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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Solidoodle Discussion → Dedicated PC or not?
Hello,
My Solidoodle will be hooked up to my main PC, win7, 4gb ram, 2.33ghz quad core. Certainly overkill, but my question is this...
Q. Can I work on my PC as normal during a print or do I run the risk of starving the process that feeds the printer gcode?
In other words, if I do something CPU intensive, can I ruin a print?
Has anyone managed to do this?
Now, I haven't actually tested my theories below but....
I don't think it should matter with a pc like that, its certainly powerful enough to handle multitasking.
The printer needs to receive instructions from pronterface as fast as possible once its done a block of gcode, so that blobs and such don't occur from the printer not doing anything. I don't think multitasking on the same pc will effect the already slow serial port data output.
I will be testing this when I get my printer by running a cpu intensive application while printing.
Are you saying the worst that could happen with a slow or overworked PC is the printer pauses for a bit (and blobbing occurs) before continuing?
I believe so, but like I said, I need to test that theory. Maybe John or Ian can chime in here.
It comes out as more of a stutter in the movement, but it doesn't take much to leave a blob. That kind of problem mostly comes from overhead in the use of USB. The printer apparently has to acknowledge ever command, and that can bog things down if there are a lot of commands in a short time, like for complicated shapes with lots of short moves. Apparently SD card printing doesn't have that problem.
If you are doing something else that pegs the processor at 100%, then that might cause Pronterface to fall behind. My PC is dedicated (cheap Atom based) so I haven't run into that.
I'm in two (or even three minds about this.
my "Nice" laptop will have all the tools on it, but I want to use this, take it places etc so I don't really want it tied to a machine, or to have to fear using it during the hours that I'll be printing.
my "crumy" laptop is already the one I use for ODB-II settings on the car, or listening to music in my workspace, so I'm thinking that I could use this.
but my third thought is that I've just been given a bunch of Wyse terminals, so I'm considering either a windows or Linux terminal server, and the solidoodle being plugged into a dumb terminal, (since my home server is always on -but not in the workshop) this might be the most energy efficient way to run a printer.
(or of course there is the idea that I might just upgrade the chip in the printed and get the SD card reader, see if I can get that working and then have no need for a PC to use the machine at all!!
(so many choices!)
The ironic thing is that there are projects I want to use the printer for, but I keep thinking of new projects that just are stuff I want to do to the printer, like the LCD.
I know this sounds totally way out there in space, but for those of us who have no idea how to glue bubble gum to the SD card reader and make it stick to the solidoodle...
How about an iOS and Android app that we can dedicate to the solidoodle?
I know its a huge task, but if it can be done it would definitely set the solidoodle apart from the rest of the "RepRap" (ahahahaa i so funny 
)
I think it would be amazing to dedicate an iPad to the Solidoodle!
We can still use the computer to model, slice and all that good stuff, then sync to the gcode to the ipad, then connect it to the solidoodle via 2 cans and string!
It would kill like, a thousand birds with one stone... no need for a separate LCD, no need for an SD card reader, and no need to dedicate an entire computer to it.
-----
Makerbot guy: "Oh your printer doesn't come with an LCD or SD card reader? hahah, you suck!..."
Solidoodleguy: " 
no... but i can connect my iPad to it and print from there....:trollface:"
MAKE IT HAPPEN!!! (im just dreaming out loud)
Well, technically it should work with an smartphone. since you can use a wifi thingy on the controller card, then create an app on the smartphone to connect to it, then send over the gcode or something. would be cool to see in action :9
It's not that simple, but it almost is. I plan to make another 3D printer after I receive my solidoodle. There are a few designs out there and my current favourite is the rostock...
http://reprap.org/wiki/Rostock
The typical controller for a 3D printer is some kind of Arduino. This Arduino is fed GCODE by a USB host. Wouldn't it be cool if an Android phone could feed the GCODE? It seems logical and easy, but Android phones are typically not powerful enough to be a USB host, which is why this was developed...
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardADK
It's an arduino board (a mega2560) that also can be a USB host and therefore can communicate with Android devices. As far as I'm aware nobody has done this yet, but I don't see any problem with using the Arduino ADK to drive a printer and interface with an Android phone. It'll be much nicer than an LCD display.
