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TEC Tours
Age: 69 Joined: 24 Apr 2010 Posts: 1 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:34 am Post subject: Luminator MTU and software |
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Is there anyone beside Luminator that will rent an MTU and software or will reprogram the unit? Luminator doesn't seem to be very reasonable or accommodating. |
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jim92069
Age: 68 Joined: 25 Apr 2010 Posts: 1 Location: San Diego
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:55 pm Post subject: Luminator MTU & software |
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Hi, I can reprogram the EEPROMs that go in the original Luminator & Max signs. Please contact me offlist at jim92069@aol.com and send some pics of your operator keypad and signs, so I can be sure they are the correct ones I can reprogram. Then I can take your list of destinations and create a chip which you can just put in unit and you will be set. Jim |
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timecruncher
Age: 73 Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 456 Location: Louisville, Kentucky
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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Luminator is one of the worst vendors in an industry full of bad vendors. Their software is buggy, difficult to work with, and not user-friendly in any way. We are retiring the last buses with the MAX display that use an MTU to upload signlists in just a few weeks. Good riddance!
The older ones that used EPROM chips were really troublesome, although the displays were fairly easy to program and edit.
If you send something to Luminator to be programmed, plan to wait months for its return and pay lots. Heck, even the SD cards that we use to program both the flip-dot and LED displays (you can find them on E-Bay for a few dollars each) -- Luminator wants $325 each plus shipping for ONE!
Don't get me started...
timecruncher |
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New Look
Joined: 27 Jan 2011 Posts: 3 Location: WI
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:03 am Post subject: |
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Sorry to get you going again timecruncher, but is the newest MessageWriter software still buggy?
We're using the old circa 1992 DOS version, which isn't particularly buggy, but is cumbersome because it won't work correctly on any networked PCs. We maintain an old stand alone machine for nothing but programming the destination signs.
Drew |
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timecruncher
Age: 73 Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 456 Location: Louisville, Kentucky
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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The current version of their software is IPS v3.8, most recently updated for 2006. It works only slightly better than the older version. Of course, the flip-dot signs are problematic because after time the dots don't flip like they used to, and formatting is a bit more difficult.
The new LED displays in orange are much easier to program. Even so, there are limitations and annoying quirks with pull-down boxes and centering of displays. Then too, the .dat file that you need to program into the SD card is sometimes difficult to find amongst all of the other unecessary programming files and crap that sits in the Luminator program file folder.
In 2011, this technology should be far easier to use!
I should add that the color-capable LED signs I have seen are all awful and I would recommend that they NOT be used anywhere you want passengers to actually see and read a sign approaching a bus stop!
timecruncher
Schedulers give you the runs |
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New Look
Joined: 27 Jan 2011 Posts: 3 Location: WI
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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Yikes! Maybe we'll soldier on with the old DOS version for awhile longer. Problem is, I'm not sure how much longer the old stand alone PC is going to last...
Thanks for the reply. |
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timecruncher
Age: 73 Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 456 Location: Louisville, Kentucky
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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Our old GFI fareboxes use eprom chips and the only DOS-capable PC on the property runs that miserable system that never got updated as the GFI people promised when it was purchased.
Our Director of Maintenance likes to say that the GFI system is one power surge away from total failure.
timecruncher
Schedulers give you the runs! |
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dsevil
Age: 50 Joined: 10 Dec 2009 Posts: 24 Location: Louisville, KY
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 8:32 am Post subject: |
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heh. DOS.
Assuming you can install OpenDOS (the open-source version of DR-DOS) on a new PC and you can run the GFI software atop that, you're not totally screwed in the event a power surge actually destroys your DOS computer.
FWIW, there's also the open-source FreeDOS project, whose last version was released in 2006. |
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timecruncher
Age: 73 Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 456 Location: Louisville, Kentucky
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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DOS yes, but the device that programs the eprom chips is a bit more difficult to come by.
timecruncher
Schedulers give you the runs! |
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dsevil
Age: 50 Joined: 10 Dec 2009 Posts: 24 Location: Louisville, KY
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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I thought they used SD cards. Or is it only the newer ones that use them? |
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timecruncher
Age: 73 Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 456 Location: Louisville, Kentucky
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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No - the device that puts the sign code onto the eprom chips is difficult to come by. Well, at least one of them that works in a Windows environment. In recent years until we retired the 1976 Flxibles, we had to send chips to Luminator, email them the mtu file and wait a couple of months for them to program the chips and send them back.
At a nominal fee, of course.
The programmed chips were then mounted on an MTU that was then plugged into a recepticle on the bus and you waited about five minutes while the program was uploaded.
The 1981 Flxibles that were recently retired also programmed through an MTU, but the program could be offloaded directly from my workstation onto the MTU, which then could be plugged into the bus and after maybe 5 minutes the box display would read "FINISHED" and with any luck, the bus sign would work.
timecruncher
Schedulers give you the runs! |
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