Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: crchisholm on November 05, 2017, 12:33:01 PM
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I am a hobbiest and have been happily running mach 4 for some time now on a dell optiplex 780 with 4GB of memory and windows 7 pro. Just found out that computer has gone belly up and need to figure out what I can do. Very bad timing as I have been hit with a bunch of unforseen expenses this month, so I am looking for a cheap way out. I have a 2gb Win XP machine that I retired some time ago and was wondering if that machine will run Mach 4. Anybody know the minumum machine requirements for Mach 4
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Hi,
Mach4 can be run on very modest computing platforms and they do just as good a job as some whizz bang gaming PC with muscles on its muscles!
I run my mill with a miniITX board with a dual core Atom CPU and on chip graphics similar to:
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=47#D2550HN (http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=47#D2550HN)
It runs fine but can be very slow to load and draw large Gcode files but has otherwise proven to be very good. I know smurph describes the graphics as 'excerable'
but I have no complaints there either.
If I were buying again I would look for a bit more grunt, not a lot but some. If you have an external controller like an ESS the consider:
http://www.lattepanda.com/ (http://www.lattepanda.com/) which has Windows10 activated already....great value....or:
https://www.udoo.org/udoo-x86/ (https://www.udoo.org/udoo-x86/)
The ultra version with a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4 G RAM and 32 G Flash, you could get away without a hard drive is great value but any of them would work.
Craig
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Hi,
yes I think your XP box would work. Why don't you try it out. If you don't load a motion control plugin you can run
as Demo no probs. Even if you load a plugin it will still run for 5-6 minutes before it needs to be reset.
Long enough for you to work out whether its worth getting a new licence for it.
Craig
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crchisholm,
XP PC with ESS and 2GB will work, however it will take time to load large G-Code files and will not display all the Toolpath Profile.
So if that is not an issue and you have ESS you are good to go.
If you use HiCON then you will need Win7/10.
Regards,
Mauri.
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For what ever reason, the win 7 machine rose from the dead. I may have to revive this question later but for now, I’m good. Thanks for the responses.
Joeaverage: I must say that the idea of running a win 10 sbc intrigues me though. I looked at the lattepanda sbc. It does not seam to have a VGA connector, so I am unclear if I would have to replace my existing monitor with a different type.
Thanks.
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Hi,
sorry VGA is in the 'recently fossilised' category. You'll need an HDMI monitor/TV...
Great little unit otherwise and for less than we used to pay for a CPU on its own and Win10 thrown in...
hard to complain at that value.
Craig
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Craig: I bought the LattePanda 4G and managed to download and run Mach4 demo mode ok. I currently have M4 running on a win7 pc. I would like to try cutting something running M4 on the LattePanda. I don't want to give up the licensed version that I have on the PC until I am reasonably sure that the LattePanda would work for me. According to the licensing agreement, I can not run M4 on two machines at a time. Do you know if unlicensed M4 can be used for testing before I move the license over from the PC?
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You can run Mach4 on multiple machines as a hobbyist.
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For Mach4, the unlicensed DEMO mode will run with all features active, but is
run time limited to somewhere around 5 minutes before requiring a shutdown
and restart. As such it is fully capable to testing with a real hardware motion
controller during the demo time or for unlimited time with the simulator..
If you have a registered license, you can go the with Machsupport.com web
site and log in to use the License Maintenance button to issue additional
licenses to yourself for up to a total of 5 computers for hobby use. These
are fully functional licenses, but you do need to supply the PCID for each
computer in order to generate the license. Simply loading the existing
license onto a new computer does not work.
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Hi Charlie,
sounds like fun. As Steve points out you can get a licence for the LattePanda jn addition to your existing PC. Do report back as to how it goes.
I suspect that with largeish (5Mb plus) Gcode files it might be slow to load and draw the toolpath but think it will go great guns otherwise.
Craig
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If you have a registered license, you can go the with Machsupport.com web
site and log in to use the License Maintenance button to issue additional
licenses to yourself for up to a total of 5 computers for hobby use.
Perfect. I had read somewhere that M4 did not allow more than one computer per license. Glad to hear that is incorrect. I am waiting for a HDMI to VGA converter I want to use to attach an older monitor to the LP (the 7" screen is just not "old eyes" compatible). I probably sound like a real cheapskate using all this minimal hardware, but more than the cost savings, I want to see if it can be done. I am definitely a Journey over Destination kind of guy.
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Next question: I bought M4 as a package deal with a PDMX motion controller. I am assuming that this was the "hobby" version.
Never mind this question. Figuired it out.