5i24-25

I am retrofitting a Bridgeport V2XT.  It has analog servos and drives installed. Currently it does not have a spindle motor. I am thinking of using a 5i24-25 & a 7i48 card. My questions are:

1. Is there any problem lurking using this combination?
2. I am planning on using a VFD to drive the spindle motor, do I configure one of the analog servo outputs to drive the VFD and use the encoder input
     for rigid tapping?
3. The 5i24-25 has 3.3v IO's, is it better to use the 3.3 through the switches or 12 or 24 volt and opto-isolators?
4. I would like to have a feed rate override potentiometer on the front panel, since the IO's don't recognize analog inputs, what is the easiest way
    to do this?
 

I would suggest a 7I97 or 7I97T instead
(we should have some 7I97Ts soon)

Thank you, A card like that was my first choice but everyone shows them out of stock, If it's permissible to ask, who are you with? Can you message me when they become available?

You can send an email to Mesa Electronics asking to be put on a list for the first 7I97T cards