Anyway, it's all there, it just needs to be connected up with a little software.
It's not that simple, but it almost is. I plan to make another 3D printer after I receive my solidoodle. There are a few designs out there and my current favourite is the rostock...
http://reprap.org/wiki/Rostock
The typical controller for a 3D printer is some kind of Arduino. This Arduino is fed GCODE by a USB host. Wouldn't it be cool if an Android phone could feed the GCODE? It seems logical and easy, but Android phones are typically not powerful enough to be a USB host, which is why this was developed...
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardADK
It's an arduino board (a mega2560) that also can be a USB host and therefore can communicate with Android devices. As far as I'm aware nobody has done this yet, but I don't see any problem with using the Arduino ADK to drive a printer and interface with an Android phone. It'll be much nicer than an LCD display.
Anyway, it's all there, it just needs to be connected up with a little software.
Same here, I plan on doing something totally different than extruders though.
I want to give DLP Photo-polymer printing a try...
It seems that objects made from this method are much smoother and higher resolution than any extrusion type printer.
The most expensive part is getting a high resolution DLP projector though.
How do i embed vids from youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en … PmP0u1HuUM
I have mine connected to my Quad Core (8Gb memory) computer and can multi-task with no issues while my printer is printing. The other night I was listening to music on the computer, surfing the net, modeling a new part in 123D and printing on the printer. I didn't notice any hesitation in the printer function. The only program that hesitated was iTunes when it was playing a video.
Maker Shed sells an iPad/iPhone to USB adapter that is used to communicate with an Arduino. It is conceivable to develop a Pronterface type of application to send the gCode to the printer from one of those devices.
I personally plan on fitting an SD card reader ASAP
I don't know how the software works with regards to multi-threading, but if you're really worried, you could always just set the affinity of the processes so that the Solidoodle software uses a dedicated code. Has saved me a few times when I've had some random up chewing up cycles when I want to multi-task with other things.
I am doing a dedicated PC, an AOpen 965 I think it is...
On the other hand, I will be surely be running multiple SD's fairly soon (my kickstarter launches in a few days) and I think that one PC should be able to run a bunch of SDs - like they do at SD HQ...
Having a dedicated pc sounds like a good idea and I even considered hooking the raspberrypi to it just to see if it could do the job. Right now though I'm still trying to get a handle on everything so I'll keep using this 8-core beastie until I have it dialed in.
The author of Repetier-Host is planning a pi version. See in the issues of its Github.
I don't know how the software works with regards to multi-threading, but if you're really worried, you could always just set the affinity of the processes so that the Solidoodle software uses a dedicated code. Has saved me a few times when I've had some random up chewing up cycles when I want to multi-task with other things.
What type of cpu usage do you see during a print? And on what cpu?
I intend on using an old laptop with a cracked screen. It's worth considering. While the RPi is awesome (I am playing around with mine; learning), I think it might be much easier to run an old laptop with a trashed screen. I can easily SSH into the laptop and do some reasonably heavy lifting (it's a 4-5 year old X60s).
Both an Rpi or Poloulu would cost me another $30-50 dollars in small pieces, with somewhat less functionality. Longterm, however, they are lower power (my laptop will draw a bit more.)
I have had my laptop printing with no problems while converting a video with handbrake, web browsing, and using photoshop. I don't think that pronterface is resource intensive enough to cause stuttering when multitasking.
I plan on hooking my printer right to my airport extreme to make it a network 3d printer so I dont have to tie my laptop down, and can still surf the interwebz on my couch
The machine I am using to print is an old laptop (bought between 7-9 years ago brand new).
1.6ghz AMD single core
1 gb RAM
40 gb HDD
Windows XP
No Video Card
While there are sometimes when I'm Skeinforging, surfing thingiverse, playing with SketchUp, and printing at the same time it does have some pauses. However, if it is just doing two of the previous it seems to work just fine for printing (though Skeinforge takes a LONG time).
I am sure having the Panelolu or a newer machine would help, but I am doing all of this on a fairly slim budget so I do what I can with what I have.
Skienforge is quite resource intensive and it helps to have a beefy processor.
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