but unreliable copy.

All sensible replies and/or suggestions will be much appreciated,

- Dave Chapman


David C.Chapman - Chartered Engineer. FIEE. (dcchapman@minda.co.uk)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPMAN ASSOCIATES is a Consultancy offering practical expertise and
design skills in the fields of counter-surveillance, electronic
protection
and security. Visit our Web site at http://www.minda.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...
 
In article <8VHve.34249$J12.6433@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>,
notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net says...
Hello Mike,

Die, dongles.

Here is the weirdest way one of these died at a client. There was a
jack-of-all-trades engineer. Consequently he had licensed copies of CAD,
compilers, debuggers, mechanical CAD and what not on his PC. That
required about half a dozen dongles, all neatly stacked on top of each
other but facing horizontal. One night the janitors must have pushed the
PC a bit and.... ka-crunch.
Click to expand...
At one time I had a half-dozen dongles on my laptop. I simply got a
12" 25-pin M/F cable and put them after that.

--
Keith
 
On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 13:29:12 GMT, in sci.electronics.design "Mook
Johnson" <mook@mook.net> wrote:

Hmmmm....

Seems like they are saying you bought it now it your baby.

With that I would have no problems putting a logic probe on the parallel
port bus and creating a device that would mimic the response from the
dingle.

I would try replacing or cleaning the connectors first as is a usual
culprit, however some MVRAM products do get forgetful after a while short
while 5-10 years. programmed obsolescence? You could build it right into
your old dongle if you wnat to avoid obsolescence issues.

I'm sure there are "dongle buster" hacks all over google if you care to
look.

Like you said you're not trying to steal, your only trying to keep something
you paid for working.





google "dongle crack" and there are a couple of firms that will copy a
Click to expand...
dongle sig for you, for money I think....
googleing for dongle buster seems to bring up "warez" sites which I
avoid like the plague


martin
 
Hello Mike,

Wow, that sure must have been a white knuckle ride. Some day I'll start
training for the license. Kind of have to since we live right next to
the Cameron Park runway which you probably know when you fly in the Sierra.

So far my experience with airplanes has been to leave them in mid flight
and then pop my parachute. Often I jumped last and opened right away so
I got a nice 20 minute or so scenic glide to earth. Oh, and then there
was a flight across the Atlantic that became a bit white knuckle. About
an hour or so before the Belgian coast, poof, one of the engines quit
and that meant there was only one more left. But that one held until
Frankfurt. They cleared the whole Frankfurt airspace for us and there
were all the ambulances and fire engines they could muster waiting for us.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
 
Would someone be kind enough to post a link to this dongle.

Pictures would be nice.

donald
 
On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 22:24:49 -0400, Mike Monett wrote:
....
Punch the emergency button. The nearest airport is about 4nm away.
....
Click to expand...
OK, I'm a sick fuck. In the middle of this gripping story, my
homunculus says, "Only Four Nanometers? You're already practically
on top of it!" ;-)

Thanks,
Rich
[Where's my parachute! -- R]
 
On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 17:02:59 +0000, Joerg wrote:

Hello Mike,

Wow, that sure must have been a white knuckle ride. Some day I'll start
training for the license. Kind of have to since we live right next to
the Cameron Park runway which you probably know when you fly in the Sierra.

So far my experience with airplanes has been to leave them in mid flight
and then pop my parachute. Often I jumped last and opened right away so
I got a nice 20 minute or so scenic glide to earth. Oh, and then there
was a flight across the Atlantic that became a bit white knuckle. About
an hour or so before the Belgian coast, poof, one of the engines quit
and that meant there was only one more left. But that one held until
Frankfurt. They cleared the whole Frankfurt airspace for us and there
were all the ambulances and fire engines they could muster waiting for us.
Click to expand...
You're a jumper! Kewl! I haven't jumped in way too many years - too
broke. For some reason, I never seem to get past about the 10-second
mark, and some circumstance happens, and the next opportunity to go
jumping, I have to go back on the damn boring static line again. I
get jealous of people who have the bucks to hire a tandem jump, but
from the humpers[typo retained for ironic humour] I've met, I don't
know if I'd want any of them to jump me tandem. (;-)) I also have four
hours in a Cessna 150 and approx. an hour in the Republic Airlines DC-9
simulator, albeit it's not logged, since it was after hours.

I fantasize that one day, I'll be in some transoceanic flight, and
the stew will say, "Does anybody here know how to fly an airplane?"
Or maybe only a transcontinental flight. Or maybe a puddle-jumper.

There are no speed limits in the air. ;-P

Eat! Fuck! Skydive!
Rich
(Or, as was pointedly pointed out to me once, "eat, fuck, static
line." Sigh.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top