StepperOnline T7 & LeadShine EL7 EtherCat AC Servo Drives

I'm in the middle of a refurbishing of an old Bridgeport mill that used to have a ProtoTrak system from the late 1980s on it.  Last April, I replaced the old DC servos with 750W EtherCAT AC servos from StepperOnline - the T7 series (23-bit absolute encoders w/battery backup etc).

I only purchased motors for the X and Y axes to keep initial costs down, but I'm considering converting the knee now as well.  I checked StepperOnline recently and saw that they have stopped selling the T7 series for no obvious reason.  Despite emailing them to ask, they cannot source even one more motor/drive setup for me and suggested one of their A6 EtherCAT servos as a replacement - which is a completely different drive OEM'd from someone different, and only 17-bit encoders.  Well priced at $230US + shipping from CN, though.

I'd really prefer to have matching drives for simplicity (e.g. only one tuning software program to learn).  The T7's are OEM versions of the LeadShine EL7 drives with a couple features stripped out.  I contacted LeadShine sales directly about purchasing a motor and drive, and the pricing was about double what I would have paid for a T7 through StepperOnline.  Needless to say, for a hobby project that stings a bit.

I can not seem to find EL7's anywhere else in the US, from any other sources.  Nothing used seems to pop up on eBay, and nothing compelling on AliExpress.  If I can swallow the price, of course I can just buy direct from LeadShine.  Or, I could deal with the A6 and its different tuning software I suppose, but I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone else has a suggestion first.

cheers,
Steve

The only reason I put it there instead of here was for a broader audience. I figured maybe someone might know about sources for LeadShine products who might not read the EtherCAT forum. Here is fine, though! No big deal.

cheers,
Steve