Running Centroid CNC In Virtual PC Environment
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:21 pm
I have searched the forums and cannot find an answer to what I am about to pose, and although it sounds a bit of a crazy idea, it just might work.
I have a need for multiple Centroid Acorn boards to run my various CNC machinery. Currently I have 3 CNC machines, a router, a mill, and a lathe. All of them I wish to convert to Centroid Acorn control instead of Mach3. Having 3 current machines, and with my future investment of another foreseeable 3 CNC machines, I really don't want to have to purchase 6+ computers, monitors and peripherals to run my machines.
What I am posing is if I can purchase a server computer instead of separate computers, and create a bunch of virtual machines, each running their own iteration of licensed windows 10, and install Centroid control software on each iteration? I have checked the hardware requirements for Centroid control software, and server machines are available (10 core 2.2 ghz processor, 32gb of ram, 19,000 cpu benchmark). What this would mean is that, I would have the potential to run up to 8 iterations of windows 10, and Centroid control software, all on one tower server.
Now I realize that Centroid requires an ethernet port and most computers are only supplied with one, but quad port network adapters are available which can allow you to install a network card in the pci/e port of the computer and expand the ports. Also to solve the networking issue, bridged networking is possible with either windows hyper-v or with other services like virtualbox. What this means is that each virtual machine can use a different adapter or port in my case, and be on their own discrete private network. Basically your router would look at each virtual machine as a different local area network connection, so you would have 192.168.1.1 -- 192.168.1.2 -- 192.168.1.3 and so on, all on one computer.
The next issue would be the potential lack of monitor, mice and keyboards for each machine. I can solve the monitor issue if I wish to by using the USB 3.0 port on the server and using USB 3.0 to HDMI adapters to expand the monitor inputs from 1 hdmi connection to however much monitors I wish to utilize. I would then obviously start the virtual machine on their respective monitor for each machine. With the USB 3.0 devices I can also expand the keyboards and mice for each virtualbox and lock them into that individual virtualbox. Alternatively I can just remote desktop in to the server on my windows laptop or even a windows tablet, and control which ever Centroid controller I wish to.
Let's realize though, I highly doubt I will ever have the need to run more than 4 machines concurrently, but the option to do so is a pleasing one.
Does anyone have any feedback on the above proposal, or cons that I may not have considered?
Thanks
I have a need for multiple Centroid Acorn boards to run my various CNC machinery. Currently I have 3 CNC machines, a router, a mill, and a lathe. All of them I wish to convert to Centroid Acorn control instead of Mach3. Having 3 current machines, and with my future investment of another foreseeable 3 CNC machines, I really don't want to have to purchase 6+ computers, monitors and peripherals to run my machines.
What I am posing is if I can purchase a server computer instead of separate computers, and create a bunch of virtual machines, each running their own iteration of licensed windows 10, and install Centroid control software on each iteration? I have checked the hardware requirements for Centroid control software, and server machines are available (10 core 2.2 ghz processor, 32gb of ram, 19,000 cpu benchmark). What this would mean is that, I would have the potential to run up to 8 iterations of windows 10, and Centroid control software, all on one tower server.
Now I realize that Centroid requires an ethernet port and most computers are only supplied with one, but quad port network adapters are available which can allow you to install a network card in the pci/e port of the computer and expand the ports. Also to solve the networking issue, bridged networking is possible with either windows hyper-v or with other services like virtualbox. What this means is that each virtual machine can use a different adapter or port in my case, and be on their own discrete private network. Basically your router would look at each virtual machine as a different local area network connection, so you would have 192.168.1.1 -- 192.168.1.2 -- 192.168.1.3 and so on, all on one computer.
The next issue would be the potential lack of monitor, mice and keyboards for each machine. I can solve the monitor issue if I wish to by using the USB 3.0 port on the server and using USB 3.0 to HDMI adapters to expand the monitor inputs from 1 hdmi connection to however much monitors I wish to utilize. I would then obviously start the virtual machine on their respective monitor for each machine. With the USB 3.0 devices I can also expand the keyboards and mice for each virtualbox and lock them into that individual virtualbox. Alternatively I can just remote desktop in to the server on my windows laptop or even a windows tablet, and control which ever Centroid controller I wish to.
Let's realize though, I highly doubt I will ever have the need to run more than 4 machines concurrently, but the option to do so is a pleasing one.
Does anyone have any feedback on the above proposal, or cons that I may not have considered?
Thanks