control upgrade

[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.

[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]

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?

[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]

Forrest,
Have you had any problems installing the last two CN updates? Version 5.93 will not install on my machine.

[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]

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?

[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]

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.

[Chris Armstrong]

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]

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.

[David Egnoski]

Thanks all for your comments. Much appreciated.

Jeremey
That's what we discovered by accident.

[Will Williamson]

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

[Chris Armstrong]

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]

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-