control upgrade

Discuss Thermwood 3-axis Machinery, Controller, and Software.

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David Egnoski
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control upgrade

Post by David Egnoski »

My CS45 is eight years old. While it cuts parts just fine, the computer is sometimes quite slow performing nests. I'm thinking about upgrading it to the QCore SuperControl. I would like to hear from anyone who has done this. Did the upgrade go smoothly? Where any problems encountered? Was it an easy transition to the new system? Was it worth the expense?

Thanks for any insight.
Dave Egnoski
Richmond Cabinet & Millwork
Forrest Chapman
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Forrest Chapman »

Dave, not to take anything away from the new controllers but a much cheaper and some may argue better option is to get the desktop version of control nesting. I think it still cost around $1k and has a small annual maintenance fee. That way you can nest other jobs while your router is running too.

Forrest
David Egnoski
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Company Name: Richmond Cabinet
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Re: control upgrade

Post by David Egnoski »

Thanks for the reply, Forrest. I've thought about that option as well. I'm assuming you get the same version as what is running on the router.
I'm having trouble installing the latest version of CN on the router. The installer doesn't run, at all. Thermwood has been trying to resolve this but so far no luck. Do you keep up with the CN versions?
Dave Egnoski
Richmond Cabinet & Millwork
Forrest Chapman
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Forrest Chapman »

The software is the latest super control version that has a setting for gcode output depending on what controller is on your router. My router is 14 years old and still running W2k and while its painfully slow nesting and writing code it runs the code just fine.

I do keep up with the CN versions mainly because I beta test ecabinets and sometimes there are tweaks made to CN for the latest versions.

Forrest
David Egnoski
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Posts: 209
Joined: Tue, May 17 2005, 1:05PM
Company Name: Richmond Cabinet
Country: UNITED STATES
Location: Delavan, WI

Re: control upgrade

Post by David Egnoski »

Forrest,
Have you had any problems installing the last two CN updates? Version 5.93 will not install on my machine.
Dave Egnoski
Richmond Cabinet & Millwork
Forrest Chapman
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Forrest Chapman »

I've only installed it on my desktop. I haven't installed an update on my machine for about 3 years.

Forrest
Will Williamson
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Will Williamson »

I have the same machine. add more ram up to 4 gig.
eliminate what the machine reserves for virtual reality.
Delete temporary files and folders.
Use your restore disc. Do a restore on the whole system. Thermwood sent me a new restore disk last week as mine was corrupted.
My machine actually runs better now than it did new.
If you do go forward with the upgrade let us know how it works.
If I were to upgrade the control. I would also, like to change the lead screws to the new rack and pinion.
Has anyone on here, had their machine upgraded to Rack and pinion? Can it be done on site?
Will

http://www.willmade.com

KEG/Intel Core i 7 CPU K875 @ 2.93 GHZ/12G Ram
Dual boot XP PRO/Windows 7 Nvidia Quatro 600 1Gig Ram
Jason Lacireno
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Jason Lacireno »

We upgraded my C-40 when we bought the CS-43, i think the C-40 over 10 years old

I had windows 2000 on it with weak hardware.

now its upgraded, expensive but affective. nesting time is reduced quite a bit, i wouldnt say cut in half but its much faster.
Thomas strembitsky
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Thomas strembitsky »

if you are going to upgrade the control make sure you ask for at least a 64 bit OS and a processor that isn't ancient like the one that we got in our controller make sure it is at the very least a core I chip and not a core 2 quad.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6400 @ 2.70GHz 8.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
http://www.trueform.ca
CS43 cnc
Chris Armstrong
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Chris Armstrong »

Will Williamson wrote:I have the same machine. add more ram up to 4 gig.
eliminate what the machine reserves for virtual reality.
Delete temporary files and folders.
Use your restore disc. Do a restore on the whole system. Thermwood sent me a new restore disk last week as mine was corrupted.
My machine actually runs better now than it did new.
If you do go forward with the upgrade let us know how it works.
If I were to upgrade the control. I would also, like to change the lead screws to the new rack and pinion.
Has anyone on here, had their machine upgraded to Rack and pinion? Can it be done on site?
we also upgraded our ram upto 4 gig as our thermwood was running slow, we found out the hard way but make sure its 4 sticks of 1 gig as the motherboard most likely wont support 2 gig sticks as ours doesnt. running on mtr36004
Jeremy Schiffer
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Jeremy Schiffer »

The last few CN updates won't install on my CS41 either, if I just double-click on the installer file. Probably something to do with it having WinXP on it. You can install it from the command line, however. Open a DOS window (click start, Run, then type CMD) and navigate to the directory with CN in it, and type the name of the CN update to install it.
http://www.corlanecabinetry.com

Intel Core i7-5820 3.3GHz, 16GB RAM, NVidia Quadro K2200 4GB, Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit
CS-41 4x8
CS-45 5x12
David Egnoski
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Posts: 209
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Company Name: Richmond Cabinet
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Re: control upgrade

Post by David Egnoski »

Thanks all for your comments. Much appreciated.

Jeremey
That's what we discovered by accident.
Dave Egnoski
Richmond Cabinet & Millwork
Will Williamson
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Will Williamson »

Looks like you did not hear from one single person that has updated. Let us know what you decided
Will

http://www.willmade.com

KEG/Intel Core i 7 CPU K875 @ 2.93 GHZ/12G Ram
Dual boot XP PRO/Windows 7 Nvidia Quatro 600 1Gig Ram
Chris Armstrong
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Chris Armstrong »

Jeremy Schiffer wrote:The last few CN updates won't install on my CS41 either, if I just double-click on the installer file. Probably something to do with it having WinXP on it. You can install it from the command line, however. Open a DOS window (click start, Run, then type CMD) and navigate to the directory with CN in it, and type the name of the CN update to install it.
im not sure how you transfer the update across but on our mtr we have to copy the new CN update onto a USB thumb drive and install from that.
we use to copy directly over the network but that doesnt work anymore.
Clint Buechlein
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Re: control upgrade

Post by Clint Buechlein »

Jeremy Schiffer wrote:The last few CN updates won't install on my CS41 either, if I just double-click on the installer file. Probably something to do with it having WinXP on it. You can install it from the command line, however. Open a DOS window (click start, Run, then type CMD) and navigate to the directory with CN in it, and type the name of the CN update to install it.
Jeremy,

I know you said your machine is on XP, but can you get me a service pack number you are on? We are trying to line up similarities between yours and Dave's machine to narrow why it isn't installing correctly.

-Clint-
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