Choice of operating system

[IJ.]

Originally posted by HuFlungDung Paul, there's an idea. Sell bags of CNCZONE cookies! Get a good recipe and retire rich!

CNC Zone Pasta Sauce by "Paul" !

[Scott_bob]

The leanest and possibly quickest operating system may not be the latest offered by Microsoft...
This is a site dedicated to CNC right? Not gaming or even CAD.

Computer Numerical Control... What is the point of haveing functions that have nothing to do with creating motion through servo systems?

Do we have to give up ANY speed in trade for some of those functions?
If you do, then I say, you're using your CNC for the wrong thing. And machine tool builders are focused on the wrong features if performance takes a back seat to advanced features (other than high speed motion control).

check out a performance comparision between some popular brands:

http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread...2&pagenumber=6

Interesting?

[HuFlungDung]

Scott,

I would have to say that I expect to be able to design a model, modify it, write programs for it, modify the programs for it, do file maintenance, never DNC, and do smooth cutting at high feedrates (I don't expect I'll ever actually get into High speed machining), and to do this all on one computer.

While this is going on, I don't really have to listen to music while I burn DVD movies during an online video conference while doing a virus scan and disk defrag But, I do expect quite a bit of utility from a single computer.

[Scott_bob]

The kind of high speed motion control that I am talking about is just not possible with current affordable PC hardware IF:

Quote from HuFlungDung:
You want to "design a model, modify it, write programs for it, modify the programs for it do file maintenance, never DNC" AND do smooth cutting motion control!

If indisputable proof can be offered to show that outstanding high speed, accurate, motion control WILL SUFFER, "IF" you try to do everything above on your PC based control while it is making parts, would you consider doing all the things above on another PC dedicated for that purpose instead?
I mean, a high performance PC these days may run you 2-3k right?
A CNC machine with a PC based control is gonna be worth 50k at least...

Personally, I'd rather use my PC in a quiet office next to the shop anyway, where I can concentrate better. Plus, my PC is barely fast enough to do the 3D Model anyway (if your designs are complex at all) let alone ask it to do all the high speed machining too...

Just my opinion, and food for thought,

[HuFlungDung]

Oh, for sure, I wouldn't attempt to do anything except let the cnc controller run, when the machine is busy. But, in choice of operating systems (which this thread is about), it is probably necessary to have a few extra services running in the background, just so you can do other stuff when the controller has paused. The trick is running with the minimum of services and still have the essentials running to do those other things I mentioned, as required.

Like you, I'd like to do all the main cadcam work in a quiet office somewhere. But, when its time to run the first part, I'd like to have a copy of OneCNC (or what have you) available to run, right in the controller computer, so I can quickly modify my machining methods as I see fit. At least, that is what I dream of doing

[Scott_bob]

I'm inclined to put another PC on the bench near the CNC for all the things you mentioned, plus G-Code simulation to eliminate dry running, paperless set up documentation, spc & data collection...

All this while the CNC is making parts, that's what it's for.

My point on this thread is that many machine tool builders choice of operating systems for their CNC machines have been shaped by customer requests. Windows operating systems, no matter how trimmed down they are, may not be right for high performance CNC machine control.

We need to be real careful what we ask for, there may be a trade off in performance.

Personally, I don't want anything to compromise performance!