Thanks — that’s a good point. I did see that the 7i96 (non-S) is currently in stock and that it would work for THCAD-2 and encoder input.
That said, for this machine I’m trying to stay fully within the Mesa ecosystem with maximum flexibility and isolation, and to keep things future-proof in a noisy industrial environment. Even if I don’t strictly need 0–10V today, the added analog output and larger FPGA on the 7i96S make it more attractive for my long-term use.
If 7i96S restock is expected in the near term, I’m inclined to wait and standardize on that rather than mixing generations.