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The response was not intended to be a flame. It was merely to check/confirm that you understood that sometimes you need to take a step further back and look at the big picture.
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yep, understood.
I tend to always look at the biggest picture possible with these types of challenges.
As i said earlier i would have just replaced the whole thing with a pic controller if it wasn't for the licensing system being a pain.
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Do you control the software, i.e., is it possible to modify the code? I suspect not, which is why its a can of worms :)
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Definately a big can'o'worms, as the software/panel also controls several other devices besides the main machinery.
It starts becoming a replacement of a whole system which is then way outside the budget available.
I'm told there's still a maintenance agreement for the mechanical machinery, but replacing their system software is considered a breach of their agreement and they'd lose the mechanical service too.
Seems funny that the electronics agreement had expired, but there's a deeper story with the old company going bust and being bought out by newcomers, who have quickly written off support for the 'ancient' technology...the plot thickens.
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You still have the problem of matching the original code timing, so having the source code is critical, just so that you can see if there is a cycle-accuracy requirement.
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Perhaps, although the code overall seems pretty lazy (not timing accurate), just a bunch of on/off commands to relays etc.
Whether the timing inside the fpga alter the soft-6809's program loops/timing is yet to be seen.
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I'm Ok with hobbies keeping ancient technology alive. However, your task involves heavy machinery, so does involve a level of risk, and hence a certain level of caution is required, i.e., you will need to prove that the new CPU board is functionally equivalent.
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This will be ok, as the machinery has an isolation panel to detach the machine from the control panel, thus leaving a panel full of relays/lamps to be monitored during the test phase(s) to ensure everything is switching correctly.
The relays are activated few'n'far between, so it's easy to visually see the 'cycles' being switched etc.
At the end of the day, whether the industrial project goes ahead or not, i'm still interested in doing some soft-core (nostalgic) projects for myself, and thought this would be the initial push to get me to jump into it ;-)
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