Windows embedded (7) - repurposing a thin client PC

[Doddy]

Okay, perhaps a little premature but this is the first day that I've had a controller wired-up (standalone stepper), the Mesa 7i76E and the thin-client (T610 plus, 8GB memory).

I knew the latency test was a bit mheh!, averaging around 200us but figured having an Ethernet motion controller would offset that. Prior to this I'd been doing all the Debian updates, updates to non-free graphic drivers, increasing system memory, and following as many (diverse!) opinions on tuning a LinuxCNC installation as I could as well as disabling all power-management under the BIOS. Now, this was the first time I've had to configure an interface (previously ran under the simulation mode for familiarisation), but in a nut-shell... it's pants! Frequent error messages through through what appears to be loss of ethernet packets. I've tried point-to-point as well as through a standalone switch - I can run from seconds to minutes, but ultimately it fails.

Still treading carefully on new territory for me, I've reconfigured an old XP box (Viglen Genie - great little boxes) previously used for Mach/PP/Ethernet to LinuxCNC (latest, and same install as the thin client). 40 minutes later I've got rock-solid performance and latency in the 3-6us range.

Perhaps will a bit of tlc the thin client is a possibility, but facing a number of learning curves at this time I'm taking it off the table for now and sticking with a standard machine, which, thinking about it, cost less than the thin client and is only marginally larger.

Your experience may vary.

EDIT:

For S&Gs, if I get time this afternoon I might try walking the path of getting LinuxCNC onto a RaspPi4 that's otherwise collecting dust.