The machine has floppy drives and can read DOS disks, so files can easily be transferred that way.
That being said, you will need either a PC with a 9 or 25 pin port in order to communicate or else you will need to get a USB to serial port adapter and load the proper drivers into your PC to get the port working. Once working, you will need to build a special cable for the machine. The easiest is to use software handshaking (XON/XOFF) and connect TXD to RXD and RXD to TXD. The GND to GND. On the machine end, pins 6+8+20 will need to be jumpered together.
I normally use 9600 Baud, Even parity, 7 bits, and 2 stop bits for settings. When changing settings, either hit the backup key or wait 2.5 minutes for settings to be backed up and then power completely off at the breaker as well for at least 30 seconds to let the RS board properly reset. Otherwise it may not go to the new settings on boot up.
Match the setting on your PC communication software. I think Predator has some communication software built in doesn't it?
You will need to check your parameters in the machine for proper setting:
Word 45=0
54=1
39=9600
Bit#1 =01001011
#12= 00100010
Try punching a file out of the machine first. This will show you the proper format to send back when transmitting. Get your PC ready to receive and then:
PIP > PUNCH A.MIN > WRITE (A.min is whatever your file is that you want to punch)
In order to read a file:
PIP > READ A.MIN,B.MIN > WRITE This will read in A.MIN and rename it to B.MIN as it does it - thereby not overwriting your original file.
Note on common errors:
Timeout error = you are not getting the signal to transmit.
Scrambled characters = baud rates are mismatched
Missing characters = XON/XOFF not set correctly
IGF files cannot be sent thru RS232 or floppy because they have a non ASCII character set.
Best regards,