Friday 23 February 2018

All-In-One PC for Shiz Acorn?

I need a PC to run the Centroid CNC12 control software. According to their website, the minimum recommended spec is a single thread benchmark test score of 1500 according to this benchmark. That tends to imply something like an i3 processor as a minimum, so there's a good chance my collection of vintage PCs may prove unsuitable. 

I'd like a low power processor that doesn't require a tornado stream of cooling air with a noisy wasps' nest fan to provide it. Given that I'd rather not have to go out and buy another new PC, do I have anything suitable already?

For the LinuxCNC machine, I bought a passive cooled Jetway JNF9C-2800 barebones motherboard which runs from a single 12V supply and is powerful enough to run LinuxCNC without any difficulty. This was back in 2014 and they don't do that one any more but there seems to be a very similar one stocked right now - the JNF9D-2550. They both use the Intel "Cedar Trail" Atom processor. The D2550 1.86GHz processor comes in with an abysmal 303 score, so it's not even marginal, simply and totally way out of its depth. Either the Centroid software is doing a lot more computation than LinuxCNC and/or the OS (Windows 10) requires a lot more processing power than Linux. I suspect mainly the latter. So that's a non-starter.

One option that is recommended by Centroid is the Intel NUC7i3BNK "mini PC". The Intel NUC family is available with a wide range of processors and the recommendation from Centroid is the i3 7100 (2.4GHz, dual core "Kaby Lake"). That looks like a nice solution but would come in at about £230, just for the bare bones. By the time you add 4GB (minimum) of memory and a 128GB M.2 SSD, the total creeps just over the £400 mark. Then you need to add a 16:9 touch screen, ideally around the 20-23" size. The Asus VT207N comes in at £180 on a good day, so the total price is going to end up close to £600. Hmm.

The other option offered by Centroid is an "All In One" (AIO) PC which combines a touch screen with a PC in the same sort-of-display housing. They actually show a Dell AOI on their website but it seems to be discontinued. Presumably they offer something similar, unless they have a load of old stock. At $800, it isn't a bad solution but that's still too much for me and I'd get crucified by the carriage, duty and tax payments on the way into the UK. However, there are a couple of alternatives:

Shuttle (German) do an AIO (the 50V6U3) that seems to be aimed at the commercial / light industrial market ("for POS, POI, Kiosk Applications"), with the i3 7100 processor and an IP54 screen. It's a fanless machine and they claim it's happy to run 24/7. The main downside is the small screen (15.6"), high cost (£600) and limited availability (I can only find it at one outlet). No cigar there, then.

Then I spotted the MSI Pro 24 6M All In One (AIO) PC. This also appears to be aimed at professional applications like POS and although it seems to retail for £1000-1700 depending on the model, I found a refurbished example with 128GB SSD, 4GB memory, Windows 10 and a claimed 12 month warranty for £430. Given that it seems to be a recent model, I'd guess it probably isn't very old. As the name suggests, it's got a 24" screen (and it's got the recommended 16:9 screen aspect ratio), so should be pretty nice to use in the workshop environment - better larger than smaller, up to  point.

So that should take care of the PC, display and motion controller. I also have a suitable cabinet, so the bones of the replacement system are falling into place.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Final assembly and test of the spindle nose adaptor - RESULT!!

After the recent distraction caused by the 3D scanner, resurrecting the 3D printer and buggering about with the throttle bodies for my Honda...