Laptops to run software control

Joe,
It depends on what you want to do, but I still think of the 486 as a very
powerful machine (up until 2 years ago I was running an old XT in the
garage). If you are not on the net or using very graphical packages a 486
is great. I write my control files in the warm on a desktop in the house,
copy them to floppy, then set the machine off from the 486 laptop which at
their current cost I dont mind using near swarf n stuff.

One word of warning though, some of the "green" or "environmentally
friendly" laptops from the early 90's have very low oprt voltages, so yuor
stepper driver might not make sense of the logic.

All of the jobs shown on my website
(http://www.Ourworld.Compuserve.com/homepages/compucutters) were done using
a compaq 486 laptop, the spirit of home cnc as i see it is that you use
what youve got, and see how it turns out. I drive 3 steppers (usually 34's)
from the printer port using hpgl.

wire them in and give them a whirl

Quin