How much for a dongle?

[doddy]

At work we run a CNC package from 2 computers, and have to have a dongle plugged in in the back in the printer port. but there is only 1 dongle and its a right ballache changing it round every 2 minutes.

My boss says there cost a few hundred or whatever because of the software you need to buy with it, is this right?

 

[Lee coley]

there about 10 quid of ebay,

 

[Andy.]

this is probably a licence dongle... you wont be able to get a new one without going through your software supplier. As it means a new licence, it probably is a couple of hundred quid!

 

[sn00p]

I write a piece of software that is protected by a dongle (I also wrote the dongle code too). The dongle is the software license, therefore if you want another one you have to buy another copy of the software. We offer discount on more than one license, but obviously other software vendors might not.

 

[Meek_racing]

If you want it all to be above board and legal then your talking alot mate! When you purchase and CAD CAM dongle its called a "seat" you pay for the rights to use that seat under licence. The software, training etc is all thrown in as part of the deal. So all of the money goes to the legal right for the seat and use of it. The software is just a tiny part of the overall cost even though it cost the company the most to develop it.

Anyway, you can get patch software for USB dongles that copy the coding from one dongle to another, Im not sure about serial dongles but will ask my mate. He works for Solid Solutions in West Midlands. (will PM you when i find out more)

You can get a split cable if i can remember, it just plugs into your dongle and splits it two ways. I'm sure its on ebay, or just do a search in google.

What software are you running? If you call a CAM seller then they could sort you out with a cheaper second seat if you upgrade. I'm guessing it will be inbetween £1k-£3k if you use something like CAM Works or top end software. You can get much cheaper versions if your only using basic turning/milling machines.

Mike

 

[sn00p]

Anyway, you can get patch software for USB dongles that copy the coding from one dongle to another, Im not sure about serial dongles but will ask my mate. He works for Solid Solutions in West Midlands. (will PM you when i find out more)

If it's a crap dongle that might be true, most dongles these days are considerably more complex than an "eeprom".

 

[Meek_racing]

Yeah depends how old the dongle is. Most modern CAD CAM packages don't even come with dongles now (so ive been told) all about online registration to stop any fraud.

 

[doddy]

the software is called SigmaNest, its sending NC nests to a plasma/laser cutting machine. We have a 'HASP' dongle that we use, didnt know anything about the software that comes with it