ISO: Mesa to router interface board

I need hardware suggestions.  There seems to be a gap in my knowledge, and in my research.

I just got a new CNC router, and it came with a Grbl-based controller.  I always used LinuxCNC in the past on my DIY machine, and I can already tell that I'll probably be happier if I switch to LinuxCNC on the new one.

The most recent incarnation of the old machine was driven by a Raspberry Pi and a Mesa ethernet card.  The Mesa was connected almost directly to the limit and estop switches, and the step/dir lines went to a quad stepper driver board I got from Sparkfun a long long time ago.  The wiring was a horrible rat's nest of jumpers running between pin connectors glued upside down to a plank.  (I'm not exaggerating.) And I don't want to use the Sparkfun board again, for various reasons.

At some point I'm going to want to use the Mesa card with the new machine.  But what I'm picturing, that I don't have, is the "interface" board.  It needs to take 24V power, and have 3 or 4 of those little 16 bit stepper driver modules.  And it needs to have a bunch of screw terminal strips, set up to logically simplify the 6 or 7 pairs going to switches, the 3 or 4 connections to the motors, and all of the interconnect to the Mesa.  Basically what I want is an XYZ CNC router breakout board, with drivers.

But all I can find is complete controllers:  all of what I described, hardwired to an ATMega328, or ESP32.  Or, all of what I described, in the form of an Arduino hat.  Better, but still not very Mesa-friendly.

Can anyone point to the product I'm looking for?  Or tell me (nicely what I should be looking for instead?
 

As you're asking for an interface board I'm Gunna assume you have a 7c81 at hand.
The expensive route but most complete, reliable and expandle route would be a 7i76, not the ethernet version but a plain version that you connect via a ribbon cable. This will give you everything you need except the stepper drivers on board.
In all honesty as a preference I much prefer the "standard" type stepper drivers rather than the types used on the smaller desktop CNC toys and such.
Unfortunately as you've found out there's not a lot of breakout boards available that handle 24v signals, most will be a DIY thing.

No, what I have is a 7i96. Somehow I found wiring directly to it very awkward with my DIY mill. It's possible that that was because of the poorly designed stepper driver board I was using -- it's connections were hard to manage.

I did find an Arduino shield that does what I want and has screw terminals for all connections. And I think I can probably use it almost as is, simply by not plugging it on to an Arduino. Still thinking about that.

When you say "standard" stepper drivers, can you show me an example, including how they're typically mounted? It's true my head is probably stuck in the CNC toy world.

paul

AliExpress has carrier boards for the little step stick drivers, less than a dollar a pop. You would just need to make some cables with female DuPont connectors at one end and bootlace ferrules at the other, far better than bare wires. That's the setup I use for testing things rather than messing with the mill in the garage.

Those TB6600 modules sure seem like an awkward form factor, especially given you need 3 or 4 or 5 of 'em.