We've used a PC to control Shapeoko and Nomad from the very beginning of Carbide 3D. Carbide Motion, our machine controller, is low-overhead, so it'll run on just about any modern Windows PC, Windows tablet, or Mac without trouble. Some customers have asked why we don't have a dedicated controller instead of relying on a computer, so we wanted to share some of our reasons.
Note that we'll use "PC" as a generic term below. Consider it a broader term to mean Windows PC or Laptop, Windows Tablet, or Mac.
A dedicated CNC controller is just an embedded computer, integrated with an LCD panel, with the CNC electronics built-in.
These embedded computers generally run Linux, rather than Windows or OSX. When used in a CNC machine, these embedded computers usually launch right into the machine control software after booting up, hiding the operating system from the user, and turning it into a single-purpose device.
Most importantly, an embedded computer is still a computer, so it cannot do anything extra that a PC can't.
Carbide 3D was founded by engineers, so making a dedicated controller appeals to us for the challenge, if nothing else. We've spent a lot of time looking into making a dedicated controller, and we're pretty sure we cannot make one for less than a cheap Windows PC or Windows tablet. We've done the math, and it doesn't work out well for the dedicated controller.
The corollary to the point above is that a dedicated controller will have less computing power than a PC of roughly equivalent cost. The embedded computers generally run with a very basic CPU, which is likely less powerful than the Intel chip in a cheap PC, and the rest of the components are similarly cost-reduced.
If your dedicated controller breaks, you need to wait for a new one to be shipped to you. You might have to go through a debugging process to figure out what broke because it's expensive to replace the whole unit.
If you have a PC on your Shapeoko and it breaks, just plug another one in and keep going. There's nothing special or proprietary, and you are not dependent on us to get you back up and running. (And there's a decent chance that you have an old PC in the closet anyway)
We update our software a lot. We have users who bought one of our first machines a decade ago who are still getting new features added to their machines because we're updating the software.
We're able to do this because updates are easy on a PC. We publish an update, and you just download it to install normally. Do you want to try a beta release with a new feature early? That's no problem because it's simple to roll back to a prior version.
Dedicated controllers are generally harder to update, and they all have a different process to do it. Even if it's done really well, it's not likely to be easier than downloading and running an installer.
One thing that our users really like is being able to send a file to their Shapeoko over the network. Our Carbide Create software can send files to Carbide Motion over the network because it's simple to add a PC to your home network.
In addition to our "Send to Carbide Motion" functionality, you can add Dropbox, Microsoft Onedrive, or Google Drive to your Shapeoko PC to share files with it.
Maybe you're working on a project in the shop, and you decide to make a change. No problem- you can load Carbide Create, our design software, on your Shapeoko PC to make changes in the shop. There's no need to get up and move to another computer, make changes, and then bring the file back.
A full PC makes it easy to include help documentation in the control software to get back up and running quickly if anything goes wrong. If you connect it to the network, you have all of our support and training videos available to you.
Some people really, really want to nerd out and use an embedded computer for their CNC machine. To support them, we build Carbide Motion to run on the Raspberry Pi, a low-cost, embedded Linux machine.
Because it's a generic computing platform, you still get all the benefits above, with the exception of running design software on it.
We use a couple of them in our shop and they're fun, although you do need to be a little more computer savvy.
People are rightly concerned about putting a PC in a dusty shop, so all we can share is our experience:
We use a lot of PCs in our shop, from simple Windows tablets to our daily-driver Macbooks, and we've had zero failures.
Part of this is because we always use dust collection when running our CNC machines. Whether you have a PC in the shop or not, dust collection is essential to keep your CNC router functional; that's why we include our Sweepy dust boot with every machine.
If you're more concerned about it than us, you can go to Amazon and search for "Fanless mini pc" to get a unit that doesn't even have a fan to suck the dust in.
We're not the first, and we're not the last to be PC-based. High-end machines like Hurco, Okuma, and Datron use an embedded PC as their machine controller. While we haven't heard "why" from their engineers, we can assume the reason is the same as ours:
Using a PC to control a CNC machine gives you more performance for the money than any custom-made solution. That performance lets us continue to add features and capabilities to your machine long after you purchase it.