I would like to get the 15” HMI screen for the apprentice. is there an option somewhere on the onefinity site. to purchase it?
Not sure how to ad the Raspberry Pi software to my laptop.
Based on the specs for the Apprentice that should be possible, though I haven’t seen either Redline or Onefinity offer the HMI (the touch screen part) as a separate item.
As of 2025.12.17 Realtime CNC lists the RTS-X software as “Coming Soon” for Windows, MacOS and Linux. (see here)
Just for clarity, the Raspberry Pi isn’t software but a “microcomputer” that’s installed inside the Redline HMI and used to run Realtime CNC’s software to control your CNC. It’s the hardware component that replaces the processing, or brains of your computer when using a HMI.
Hopefully Onefinity and Redline will offer you the opportunity to buy a HMI.
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The HMI add on is now available!
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Which software would be best to connect to the Apprentice with my laptop then?
The Realtime software, here! Realtime Windows/Mac/Linux Controller Software Download Links (FAQ)
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The software for Windows and Mac isn’t quite ready yet but it will be the same as the HMI except you will be running it on the laptop instead of the HMI.
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So when you say “soon”, is that a month, two months, 2nd quarter, third quarter, a year?
Most likely at least q2 2026 at the earliest. There is a lot of gen 2 orders 
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Ok I have downloaded the RTS-X software, but cannot unpack it because it says i need to run it as an Administrator.
and if I try to copy the files to a jump drive I get
how many hoops do I have to jump through to get this to work on my laptop?
No. The software up is for the HMI. The .exe is not yet available
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They are still working on the non HMI software. It’s a brand new feature that you don’t have to have the HMI. If you really want to get up and running you can use the Raspberry Pi 5 image, but then you would need to buy a Raspberry Pi 5.
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Ok so we are getting closer. Once I get the Raspberry Pi 5, load it up with the imager software, to up load the RTS-X software. How do I connect it to my Laptop, to send the V-Carve Pro files to the Apprentice?
If you’re going to buy a Raspberry Pi 5 to host the software, you treat it like a stand-alone computer. It helps to think about the Raspberry PI 5 as a really tiny desktop computer that you need to provide power to using a USB C cable supplying at least 44 watts of power, then plug a keyboard mouse and monitor into. You will need a micro HDMI to HDMI adapter to plug in your monitor. Something similar to this: Amazon.com: oldboytech 4K Micro HDMI to HDMI Male Cable Adapter, 4K@60Hz HDR Nylon Braid Cord for GoPro Hero, Zfc, RPi, A6000, A6300, Camera, Video Capture Card, Grey 6FT : Electronics The easiest path to get started is to buy a starter kit like this: Amazon.com: CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kit PRO - Turbine Black (128GB Edition) (4GB RAM) : Electronics This is a 4GB RAM model, which meets the minimum system specs, personally I’d recommend purchasing the 8GB model, with the other side of the coin being I don’t see value in spending the extra $$$ on a 16GB model.
You could try to use a portable touch screen which removes the need for a keyboard and mouse, but unless you use the exact same model of touch screen that Redline installs in their HMI, it’s likely that the touch input will be rotated 90º out of alignment with content on the screen. At that point you’re pretty deep in the weeds as far as correcting that behavior.
In regards to sending files to the RTS-X software, you put the local network address of the computer hosting the software (something like 172.16.1.10) into a web browser and there is a streamlined interface for uploading files to RTS-X. Alternatively, you can put your files on a USB stick/drive and plug it into a USB port on the host computer and they’ll show up in the interface as well. There is a button in the RTS-X software that will tell you what it’s current local IP address is (this will be something like the 172.16.1.10 address I mentioned above)
I absolutely understand wanting to be able to install the RTS-X software on something now, and play with it to get a feel for how it works, as I did exactly that and actually went down the, for me fun and interesting, rabbit hole of getting a cheap 15.8” touchscreen to work with it, but unless you really enjoy playing with this stuff you may find it less frustrating to wait until Realtime CNC/Onefinity announce the release of RTs-X that will work on your laptop.
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Hi,
I have emailed back and forth with RTCNC and I was told the image they have up are specific to the HMI, but they are working on Windows, OSX and Linux versions that will be easier to install and manage. Raspberry Pi basically runs some form of Linux ( which I know very little about ). They said once they have them out you will run it as a desktop app and can manage screen setting through the desktop. They do not have this out yet. I can confirm that the CANAKIT 8G works very well and comes with everything you need besides a keyboard mouse and monitor. I can also confirm that the touch input is inverted out of the box, but as long as you have a mouse you can play around with it very easily. This is what I will run my machine off of once it comes.
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I purchased an 8Gb Raspberry Pi 5 starter kit and installed the RTS-X image (v 1.1.0) available on the RealTime CNC website. I updated to the latest version (v 1.2.2). This worked fine with my HDMI connected monitor and USB connected keyboard and mouse.
I then went one step further and enabled the VNC server on the Raspberry Pi via raspi-config.
I downloaded the free RealVNC viewer app on my iPad and I can now use my iPad as an HMI touchscreen.
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If you want to make accessing your system remotely a bit easier, on many if not most networks you should be able to access the PI using raspberrypi.local.
To kick that up a notch you can use raspi-config and change your host name to something more meaningful and after reboot should be able to access it by that ‘hostname’.local. In my case on my test rig I changed the hostname to journeyman so can access it at journeyman.local. This makes accessing the web interface a bit nicer.
Again this works on ‘most’ networks, but if it doesn’t then it’s due to network or local computer policies not an issue with your PI configuration. For those interested in the technical aspects, this feature is controlled by the avahi.daemon which broadcasts the hostname of your computer across the network and provided the network allows those broadcasts and your computer accepts and honors them then you can use hostname.local instead of having to find the IP address of the computer (i.e. - 172.16.10.10).
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I can confirm that we are working on the desktop versions of the software. These versions are actually functional now and we are just tweaking the software to look nice in a landscape orientation. The original version of the GUI was designed in the portrait orientation to support the launch of the Redline HMI. The new desktop versions will support both orientations in all operating systems.
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Would this also work on the Raspberry Pi5 also?
Absolutely. In fact, the current version is for the Raspberry Pi 5 inside the Redline HMI. The only difference is that it has some customizations for the the Redline setup such as rotating the screen into portrait.
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what steps did you take to install RTS-X image, i don’t see v1.1.0 on RealTime. I bought and set up Raspberry Pi 5 and downloaded the RTS-X software from the Realtime CNC site for Apprentice, extracted the files from RTS1.1.2.2.tar.gz into the RTS1 folder. Plugged the USB into the Pi 5, no update screen pops up. The RTS1 folder does show in /media/xxxx/PI 5, no pop up to update into the Pi 5. Am I missing a step?