Recommendations for a linuxcnc compatible 5 axis breakout board please.

Hi,

Sorry tried searching with no luck.

I have a chinese 6040Z I'd like to replace the breakout / controller board on. I need at least 4 axis, preferably 5. Cost is an issue so a "Rolls Royce" board not prefered. So something solid but not fancy unless its giving a benefit.

I'd like 5 axis but at least 4.
tool set off/zero.
VFD control looks like std 0-10v
remote jogger handheld device.

Works with 36v or 48v? input.

For a parallel port breakout board there really isn't any significant difference between what is advertised a 3 4 or 5 axis board. They are all using the same inputs and outputs that are determined by the nature of the parallel port.

However there are very few that may work with 48v.

Some of the cheap ones can use 12-24v, and have a 0-10v analog output for controlling a spindle. such as this:
www.ebay.com/itm/5-Axis-Breakout-Board-S...Swj6lbyieW:rk:9:pf:0

Thanks, 36volt? Suggestion from a CNCer with experience was drive the (separate) steppers at higher than 24volts. I could install 2 PSUs. Higher voltage one for the 4/5 steppers and one for LPT board or even power it externally via a brick it wont take a big unit for that.

I dont want very cheap, I have very cheap right now. So a decent quality unit like a Geko brand or something of that ilk.

Usually you are going to want two power supplies. A high voltage unregulated DC supply for powering your motor drives (could be 48v up to hundreds of volts) and a small regulated low voltage (12-24v) supply for your peripherals (limit switches e-stop, relays...)

The step motor machine I'm using right now use about 60-65VDC. My understanding is there is little if any benefit for using less voltage than your drives are rated for. (The lower the voltage the faster your torque drops off with rpms.)

As to a good brand, I don't have any experience with any modern hardware. All the systems I work with are old obsolete uni-polar drives. I would think anything from a common name brand should be decent. But If I were buying new drives and motors I'd plunk my money down on one of the new hybrid closed loop stepper setups such as those from Leadshine.

The Chinese boards work OK for me. You more than likely do not need more than 24 volts on the breakout as you will be using separate drivers that can run at higher voltages (such as the TB6600 4.5a).

Not sure what your budget is but this appears to be a small stepper motor machine.
I run mesa 5i25 with one of their stepper boards controlling 3 geckodrive G201X motor drivers.
Went with this setup because my machine is a full size mill with nema 34 or 42 size steppers (also didn't want to convert to servo, but may in the future and mesa lends it's self to this) and I wanted a better interface with more I/O then what a parallel port BOB could provide.
I highly recommend both the mesa electronics and the gecko drive products, they are both good quality and reliable.
My motors are supplied with 76V from a scratch built linear power supply. (my motors have built in cooling fins but they never even get warm with this configuration)

For your 6040Z router, I would suggest the gecko drive G540 www.geckodrive.com/g540-4-axis-digital-stepper-drive.html I'm guessing this will cover the majority of your needs if not you can always add and additional parallel port and another BOB of some kind.
If your interested in using mesa products go to their website www.mesanet.com/
and look for the "5I25/6I25 + DAUGHTERCARD + CABLE PLUG-AND-GO KITS" under the "ANYTHING I/O FPGA CARDS"
link on the left side of the page.

Bogie