Here you can find the Ski Software:
You can contact Chris_1 from rplstoday.com for repair.
But i think you have to send the controller to poland.
https://surveyorconnect.com/community/profile/4829/
https://surveyorconnect.com/community/surveying-geomatics/leica-1100-edm-board/paged/2/#post-449107
Thanks a lot!
I did the repair myself, actually doing s small modification to use an exchangable battery.
So if anyone is interested in Austria or in the area feel free to ask.
@nisse Hello,
If I may ask, how did you fix it? I mean I know about the battery which needs to be replaced (by the way what kind of exchangeable battery did you use?) but how did you reload the firmware (as I think it's needed)?
Thanks for helping us keeping these old units going, was after a copy of the Ski Software, the link is no longer working unfortunately.
In case anyone's looking for a data cable:
@mike1202?ÿ Mike, there's a lot of useful information you've managed to collect, thanks heaps, this equipment wouldn't be usable without your efforts!.
?ÿ
Cheers,
?ÿ
Peter.
@pfirmst?ÿ
Original files came from a member of this board, don??t remember exactly, but i think it was @epoch-date so also thanks to him.
It appears I may be about to receive a number of dongles for Leica Ski Software from a kind person, with the purchase of a second System 300.?ÿ I'm currently working on getting a System 300 working for my daughter (surveying student), so she can get some practical experience (learning from home since Covid).
At this stage, I don't know which version of Ski software the dongles are for.
For my daughter, I was thinking of purchasing a mini computer with Window's 98, PCMCIA, parallel, serial and USB ports and installing all necessary software, with a dongle to support the System 200 / 300 series, the computer is a fanless PC with 12V power, so it could be mounted into a weather proof case, with a 12v 7" VGA screen and left in the field with the System 300 for data logging.
Would others on the list be interested?
Note I have to confirm these are SKI dongles first.
@mike1202 Can you message me the Polish guy's contact details pls.?ÿ?ÿ I have two working 344's and one with a flat battery.
Cheers,
Peter.
I noticed the dongles are doubled up, which suggests the owner had Ski as well SPCS.?ÿ I've asked him to look out for the SPCS floppy disks, so we can add this to the collection of known software.
@pfirmst?ÿ
Dont have his email on me right now, but you can try to contact him at:
https://surveyorconnect.com/community/profile/chris_1/
Dont know if he is still active at surveyorconnect.com but you could give it a try. If not send me private message and i can send you contact info tomorrow.
@pfirmst Hello there,
yeah I'd be interested: I have the old Thinkpad brick laptop on which the Ski software was used more than 20 years ago with the GPS system but sadly the dongle got lost...
Cheers,
Mathieu
Hi Mathieu,
No worries, will get you sorted.?ÿ The dongles are currently in transit, should arrive here by late November, I suspect I have 5 Ski dongles and 5 SPCS dongles.?ÿ Since modern computers don't have parallel ports, I'm looking at getting the dongles converted into a virtual driver, so they can be run in a virtual machine for legacy support, as Leica no longer sell or replace them and they're getting old, so could fail, the earliest version this type of driver can support is Windows 2000, which is the closest to the original equipment manufacture, not sure if Win 2000 or XP is best.?ÿ ?ÿ I haven't had much success installing the software on Windows 10.?ÿ?ÿ Have you had any experience with the best versions of Windows to run the software on?
Cheers,
Peter.
It's hard to find a PC with a parallel port!
I've purchased two Wise V90's, one with Windows 98, the second with Windows XP embedded.?ÿ This is a 12 volt PC, 1GHz CPU with 512MB SSD and 512BM Ram (not much but then the vintage software used with the System 300 doesn't require much).?ÿ?ÿ A lot of LCD monitors are also 12 volt, so this is something that can be set up in the field or a vehicle.?ÿ It has a PCMCIA card reader and a parallel port for the dongle.?ÿ Provided the Software and Dongle work with Windows XP embedded, it will be possible to create a virtual driver from the dongle, so I don't need to worry about the dongle failing from old age.?ÿ?ÿ These things are so cheap and small, you could have a couple of spares, in case one gets damaged or lost in the field.
It will only be used to copy (from PCMCIA) and process data from the System 300 for saving onto a USB key for use in a later model computer, it won't take up much room and will probably fit in one of the cases with the kit.?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
@pfirmst The original material (which I used back in 98 I think) is a Thinkpad 380ED with a Pentium, 16MB of RAM and Windows 95...
Ski installed on that thing is version 2.20 (but it also says 2.3).
I imaged the disk so I can run this OS in a virtual machine. Like you I'm curious to get my hands on the real dongle to see what it's made of. Most likely it should be easy to virtualize, I mean that technology is like 30 years old now...
The only question will be about the PCMCIA cards. Maybe the easiest solution will be to do what you did.
FYI I think I have the "polish" guy's email if you need it.
That said replacing the battery should be easy. I do have an eeprom reader but I don't have the original firmware for my SR9500...
Nevermind about the firmware, it's provided with the Ski installation... Time to get my tools I guess...
@mshook Thanks Mathieu, Mike gave me his contact details.
USB External PCMCIA card readers are available.
Ski 2.3 used to work on Window's NT with special drivers, not sure if anyone has a copy of those drivers, no doubt to allow it to see the dongle, perhaps Window's XP will have the necessary drivers.
Cheers,
Peter.
@mshook The benefit of the Wise V90 is it's in plentiful supply, it's small, has all necessary hardware, can be shipped anywhere affordably, and with all necessary software on a pre installed image, will assist any surveyor still using the a System 300 or 200, to have a working system again, relatively quickly with minimal fuss, especially if they've got an existing system that's failed, or don't have the technical knowledge to get their system working again.
Glad you've got an eeprom reader, sounds like you've got the type of technical knowledge that will help us get a solution sorted.
Cheers,
Peter.
