RS in Laptop o RPi? GPIO in laptop?

Hello! I am an RS Pro user, I currently have 7 printers. 4 connected to a RaspberryPi3b and another 3 connected to another similar Raspberry. This week I will have to buy 2 more printers and I have a problem.
Previously when I went from 4 printers to 5 I connected the printers to a single RPi with a HUBusb and had a lot of problems with random disconnections so add another RPi.
Currently I will have to buy ANOTHER Raspberry to connect the 9th and I want to analyze what other options I have.
I have an old laptop, with an AMD Phenom X4, 4gb, ssd and ATI5770 that I don't use, if I install RepetierServer there could I run a single instance and run all 9 printers there? I would have to use USB HUB as well but I think the laptop will be less sensitive to EMF.
If I do this I would lose the GPIO ports, where I have the filament sensors connected.
Is it a good idea to run RepetierServer on Windows or Ubuntu? I would use that PC just for that. Is there any way with additional hardware to have something like GPIO ports but on a PC? If you had to choose between Windows and Ubuntu, which would you choose to run RepetierServer? (I still have to install an OS because the laptop currently has an AndroidTV, so I ask what would be the ideal)
I am open to any advice. Thank you very much!

Comments

  • I would use ubuntu over windows, just because windows likes to reboot every now and then to install updates.

    Notebooks have no GPIOs you can use, so that requires a different solution.

    I can not say how much printers you can connect - as you already noted at some point emi starts making problems. CPU wise just sending data it is no issue. It gets harder if you start having webcams as well as they use lot of usb bandwidth
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