Completely new to this wonderful world of CNC! I have a Mac desktop that I would be creating the file on Carbide create. Then from there I am wondering if I would be able to run it from a Windows based tablet? I’m not very tech savvy and apologize if this was covered already but any search I did yielded no results for what I was looking for.
Yes, so long as the tablet meets the system requirements:
One wrinkle for tablets is some of them only have a single USB port used for both power and communication — you’ll need an adapter which supports both for such.
List of known working machines at: https://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Carbide_Motion_Machine_Control_Software#Known_working_configurations
Biased towards tablets since I like them, and feel that a sealed, fanless unit is well-suited to a shop environment
I agree I don’t really want a laptop sucking up dust from the router. I don’t have to do anything special to the file once I save it for I? And thanks for the reply. This community is awesome!!!
Once you’ve made the G-Code file, it should be good to go. All you have to do is:
- transfer the file to the controlling machine (make sure it’s put somewhere w/ read/write access)
- launch Carbide Motion
- connect to the machine
- home the machine
- jog the machine to the origin relative to the stock and set the zero appropriately (must match the file — also be sure the file had Safety height set so as to clear any clamps, but not so high that it will bottom out at the top of the machine)
- load the file
- send it
- enjoy the show!
Please see: http://docs.carbide3d.com/tutorials/#shapeoko-tutorials
I tried with an older microsoft surface with 2 gigs or ram that I already had(yes below system requirements, but had to try), and it was a little to laggy when cutting, had to stop a cut because the tape i was using for hold down released, and it took almost 15 seconds before the command went through. I am personally just going to pick up a fanless mini pc and mount a touch screen monitor beside the machine. Won’t cost much more than a tablet, and can get a lot more bang for the buck with a larger viewing area on the screen. At the same time, there are a lot of times I’ll be standing at the machine and something small pops in my head that i wanna cut, its nice having something with enough power to at least pull up a cad program, make a quick drawing and just send it straight to carbide motion and cut.
I use a “Kangaroo PC”. They’re fanless, pretty small, and can be found pretty cheap (they’re getting kind of dated).
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