New member from the East Midlands - Question about RS232 / USB / PC connectivity

[AndyUK]

First off - I have no experience with this machine and how it communicates.

But, the lack of an RS232 port on a PC shouldn't be an issue. You can pickup USB to Serial converters very cheaply - maybe £5 on ebay? Although to avoid problems with drivers etc, I recommend going with an official FTDI one. I believe RS sell one for around £15 which I've personally used on a number of OSes and drivers are nicely kept up to date. Something like this: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/inter...-kits/0429252/ - But obviously you'll need a 25pin version.

Next problem - getting it onto the network without a PC. I'd wonder about a Raspberry Pi solution or similar - you'd be able to plug the USB RS232 into the Pi, and a wired or wireless network. The files could get to the Pi via a samba shared folder, or a fancy web interface if you've got someone to program one for you. The issue here is I don't know how your machine uses the RS232 to transfer the file to the controller, there must be some communication protocol there that you'll have to pin down - it may even require proprietary windows software which will stop the RPi idea.

Good luck!