Hardware Recommendation

Hi Everyone,

I have looked for recommended hardware and have not found much. If I have missed a big section, please let me know

I need to build a 3 axis mill as some parts I want to build won't fit on what I have. I have a fair bit of experience with this sort of thing, just not LinuxCNC. I could go to a friend, but I would like this capability.
I would like to know what the recommended control hardware is for low risk/headaches. 
I would like to use EtherCat. I have never used EtherCat. Is this a bad idea? What should I watch out for in a Chinese EtherCat servo, any recommendations? I see the RaspberryPI 5 is not ready for EtherCat. Is the RaspberryPI4 OK? Should I just use a PC? What should I watch out for on an Intel PC motherboard?
If not EtherCat, what? I do not want to depend on the PC for the real-time pulse generation. I do want home switches, and a few relays.
The USB pendant I see the most documentation on is the WHB04B-6 CNC wireless handwheel. I want something USB, as I would like to avoid all the wiring from a traditional pendant. Is this pendant well supported? The most supported USB pendant? Is there a cabled version? 

Any recommendations appreciated.

I see you haven't tried the search function.
forum.linuxcnc.org/forum/search?query=re...before&childforums=1

Thanks for your help.
I have searched.
I would like to know from people who have gone before, recently. Would they recommend what they have done? Would they do it differently? I have gone through the EtherCat discussion. Would anyone who has experience with that recommend that? I did see that Dela servos were recommended. How critical is that? I did see that they recommended a standard. It has been hard to make verify that a product meets any specific standard. Would it be way simpler to get a pulse driver board. The hardware documentation section is from 2008 as far as I can see. There is plenty of discussion about technical detail, but no "This is the best practice in 2024". Go this way grasshopper.

It seems the WHB04B-6 pendant has no estop button. I see the VistaCNC pendant does. I would feel better about having an E-Stop. I hesitate to use the word recommended, but is there a "recommended" USB pendant?

I don’t USB pendants.
I hardware mine to whatever Mesa card I’m using.

Any Mesa card will work, and work flawlessly. The firmwares are tried and true. You just have to work out what your budget extends to. I have a bench top mill that I’ve been running for 10 years using steppers with no issues.
I went with a 7i92, 7i76 and 7i73 for pendant duties.
If the computer running the mill had PS/2 ports I wouldn’t even use a USB mouse or keyboard.
If I want to know x y z position I just look at the monitor. I like a simple rugged wired pendant, I know it’s at the end of the cable, so no searching for some wireless thing, simple means less bits to break, less noise and blah blah blah. Config is bloody simple and I don’t have to worry about it disconnecting.
Got to the Mesa site, have a look at some of the boards, download a couple of manuals. That’ll give you an idea.

No one will give you a shopping list, as everyone builds their machines differently.
I think under the driver board section there’s a sticky section regarding the Mesa boards.
Unlike some other forums there’s a lot of guys here that either build machines for others or build machines for use in their own job shops.
You won’t find a lot of competition about rapids and stuff like that.
Even with regards with what computer to use there’s a great wealth of info on what ex corporate machines are best.
There’s a wealth on info, just about every question that could be asked has probably been asked. Put aside an hour or so and just have a read through the forum, Recent Topics is a good place to start. I still find out new info.

My hope with a USB pendant was that I would avoid the 20+ hair like wires that come out of them. They are all I have used as they are compatible with anything. I do draw the line at the lack of an E-Stop button. I agree that having the pendant tied down is more reliable.

I was also hoping that new builds were moving to EtherCat, and that it was the recommended path. A little more costly maybe but working well without having to worry about which servo I picked. I would like to have feedback from the servos. I have purchased things in the past that were not compatible with Linux and have learned to watch out for compatibility. I have used the Servo To Go card the Motenc card the parallel port my own ISA cards Arduinos, blue and black pills for motion control. I have never used EtherCat, and would like to hear form someone that has. I would like to hear Yes, it is as great as it sounds, EtherCat is a standard, any EtherCat servo should be fine, it is working well, I would never go back, I would recommend it to my mother. OR something like I am a better person now, but it was painful.

My interest in the Raspberry PI is it's compactness. I do see that EtherCat is not working on the PI 5. I do see that the PI works with the Ethernet Mesa cards. I was wondering if there was a consensus that a proper PC is still the best option, or if the PI4 and now PI5 is evolved and supported enough that there is no reason to allocate the space in a cabinet to a PC. I have used PI2/3/4s, not the 5 yet. I would think the PI5 should be great.

I'm not trying to build anything fast, or that can hog material. My interest in the servos is just that they have become so cheap.

I have spent at least several hours reading the LinuxCNC site in the past couple of days. I have checked out LinuxCNC many times over the years, and I think I finally have a great opportunity to use it.

Have you seen the price of Ethercat hardware ?
Not exactly what one would call affordable for mere mortals.
Honestly RPi platform is really overpriced compared to a second hand pc.
I’m going with a Spartan 6 dev with some custom PCBs for my lathe. I was going to use a RPi with SPI comms but the more I looked and thought about it I chose EPP, though my custom board can support either SPI or EPP.
ATM it’s going through mechanical testing stage using software step generation. Haven’t had any massive issues.

Oh and btw the 3rd or 4th result in the link I posted is a discussion from about Feb 7th this year.
To think that the only hardware discussion that was on the forum is from about 16 years ago is a little silly.
Regarding ethercat rodw seems pretty clued up on the subject.
BTW it might be helpful if you have any idea of the class of machine and it’s intended use will be.
Is it a Bridgeport size, bench top or bigger or smaller. Ball screws or not ? Is there an intention to use linear scales to close the feedback loop ? Spindle? Are looking to do rigid tapping ? How do you want to control the spindle ?
You’re going to have to give the guys some idea of where you wanting to go.
Is it a retrofit or conversion ?
RotarySMP has done some top notch stuff and has a great YouTube channel.

The 2008 reference was from the documentation hardware section. I realize the real documentation is in the forum. I did see the discussions about which MESA card to select and switching from parallel ports. It has been a long time since I've used an FPGA. I am hoping to not have to make any boards.

Here are some AliExpress servos
www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005922260175...n.0.0.527c83d31DA5Aa
390$CDN for 750W Motor and drive, EtherCat 21 Bit encoder


I want to mill some aluminum parts 7ft x 16 in x 2 in. I will step the parts over, so half that for a work zone. I need to contour the whole thing, 10-20 thou accuracy is fine. Almost high end wood working really. I don't dream of rigid taping. I'm looking at the AliExpress spindles. Yes ball screws, I don't see a need for scales, but if the drives allow for them, maybe.

Spindle control, at least on/off would be the minimum.

That’s a serious slab .

Good luck

On the pendant, as cornholio 'recommended', avoid usb/wireless and/or anything else that sounds fancy. Pendant *must* be hardwired to the motion control for integrity (and safety, ofc). Paramount importance, and the fundamental reason why professional industrial solutions remains wired and forever will.

wifi/usb pendants are okay for changing channels on the tele, namely a remote control. Volume up/down, etc. NOT for machine-tools.