Any News On The SB Computer Thing?

[rb99]

I read a while back that SB was coming out with their own computer spooler box that would eliminate the computer problems. I am not describing this properly but I think someone will get what I a talking about...

When will it be available? I need a new PC for my bot, but if that box comes out I will not need one...

[Brady Watson]

Not anytime soon. Proceed with a new PC.

You can refer to the development blog on the main site if you want to catch up on your reading...

-B

[rb99]

Thanks Brady.

I was hoping it would be soon. It sounds very promising.

I will probably get an off lease Lenovo i5 Win7 Pro 64 for about $300 CAD.

[Brady Watson]

Look on Craigslist...lots of deals to be had for computers.

-B

[cowboy1296]

@Brady. Of course at my age i could have this wrong. I seem to have noticed an increase in you responding to on line posts. No doubt you are light years ahead of most everyone on here and i just want to say thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[larry_high]

Brady have you looked into the: Quantum Byte Fanless Windows® Mini Desktop PC with Windows 8.1, Intel Baytrail-T (Quad-core) Z3735F up to 1.83GHz, 2GB RAM+32GB storage available thur Amazon? $169+/-
given your knowledge of computers how would this work w/ our Bots?
I am constantly looking for a system where I can minimize the dust factor
Thanks

[Brady Watson]

Larry,
No, not specifically, although I have tried other fanless mini computers in the past. To be honest, it's hit or miss. You get one that works really well, then go to buy more to have them superseded by a new board/chipset that doesn't work. There is no way to read the specs and know how the USB will perform with a CNC.

You may have a USB keyboard and mouse, and have it interrupt the SB because it can't handle all of them at the same time while the machine is working. This has been a problem in the past with many Dell brand PCs, but not all of them. Unless you do deep research about the USB chipset used on the board and read all the associated technical papers, there really isn't any yardstick per se or ammo for a good educated guess. You just have to roll the dice.

A regular PC is usually fine with a DirtBag around it, or make your own filtered box. Better yet, seek out a desktop with a fanless processor...although the ATX PS may also be fan cooled. I don't use anything fanless for my SBs. I often can't run dust collection on large 3D parts...you just have to mark the calendar to blow the thing out a regular intervals.

It would be nice if the ShopBot Odometer utility (via ShopBot Labs) had a way to pop up after so many hours to prompt you for maintenance.

-B

[shilala]

I just gutted out a Dell mini.
I put sbc software on it, Aspire, and raised the ram from 1 GB to 2 GB, black vipered it to the max, and disabled everything unrelated to controlling a shopbot.
It runs everything great.
I need to run it on my BT48 for awhile longer to make sure it's going to do what I like to do (I usually run Aspire in the background to tweak toolpaths).
I really don't have any use for it at all, once I'm sure it'll do everything I want it to do I'll probably just offer it up here.
I thought it'd be a perfect control computer for a desktop.

[Davo]

I run a surface pro 3, I don't shut off anything in the background, zero issues since January

Runs aspire at 7x resolution flawless

Perks are its portability, super fast boot up and software load - all just seconds and it takes up ZERO space

Wireless trackball mouse to jog the machine around from a distance