Re: home vs. industrial PC..

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Jens Swales"
<jipeess2000@y...> wrote:

>
> hi group
>
> a company asked me if i was interrested to build 8-10 copies of my
> homebuilt router for them, after have seen it. now, this machine is
> made of hq parts only and the heart of it, an industrial panel-pc

is

> v-e-r-y expensive (it runs flashcut with the black-box). my problem
> is that the specs for this pc is a little to low, or on the border
> line to run flashcut v2.0. the fastest cpu available for this
> particular board is a 1.2 gig celeron. so, in order to take the

full

> advance of fc, i now have 2 options:
>
> 1. wait for a new upgrade/release of the industrial-pc (the

complete

> unit costs around 2300$ today)
>
> 2. use an ordinary home/office pc with higher perfomance and 1/4 of
> the price, and parts available in any radio-shack.
>
> whats the advantages with an industrial pc one may ask? honestly, i
> dont know. i was just told by some engineer that its a must-do.
> i do know however, that they have a thicker circuit-board and more
> layers of surface protection/treatment, so they can stand

vibrations

> better and someone claimed that the powersupply is more reliable.
>
> still, ive seen a lot of "home"-pc´s on the shop floor covered with
> s**t running year after year flawless.
>
> so, my question to all of you is, can i sell my machines with a

built-

> in standard pc, and still consider it a serious machine (the

monitor

> and keyboard is industriual, though)
>
>
> js

Jens,

I think the main differences with an Industrial PC versus an office
one are more attention paid to cooling, vibration proofing and
ability to add expansion boards in an accessable way. I suspect that
if you source a reputable PC and mount it sensibly you shouldn't have
too many problems. A couple of years back I standardised on Compaq EN
SFF (small foot print) pcs, and am currently running 6 in various
applications. One is in the base of a milling machine running
TurboCNC and seems quite happy (!) though I have fitted an external
fan to slightly overpressure the housing to try and keep dust out.
Another is in the process of being installed in the base of a lathe
and I will adopt the same approach. Another runs 24/7 shut in a
cupboard, but with low and high level vents for airflow.

If the price factor is really 4:1, then you can afford to keep a
spare on the shelf and still save money.

Years ago I worked with computers that were placed next to a blast
furnace - lovely environment. To keep them going, the boards were all
sprayed in a conformal coating so conductive iron debris from the
atmosphere didn't short things out, but that is probably going too
far in your application <g>

On cheaper clones it is probably worth replacing the cpu cooling fan
with a long life version (ball bearings) and consider fitting a
cabinet fan. So long as you take a professional approach to
considering the reliability issues then I don't see why you shouldn't
incorporate such a PC in your product.

Andrew Mawson
Bronley, Kent, UK