hardware recommendations
- MakeMasters
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09 Jul 2018 17:09 #113881
by MakeMasters
hardware recommendations was created by MakeMasters
Hello everyone. I built a 4x8 gantry style CNC router about a year ago and I run Mach4 on Windows 7 with an Ethernet Smoothstepper. I am in the process of building a 4th and 5th axis head for it and from what I am seeing I am going to have to switch out my BoB if I move to LINUX CnC. Which board would you good folks recommend I use in order to do 5th simultaneous ( i use deskproto). Would any of you have a setup similar to that, that would be willing to share some wisdom? It looks as if Mesa is a good suggestion but the more info the better.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
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- tommylight
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09 Jul 2018 21:25 #113894
by tommylight
Replied by tommylight on topic hardware recommendations
You can use the parallel port for that, but if you use microstepping it will hit the limit quickly. Any cheap BOB will do just fine, even without a BOB it is usable and in case of cheap chinese BOB's it is better of without one.
Mesa is a nice choice, especially if you go with the 5i25 or 6i25 or 7i92 coupled with 7i76, or even better the 7i76E as it is all in a single package wired to the ethernet port. It has 5 step/dir outputs, a spinlde output with encoder so you could use it for rigid taping, 16 outputs and 32 inputs, some usable as analogue inputs or encoder inputs for an MPG.
All in all a very versatile controller.
Mesa is a nice choice, especially if you go with the 5i25 or 6i25 or 7i92 coupled with 7i76, or even better the 7i76E as it is all in a single package wired to the ethernet port. It has 5 step/dir outputs, a spinlde output with encoder so you could use it for rigid taping, 16 outputs and 32 inputs, some usable as analogue inputs or encoder inputs for an MPG.
All in all a very versatile controller.
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09 Jul 2018 21:54 #113898
by rodw
Replied by rodw on topic hardware recommendations
If you don't have a parallel port on your PC, you might be able to stick to ethernet and use a Mesa 7i92 and a breakout board so you don't have to rewire your control box. But you would miss out on all the amazing features of the ethernet 7i76e.
It sounds like you need more stepgens than the 5 onboard the 7i76e, a 7i78 will add 4 more stepgens and you could add 2 of them to the 7i76e....
Designed to ideally run on 24v (but I think its able to run on 9-36v in practice), the 7i76e is more self containerd than a smooth stepper so you would probably eliminate some relay boards etc you use now and do switching direct on the 7i76e.
It sounds like you need more stepgens than the 5 onboard the 7i76e, a 7i78 will add 4 more stepgens and you could add 2 of them to the 7i76e....
Designed to ideally run on 24v (but I think its able to run on 9-36v in practice), the 7i76e is more self containerd than a smooth stepper so you would probably eliminate some relay boards etc you use now and do switching direct on the 7i76e.
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