Flowcon  .  Support  .  Operator Questions  .  FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I load a new software revision?

- Go to the New Revisions page on this site and follow the instructions there. Note that ALL software revisions are now delivered via the New Revisions page of this site. You will need a Flowcon-assigned user ID and password to get your revision.

How do I load a new software revision without a floppy drive? No computer around here has one anymore!

Where there'a a will, there's a way.

You will need the following hardware on your batching computer:

• A USB port
• A CDrom drive
• A mouse (either PS2 or USB should work)
• A working knowledge of Linux
• A USB memory stick with your revision files on it

If your batcher doesn't have any USB ports, you're out of luck using this method. If your computer doesn't have a CDrom drive, you'll need to scrounge up an IDE CDrom drive and install it on your batching computer.

There's a version of Linux which can run directly from a CDrom called Knoppix. This Linux version supports the USB bus and ports. I use version 3.8.2, which is old enough to support the typical hardware used for Flowcon batchers. A newer version may work, but I haven't tried it.

What you need to do:

• Load the new revision files onto the USB memory stick using an office computer.
• Configure the batching computer to boot from the CDrom drive first.
• Insert the Knoppix CD into the drive and boot from it.
• When Knoppix is up and running, select IDE0, which is the batcher hard drive. Configure this drive so that it is writeable.
• Select and open the PCC folder. This folder contains the Batcher execuitable files.
• Create a backup folder inside the PCC folder, if one doesn't exist. Copy the existing PCC folder files into the backup folder, just in case you need them again.
• Select and open the memory stick files. They should match the file names in the PCC folder.
• Copy the files from the memory stick to the PCC folder, overwriting the existing files.
• Unmount the memory stick, then unplug it.
• Shut down the Knoppix session. Remove the Knoppix CDrom.
• Restart the batching computer into normal batching mode. Check the batching software time and date on the F8 screen to verify that the new revision is running.

We can provide you a copy of the Knoppix CDrom if you need one. We cannot provide detailed assistance on how to use it, as it is too complex. You will need someone with Linux experience on site to successfully use this process.

My end-of-day report is stuck / messed up. How do I recover?

- Reboot the Batcher
- From the Startup Menu, select option #3 'Goto DOS'
- Using DOS commands in the C:\ folder, delete or rename the following files:
- PH.TMP (production history file)
Type "del ph.tmp"; press 'enter'.
- PRINT.TMP (print spooler buffer)
Type "del print.tmp"; press 'enter'.
- reboot the system; start up normal batching
- run an End-of-Day report to clear any remaining buffers

You should now be back to normal operation. If you saved the files, you can view their contents with a text editor.