Mill Project, Looking for driver Board advice

Hello everyone, this is my first real cnc re-build so please correct any misconceptions I might have, I'm excited about the possibility of converting to running with Lcnc, But I wanted to run past my machine configuration in front of some more experienced eyes before making any mesa purchases.

Currently there are three axis being used for motion and a fourth being used for rotating the toolchanger carousel, all are servos running analogue. I am considering removing the servo being used for the atc and replacing it with a stepper, so I can then use the servo as a fourth axis. The motion servos Amp seems to be capable of running step or ana, (or maybe not, see attached img from the servopack manual) but I know for sure that the fourth servo is ana only. This seems to lock me into using something like the 7I97T but I am also seeing daughter boards like the 7I36 that seem like they would allow me to use something else. so I am really wondering what Is the best way to use a mixed ana servo/stepper setup as far as mesa cards (if its even possible) or if its something I should just abandon and get another amp and servo in the future if I want to do fourth axis. I am also going to be needing a reasonably large amount of IO for the pneumatics system, six outputs at a minimum but more is better, so if I was going to use a daughter card it might be for that.

Another thing I am wondering about it the spindle, I am currently being shipped the documentation for my Spindle controller so I am unsure exactly how it interfaces with the motion controller But I see that some cards provide a dedicated option for the spindle while others don't. I am wondering if the spindle is going to take the place of one of the axis and how that works on one of the analogue cards.
in my ideal configuration it seems like its 5/6 axis (3motion+atc+4thaxis+spindle?) but the mesa card configuration that would achieve this is beyond my current understanding.

Appreciate any input, thanks.
 

You may want to have a look at this, might help with deciding. The Mesa manuals are a good reference as well.
forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/5174...bination-tool#293714

Thanks for the response, sorry for the late reply.

That configuration sounds good but after using the config tool linked above I am slightly favoring the 7i77 + 7i96S for the additional IO/less cards/similar price. Is there any reason that's a bad idea?

another question I have after reviewing the 7i96S Documentation is about the analogue spindle interface. my spindle controller is expecting to see a voltage between 0-10v for the speed reference, the 96s Docs say "The voltage supplied between SPINDLE+ and SPINDLE- must be between 5 VDC an 20 VDC" this is referring to the voltage between spindle- and spindle+ ( ie 0 to 10 is a change of 10 and so fine) NOT the voltages that spindle- and + must fall between (ie spindle- being 6 and + being 15) right? In other words 0-10v for spindle-+ should be no problem right?

Thanks

Yes, the total voltage between SPINDLE- and SPINDLE+ must be between
5VDC and 20VDC for proper operation so 10V is fine.

The spindle output is isolated so it only really cares about the difference
between the SPINDLE- and SPINDLE+ pins. That is, it's it not referenced
to any other voltage on the card.