As others have said, laptops have issues. Dumpster diving and using discards from offices is probably the cheapest way to support this habit :)
Eventually, I see EMC2 going to a 'client server' model, taking the real time portion and putting it in an external controller, like a pc/104 or even a beefy PIC system. Communicating back to its 'display system' for AXIS kind of display and to get the NC files from. Communication could be USB, but it could as well be Bluetooth (shudder), ethernet, or fiber. Even a serial connection (USB is just a fast serial port with more protocols running on it, for our purposes anyway) that is 'sufficiently fast' would work then. By then the 'controller' could be the size of a business card if we can attach the motor controllers and sensor wires to it! Personally, I would get a 'dumpster diver' machine to leave in the shed. Put your stuff on a USB key and carry it back and forth. If you have an ethernet network strung (wired or wireless) you can monitor your rig from the comfort of your house while your machine is grinding way in the workshop! But you do want the real machine control to be 'local to your machine' in the shop. If you can get a couple (or more) of similar machines free/cheap, stash the 'spare' away in the shop for when you eventually need parts! Does that help? alan wrote: > The fan on my laptop quit the other day so I started looking around for > a replacement computer. Looking on the Ebuyer website here in the UK it > seems that most new laptops (especially the smaller ones) now only have > usb outputs. There is a wonderful little acer computer just released > very small, onboard radio network and cheap, but it just has usb ports > so is not suitable. > > I use a laptop because it is portable between my home and workshop > (rather too grand a title , its a shed). I don't want to dedicate a > large pc box to run my modest cnc needs (maybe I will have to) and I > don't want to have to struggle carrying a large pc box between my home > office and shed. > > So any suggestions for a cheap replacement computer. What is the > smallest, cheapest desktop or laptop with a parallel port? I thought > about using a pc/104 card but again here in the UK they seem to be quite > expensive? Has anyone got experience using pc/104 ? > > So really my query is also about the future. Where will emc go if > parallel ports become a thing of the past? > > Alan > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge > Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes > Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world > http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
