PC for the ShopBot Alpha

[elijah]

(sorry, I am new in CNC area). Trying to understand how to operate ShopBot, I thought, that router goes together with control board, to which I can connect my own PC or notebook. I thought, that in my PC I will install ShopBot native control software, also ArtCam Pro. Then I will be able to do design with ArtCam Pro and at the same time ArtCam Pro (with post processor file) will let me in convenient way to control the router. Why I thought so? Because I saw, that ArtCam Pro can calculate tool pathes etc, in other words I thought, that ArtCam interface will let me to control the router (stop, start, etc).
Recently I discovered, that, say, in case of ShopSabre, they offer a kind of daughter board, which I need to plug into my own PC motherboard, which would control the router. In this PC is not recomended to install design programs as it can cause machine control problems. For design programs, I would need second PC. And only then I can transfer, say made with ArtCam Pro, ready files to that first PC, generate g-code and to start machine work.

So I am completele confused. Maybe with ShopBot things are much easier than with ShopSabre (I am talking about PC things) or everything is prity much the same, and I realy can't install ArtCam Pro in the PC which controls machine, and I realy can't command through ArtCam Pro machine, and it is used only for design? Do I need one or two PC with MS windows on board of each?

written too much and maybe boring...but I would be thankful for patience of anyone.

[paco]

You need a dedicate PC to run the machine. Even if you can install more application on the machine control PC, you wont be able to use 'em while the tool run and it would make the tool much less reliable. You need a clan and lean dedicate PC for the machine and (at least) one more for office/design.

[myxpykalix]

What you need to do is have one pc dedicated to creating your designs and another to run the bot. I design in the house and transfer files to my flash drive, walk out to shop and plug flash drive into laptop that runs shopbot. I also learned that you CANNOT run files from the flashdrive from the control software, it will not keep up with data flow. You need to take the files off the flash drive and put them on your harddrive somewhere and run them from there.

[pete]

Elijah,

With the ShopBot CNC Systems you can use just one computer to run both the ShopBot-supplied design software, called Part Wizard, and the CNC control software if you want to. But, you can only do one process at a time.

For example, you can design parts and generate the tool paths in Part Wizard and then open the ShopBot control software and cut the parts out.

Many ShopBot owners have two computers. One with a design program and another computer to control the ShopBot. Some ShopBot owners prefer to keep the ShopBot control computer software load as simple and clean as possible just to eliminate any interference from programs, automatic updates, etc. while running the ShopBot.

The computer controlling the ShopBot Alpha models use a USB cable to connect to the ShopBot Control Box.

I use a laptop to run my Alpha ShopBot. The laptop has Part Wizard, V-Carve Pro and other design software as well as the control software and it works fine.

I have a second copy of Part Wizard and other design programs on another computer in another room when I want to sit down and design signs or parts and generate tool paths in a little more comfort. I then send the toolpaths over my network to my control computer for running the ShopBot.

Hope this helps you. Pete

[harryball]

I have a similar setup as Peter's. One thing I will mention, when cutting at 10ips or higher I learned (the hard way) to eject the PCMCIA network card from the notebook. At 10ips and higher any little thing that draws CPU time for an interrupt will stall the data stream enough to empty the buffer causing the bot to stall.

Robert

[elijah]

Thank you very much for your advices. It clarifies a lot for me.
One more question about ArtCam Pro - If I will create on my design PC several tool pathes for different tools on the same carving job, how I can apply them in proper order, aftre they will transfered to controling PC? When should be done G-code generation?

[btk]

Elijah,

In the most basic cases,
ArtCam Pro will Output 1 file for each different tool you are using.
You will copy the G-Code files to the Control Computer and then run 1 file at a time for each tool that you are using, changing the bit inbetween.

However, in the future, if you add a "Automated Tool Changer", ArtCam will allow you to create one singular G-Code file that will also tell the machine when it is time to change tools automatically.

* Note: Generally Shopbot Machine files are called sbp files, however while they are different file formats than G-Code, functionally they are the same and you do not need to know the difference, ArtCam handles that for you.

Brian

[dhunt]

Jack, I've run THOUSANDS of linear feet of .sbp cut files straight from a USB stick/flash drive, plugged into the two SB PRT 96's I run, with never a problem!
Just over a year ago, we made the switch from floppy-disk-fed info..
to USB-stick-fed info, and it was a good move, never looked back,
-and never had a problem (other than maybe the computer system wouldn't initially read the USBstick, but once it was recognised, all is clear to go).

For the benefit of us all, you might want to elaborate...
tell us how you arrived at your conclusion.

[zeykr]

I also run direct from thumb drives, but did find that it's much faster using a powered usb 2.0 hub than a 1.0 version.

[myxpykalix]

David,
It was just an educated guess, and i could be wrong re: flashdrive. It just happened 2 or 3 times then the next time i transferred to HD and ran from there with no problems. Something else i noticed incedental to this. Occassionally while a file is running i had to walk around bot and a couple times i accidentally stepped on my USB cable and the bot stopped running. I thought that was weird like stepping on a gardenhose and restricting the flow. I knew i was not pulling the connection loose from either end it was simply the pressure of stepping on the cord. I don't do it anymore so i don't know if the condition still exists since i don't step on it anymore.