OK, so I have seen the threads pop up and I had been doing some research into getting over this hurdle for a bit after I ran into some of these old processors and had the same issues as everyone else. Those problems would be that the Customer has no computer/software/dongle to allow them to get online anymore, the machine is old and obsolete, a conversion would work but can't make the sale because the cost of a complete conversion and new program is outside of their budget and they want to buy a new machine if they can find someone to service their other dying machines using the same old PLCs that nobody can connect to anymore.
You need an RS422 adapter to get this to work, but the B&B has been gone for a while... so here is a couple of options.
If you have a Horner HE693SNP306AX cable, then you can build the same adapter I did to get it to work.
Horner to PLC2 adaptation
GE Horner Cable PLC2 Port FTDI
TD+ 11-------------- 1 TD+
TD- 9,10------------ 2 TD-
RTS- 15-------------- 3 RTS-
RTS+ 8---------------- 4 RTS+
RXD+ 13-------------- 5 RD+
RXD- 12-------------- 6 RD-
CTS+ 14-------------- 7 CTS+
CTS- 6---------------- 8 CTS-
5VDC 2,5
Ground 1,3,7
The 5vdc source of power comes from a basic USB cable with flying leads tied into the horner cable itself, it needs to external power to work properly and I've verified that this works just fine.
The other option is to use the FTDI adapter from FTDI
https://ftdichip.com/products/usb-rs422-we-1800-bt/
If you want something with a serial adapter to USB then go with this
https://ftdichip.com/products/usb-com422-plus1/
If you want a form factor with a case, then use this from connective peripherals, it's just the RS422, but in their case, roughly the same price.
https://us.connectiveperipherals.com/products/full-speed-usb-to-rs422
Here is the datasheet with pinout of these modules.
https://ftdichip.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/DS_USB_RS422_CABLES.pdf
These contain all the channels to work properly with PLC2.
Now the trickier part of getting these to work is how you set it up, so I've been able to set this up multiple ways. the first is to just use Dos Box and AI2 software. AI2 works fine as long as you have a copy.
To use AI2 to communicate you'll need to select the smart serial cable shown here.
with this set to comm 1, you'll need to set Dosbox up to use whatever your USB adapter goes to and route it to comm 1 in the options.bat file
This shows that Com1 in DOSbox will be my Com2 port. This works with any port number that your serial device shows up as.
Once you open DOSbox your usb to serial device connecting either the GE cable, or the USB to RS422 FTDI will be available and should work like it was in a regular com port.
The other way to get this to work is by using a VM and running AI2 on a machine that can run DOS software, I've done this with VMware and passed the com port through to windows 98, windows 95, and even windows 3.11 VM running AI2 with the same serial settings.
To set up a VMware VM to pass your com port through, make sure you reassign the com port and have it pass to com 1 or 2, those com ports should always be open on older machines since they were physical.
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1002463
Example of the .VMX file modification in the article to get the com ports to pass through properly.
I'll have to look through my notes to see what the wiring was to connect the FTDI to the PLC2, but it should be pretty straightforward, and through some testing I saw that not everything needs to be connected for it to work.
You need an RS422 adapter to get this to work, but the B&B has been gone for a while... so here is a couple of options.
If you have a Horner HE693SNP306AX cable, then you can build the same adapter I did to get it to work.
Horner to PLC2 adaptation
GE Horner Cable PLC2 Port FTDI
TD+ 11-------------- 1 TD+
TD- 9,10------------ 2 TD-
RTS- 15-------------- 3 RTS-
RTS+ 8---------------- 4 RTS+
RXD+ 13-------------- 5 RD+
RXD- 12-------------- 6 RD-
CTS+ 14-------------- 7 CTS+
CTS- 6---------------- 8 CTS-
5VDC 2,5
Ground 1,3,7
The 5vdc source of power comes from a basic USB cable with flying leads tied into the horner cable itself, it needs to external power to work properly and I've verified that this works just fine.
The other option is to use the FTDI adapter from FTDI
https://ftdichip.com/products/usb-rs422-we-1800-bt/
If you want something with a serial adapter to USB then go with this
https://ftdichip.com/products/usb-com422-plus1/
If you want a form factor with a case, then use this from connective peripherals, it's just the RS422, but in their case, roughly the same price.
https://us.connectiveperipherals.com/products/full-speed-usb-to-rs422
Here is the datasheet with pinout of these modules.
https://ftdichip.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/DS_USB_RS422_CABLES.pdf
These contain all the channels to work properly with PLC2.
Now the trickier part of getting these to work is how you set it up, so I've been able to set this up multiple ways. the first is to just use Dos Box and AI2 software. AI2 works fine as long as you have a copy.
To use AI2 to communicate you'll need to select the smart serial cable shown here.
with this set to comm 1, you'll need to set Dosbox up to use whatever your USB adapter goes to and route it to comm 1 in the options.bat file
This shows that Com1 in DOSbox will be my Com2 port. This works with any port number that your serial device shows up as.
Once you open DOSbox your usb to serial device connecting either the GE cable, or the USB to RS422 FTDI will be available and should work like it was in a regular com port.
The other way to get this to work is by using a VM and running AI2 on a machine that can run DOS software, I've done this with VMware and passed the com port through to windows 98, windows 95, and even windows 3.11 VM running AI2 with the same serial settings.
To set up a VMware VM to pass your com port through, make sure you reassign the com port and have it pass to com 1 or 2, those com ports should always be open on older machines since they were physical.
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1002463
Example of the .VMX file modification in the article to get the com ports to pass through properly.
I'll have to look through my notes to see what the wiring was to connect the FTDI to the PLC2, but it should be pretty straightforward, and through some testing I saw that not everything needs to be connected for it to work.
