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.

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 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?

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...

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.

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

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.