I’d like to get a sealed PC (no fan) with SSD, but with a Parallel port (which is the killer). That would keep the crud out of it.
Perhaps a new computer build?
https://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-SS-520FL2-Fanless-Platinum-ATX12V/dp/B009VV56TO
And a small motherboard with a low end CPU that doesn’t require much cooling, yet has a parallel port.
How much horsepower does it really need?
https://www.amazon.com/MITXPC-Mitac-PD14TI-Fanless-D2500HN/dp/B00WGZXLQ2
Not much. The machine has windows 10 so we really need more ram than we currently have.
The Amazon link is to a fanless PC which would be helpful in that environment. 
Ideally, it would be completely sealed. Anyone want to tackle machining a case out of solid aluminum with a proper o-ring seal? @wandrson
We were having some issues with it this afternoon. I think it’s due to lack of ram. We closed the open programs and the issue seemed to go away.
One more thing to remember too is that the scroll on the mouse is an undo button basically.
I’ll check it after the class is over and see what RAM usage is like and what an upgrade option/cost is. Might be a dirt cheap upgrade option that makes all the difference.
There is 3.5 gigs. I think one of the sticks is half dead. I looked & think 8 is the max. It’s about 45$ish to order from amazon.
Specs are: Mini-tower, 4 Dual channel shared DDR2 SDRAM system memory. Unbuffered, non-ECC DIMMs only, 533/667/800 mhz.
Looks like it has 4 DIMM’s in it now, 667 mhz, showing 3.2 GB total, 1GB used with PlasmaCAM launched. Maybe it gobbles it up with a complex design loaded but I’m not so sure more memory is what this things really needs.
Might be worth looking at the way we use vCarve for the Multicam. Dust is a huge problem (for both of us), so we use a thinclient - no moving parts, no fan, nada. Seems like this would be ideal for Metal shop as well, since the dust in there can be pretty difficult for electronic devices.
The software runs on the jump server, which adds yet more options to the mix (you can work on designs from home with ease, tweak cutpaths, etc).
Thinclients are cheep too.
Yep, that sounds like a great idea. One potential snag: it must have a parallel port, since the PlasmaCAM control box uses that to interface to the PC.
There is a possibility of using something like this USB-to-Parallel cable, but, if the software depends on strict timing, it may not work. Never hurts to try.
(edit: Do you have a pointer to the one you use on the vCarve?)
The Multicam actually reads files directly from a CIFs share, so easy to communicate with the machine. The parallel port complicates, but I think a usb->parallel or IP->Parallel might be workable and cheap.
I’m willing to help set this up on the Jump Server, thin clients, whatever, if that’s the way y’all want to go.
I received last week the documentation from PlasmaCam, even on their new equipment requires a parallel port. They state that the USB to Parallel will not work.
Bad news and good news.
Bad: You’re not going to get more than (<)4GB RAM in that machine, most likely. Whoever set that machine up installed Windows 10 in the 32-bit version (yes, you can still do that). 32-bit Windows OSs can only address 4GB RAM – that’s a hard addressing maximum, meaning you also eat up half a gig to a gig on reserved memory addressing overhead, which is why you will only see 3.xxx GB of RAM available on machines with 32-bit OSs no matter how many sticks you stuff in there.
I’m assuming it’s on a 32-bit OS because the PlasmaCAM software is old enough to be one of those 32-bit programs that didn’t behave well in the 32-bit emulation layer that 64-bit Windows has. It’s possible that it would actually run under 64-bit Windows if somebody wanted to monkey around with it enough, but if there is any manufacturer support left on this stuff then running on an unsupported OS would likely invalidate it.
The good news: I have a number of clients that run time-sensitive, high-precision specialty hardware that still runs on serial and parallel ports (including one not 5 miles from the 'Space that basically runs a few massive German-manufactured Geiger counters out of their warehouse as part of their business), and I’ve found that, in every case, folks that say they can’t run on USB adapters are absolutely wrong. RS-232 and IEEE 1284 both ran on WAY slower buses in the PC-XT and up days than even the slowest USB connection, by multiple powers of 10.* And since Windows abstracts ports from hardware, there is literally no way a device could be able to tell it’s running on a USB adapter – unsurprising, really, because to the device there should be no difference on what bus the serial port sits on, be it USB, modern PCIe, older PCI or the original ISA bus of the AT-series machines. Not caring what bus it’s on is by design. Modern port hardware has better timing circuitry than nearly anything you could get your hands on 15 years ago when XP was the hot thing to be running. So if we really want to move to a USB serial or parallel connection for any particular device we’ve got in the 'Space, I can probably help facilitate that.
(Of course, if you really want the port inside as opposed to outside of the machine – so much prettier! o.O – there are still add-on internal cards one can buy to add such ports. Six of one, a half-dozen of the other.)
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Good catch.
I am still running into this, too, but apparently not enough, because I didn’t EVEN think to look at that.
I think I may have one of those add on parallel port cards. Is it a PCI bus or something else?
I didn’t know that, looks like I learned something today. I did look at the spec of the motherboard which said 8gb.
I don’t know; I didn’t crack open the machine. But I’d imagine so.
I can dig up a USB <-> Parallel (ECP/EPP) adapter and we can try it out. Can’t hurt, right?