Fanless MiniPC or Tablet to Run ShopBot?

[jonesbr49424]

I am interested in replacing the old laptop I have been using for years in the workshop. It has an internal fan that often collects dust and causes it to heat up. The laptop is generally quite slow to boot and to perform general operations (i.e. copying files from the flash drive or wifi d/load).

I have been looking to replace it and researched 'fanless PCs' that have fully enclosed casing and displace heat through conduction (much like the enclosed control box concept). Some of the industrial grade ones are quite expensive, but then I came across mini fanless bare bones PC's like those linked here:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#t...0%2Cppr_max%3A

Has anyone out there tried one of these for running your bot?

If so, what brand and specs do you have?

What about a tablet? (i.e. Like a WinBook)?

http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...Tablet_-_Black

Thanks in advance your comments/feedback!

Bryan

[steve_g]

Bryan…
I’ve run my bot with a NUC for a number of years now… Very happy with it! Only problem I ever had was it was getting fried by lightning… Intel covered that under the 3yr warranty…
I’m not ready to try my Winbook tablet as a control computer yet… I’m not comfortable with win10.
SG

[tri4sale]

I have been looking to replace it and researched 'fanless PCs' that have fully enclosed casing and displace heat through conduction (much like the enclosed control box concept). Some of the industrial grade ones are quite expensive, but then I came across mini fanless bare bones PC's like those linked here:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#t...0%2Cppr_max%3A

Bryan

On some of those by the time you add ram and harddrive, you could just buy a basic laptop. Hit the vents in laptop with air every so often to keep it clean.

I keep eying the PC on a Stick from Intel, wonder if it could run the Bot

http://www.intel.com/buy/us/en/catal.../computesticks

[Brady Watson]

The lighter machines like those 'on a steek' don't have enough cookies to run a SB. Neither does a Raspberry Pi. I'd stick to a dedicated desktop machine; preferably one other than Dell. I never recommend a laptop for running a Bot because they are too delicate; fanless or not.

Some of the fanless mini ITX machines are good, but you have to be PC savvy enough to understand what you are getting. Most are just too light, which is fine for web browsing - but not for streaming live commands to a CNC.

-B

[scottp55]

Just mentioning.
We put Dirtbag.biz covers on both Desktops and UPS after I saw Brady mention them 2 years ago.
My house computer started running hot from plain old cat hair/smoke/dust, and tons of stuff blew out, but every time I unbag the control computer...virtually nothing blows out, even though it's sitting directly under machine.
Dirtbag.biz shows a "unable to connect" at moment(?), but I believe it's been mentioned that McMaster-Carr has a comparable filter medium.
Happy with ours.
scott

[Burkhardt]

I am running my CNC machine (not Shopbot but another USB connected controller) from a small 12" Toshiba laptop lately. It has solid state "hard drive" , touch screen and turns on within seconds. Not the full HD resolution display but more than enough for a machine controller and it was only $380 on Amazon. It is not fully sealed like some tablets but has no fans and gets barely warm. The controls on the screen can be used as touch buttons but this is not as reliable as the mouse operation. I like that thing and it doubles as my travel laptop lately.

Another reason why I like laptops as HMI in general is that the inline power supplies are isolated and will not create cumbersome ground loops and USB noise issues with the controller board, power supplies and motor drives (maybe not an issue with Shopbot, though).

[jonesbr49424]

Wow! Thank you all for the great ideas thus far! I looked at the NUC and while researching and asking around found out I can order a HP Thin Client T520 through my work for under $150 (i.e. Very similar to the Intel NUC). It seems like it may be a good solution as I all my design and pathing on my office box and I have a HDMI monitor, usb keyboard, and usb mouse from an old system I can retask. If it doesn't work out, I will use this system for my son's school computer in conjunction with office box acting as server, then probably go with the SSD laptop idea Burkhardt mentioned in combination with the DirtBags.biz idea from Scott.

I will post some pics of the Thin Client solution once it arrives and I have a chance to get it up and running.

Regards,

Bryan

[barrowj]

Bryan,

I had an older HP Thin Client and tried to install SB3 but it wouldn't work at all so I ended up getting rid of that one. It was a leftover from a project when we replaced all of the racks and servers at a client's. (my day job is with HP and I managed all of the IT at several accounts) Anyway, please let us know if you have good luck and which Thin Client model you went with. There are many "Mini / NUC" types out there and if I could put one in the SB controller, that would be ideal.

I wonder if SB has considered also compiling this in Linux, may have less issues, not sure though. There are even Android mini pc's out now too..... I may be asking too much. I haven't seen any real updates on the Arduino project...

Joe

[Brady Watson]

Thin client, by its very definition, rules it out for CNC controller use. It is essentially a basic terminal for low horsepower processes like web surfing etc. I would recommend no PC that has 'thin client' in its description for running SB3.

However, I do see SB going to a thin client architecture in the future where you could control the machine from a PC, regardless of OS (Apple & Linux included); tablet, phone etc. Quality PCs are getting scarce and it makes sense to offload the pulse stream processing to something onboard, such as an Arduino or other inexpensive processor. All you need for an interface is a screen & input device.

You can read more about the eventual SB evolution here in the Developer's Blog - The end is near for SB3. There will be minimal SB3 development in the future...as explained in the blog.

-B

[EricSchimel]

If it helps at all, I've got a Handibot that I've run on various Window tablets with no problems. I've also run my big machine on a tablet too. The trick is finding a tablet that has a dedicated USB port for things like your mouse, keyboard, and of course the machine. A lot of the smaller and cheaper tablets have only one port for charging. You can plug accessories into that port (like a keyboard) but in most cases you can't charge at the same time. Make sure you ask about this before getting a tablet.