On 11/25/2015 03:45 PM, chris wrote: > I'm sure this has come up a number of times, but I'm looking for a new > computer, > most likely a laptop. I've noticed that virtually no computer comes with a 25 > pin printer connection anymore, and it would seem that a lot of the new > laptops
that's good, who needs RS-232 or parallel ports anymore except vintage computer and other equipment users. To manage Cisco switches I bought USB to RS-232 converter for under $20. No need for dedicated RS-232 port in a laptop. Docking station does have a parallel and RS-232 ports though. > are coming with the PCMCIA slot either. Since everything seems to be going to > USB what are my options going to be from now on when looking for a computer? > I'd USB 3.x is going to be around for a long time. My Latitude E6530 is a bit heavy to carry around but serves well with 8 core CPU, 16GB RAM, ExpresCard, and fast USB 3.0 connection for external disk drive. My plan is to replace DVD drive with SSD. That way I can spin up a number of VMs under virtualbox. I'll comment on my recent experience with installing LinuxCNC in another thread. > prefer to get a laptop for my next machine, but I want it to be able to > control > my cnc equipment. Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Chris Buying a new laptop is always a challenge. You want to go with the latest architecture to have it last for some time. I would be looking for the following options: M.2 and mSATA SSD, USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt if available. I would avoid a laptop with now obsolete DVD. Thunderbolt is going to gain popularity in the next few years as prices come down. Most laptops come with multicore CPUs which cannot be fully utilised in LinuxCNC as far as I know. With all that said, I would never use a laptop for running CNC machine. I believe that any CNC machine requires a dedicated enclosed computer, be that SBC or some such. You want to be independent with your computer from a CNC machine when doing other things. That's the point of having the CNC in the first place, no? Knowing details on what kind of CNC you have in mind, it would be easier to provide a good suggestion. For smaller machines you might get away with BeagleBoard, small industrial boxes, or even an old PC with parallel port. For bigger systems you better check LinuxCNC site which motherboards are supported (pain in the back if you ask me). -- Rafael ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Go from Idea to Many App Stores Faster with Intel(R) XDK Give your users amazing mobile app experiences with Intel(R) XDK. Use one codebase in this all-in-one HTML5 development environment. Design, debug & build mobile apps & 2D/3D high-impact games for multiple OSs. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=254741551&iu=/4140 _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
