Computer

In order to interface with the control board and subsequently the drive motors, a computer is required.  Fortunately, most controller boards don't require a very powerful or recent machine.  An 486 processor would probably be adequate.  I happened to have a Pentium 200 with 48meg of RAM and a 500meg hard disk.  I like this case since the power switch is near the top.  It's also kind of unusual in that the motherboard mounts upside down with the power supply at the bottom and the expansion cards toward the top. I also like the cool LCD monitor that I aquired.  It has about an 8-inch diagonal viewable area.  It also has the capability of being a touch screen if you happen to be using Windows.  Another neat item is that it draws its power from a serial port so I only need one power cord for both computer and monitor. It's easy to see the age of the case.  Notice that it only has bays for 5-1/4 drives.  I had to put in an adapter to use a 3-1/2 floppy. --------------- As cool as my little LCD screen is, I have decided to go with a newer computer and 15-inch LCD with Mach3 running on Windows.  I may still find a use for the touch-screen somewhere.