Re: Looking for legacy IMS MDrive V1.xxx (Pre-Schneider) MDI Firmware .bin / .hex

["Hu, Yong via Tech-talk" <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Hi Nathan,

I’m so glad to hear that people from my grandpa’s generation are still active in the EPICS community. Amazing!

I copied & pasted your message with a tiny modification into ChatGPT (paid version) and Gemini (free version) to see what they could find. ChatGPT suggested a couple of potentially useful links such as:

https://www.novantaims.com/downloads/software/obs_software.html

https://www.kocomotion.de/en/produkt/produkt-348/

Both ChatGPT and Gemini also suggested one alternative which might be worth trying:

Alternative: Hardware Extraction (Cloning) If you have access to another working machine with an identical V1 MDrive motor:

• Microcontroller Readout: Desolder or hook up an in-system programmer (ISP/JTAG) to the onboard microcontroller on the motor's control board. If lock bits were not set by IMS during production, you can dump the full EEPROM/Flash image directly to a .hex file to re-flash the bricked drive.

Good luck!

Yong

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> on behalf of Nathan Naveh via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Date: Friday, August 28, 2026 at 2:50 AM
To: tech-talk at aps.anl.gov <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Looking for legacy IMS MDrive V1.xxx (Pre-Schneider) MDI Firmware .bin / .hex

Hello Tech-Talk,

I am 80-years-old-still-working automation geezer. 
I am trying to rescue a legacy industrial machine that runs several original Intelligent Motion Systems (IMS) MDrive integrated stepper motors (V1.0xx MDI generation, pre-Schneider Electric era).
One of our motors was mistakenly ""upgraded"" to V3... which made it a brick.
Novanta IMS do not keep any V1 stuff.

Does anyone happen to have a factory installation CD, floppy backup, or an old folder image containing the original V1.xxx firmware binaries (.bin or .hex) tucked away on a legacy lab drive or drawer? Any version of the V1 MDI firmware would be an absolute lifesaver.

Thanks for your time and any file hoard checks!

Nathan