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Use the faster one and XP
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Just a quick question. Im trying to decide which computer I should use for my controls. I have to at my disposal. One is desktop unit 1.3 MHz 333 MHz front side buss speed. and I have an IBM laptop with 700 MHz and 100 MHz front side buss speed. Im using a C11T control board from CNC4PC with Gecko 320x controlers. Any suggestions?
dj
Use the faster one and XP
Don
IH v-3 early model owner
The 1.3mhz machine will run linux/emc just fine. (make sure to test the latency)
sam
Originally Posted by letmefixit
Use the fastest machine you have available.
I will tell you this much, my life got SOOOO much easier when I started using the smoothstepper. I have run my mill with a laptop and smoothstepper before just to test things, but use a pretty beefy desktop to run everything normally. Granted, I'm usually running Mastercam and working on a model on the 2nd screen as the mill is cutting something. I'm also playing music through slacker, and checking email on the same machine at the same time, so I need a little extra in a machine to be able to handle all that. But the smoothstepper was a Godsend! I don't know why I ever listened to people about not using it... it took only a few minutes to install and made connecting everything up so much nicer and has worked flawlessly for 6 months now.
My setup:
Windows 7 - 32 bit - absolutely no problems
Machstdmill screenset (so much nicer than stock)
Smoothstepper
CNC4PC C11-t board
Gecko 320x
XBOX360 wireless controller
Dont use the laptop, the cpu does not run a constant speed and can cause Mach headaches
Ok things are starting to get fun. Control panel is coming along nicely. alot of stuff packed into a small box. Was going to try and move a motor but had the wrong cable for the C11T break out board. After talking to Gecko I decided on going with a different encoder than the E5s. New encoder sitting above the drive in the picture. A couple more hours of wireing i should be pretty close to mounting this
Where'd you get the case? I need to put something together for my VFD controls and am feeling very clueless when trying to find something inexpensive.
I don't know if you want to spend any money on the MB and chip but I just bought a 2.8GHZ Intel chip the other day for $8.00 shipped. It cost near to nothing to make a 2.8GHZ machine.
If you run higher encoder counts you might want the faster CPU if you use Mach3.
I picked this case off of ebay for $35 bucks (brand new). Did not come with a back plane, had to build my own. The stand off studs were already welded to the back. made the back plane out of .250 aluminum to act as a heat sink for the power supply. Installed 5" 120vac cast box fan that blows right over the drive heat sink and then over the power supply and break out board mount. It is very compact. 18" x 20" x 10" i figured with the compact size and the high volume fan it would be easier to keep cool. We will see if my theory hold true.
Which chip and motherboard did you use?
I can always find a use for another cheap PC in the shop, and I have some leftover parts that I need to find a use for (power supply, memory, disk, optical drive, CPU fan-sink, etc)...
One thing to keep in mind when trying to use an older slower pc with mach and running a complex program. Mach is a number cruncher with a mission, the pc is just a fancy calculator. I ran into an instance where the math was so intense that it stalled mach at the same locations in the program where the math got intense. I upgraded to a much better processor and the problem went away. If I remember correctly it was a 900 processor that hung me up on occasion. For the most part tho it worked quite well. Just couldn't manage the math in the time restraints required for a smooth flow.
Don
IH v-3 early model owner
So is anyone here running the C11T board from CNC4PC. Is there anything i need to know any hidden ghost?
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