Not sure where to ask so, so I'll ask here

Hi, I have a Mesa 5i25 PCI card I would now like to use for a simple 3 axis router.

What BOB should I buy?

I have 4 Nema's 2 on the Y, 1 on X and 1 on Z I would like to setup dual homing.

Looking at the choices I think I could use a 7i78 for step/dir/spindle and a cheap PP BOB for limits and MPG

Or get a 7i76 but they are out of stock, which I think can handle all my inputs and step/dir.

If I wanted to add Nema 23's with encoders is that what 7i85 is for? And can you plug both 7i76 and 7i85 in at the same time?

I'm thinking 7i85 lets you use encoders with any stepper drivers by moving the encoding to the Mesa is this correct?

Thanks

7i76s are in stock now.

The common "5 Axis" parallel port BOB
does have a analog spindle interface ,though its not
isolated since its power is in common with the inputs

In general the multiple encoder interfaces are mainly useful
if you have dual feedback or servo systems, not so much for
using encoder feedback from a step drive.

I ordered one now.

Will I need to flash the 5i25? It's got the stock firmware with it it's essentially new although I've had it over 2 years.

Do I just need a normal parallel port cable to connect the 5i25 to the 7i76?

I would reprogram the 5I25 with 5i25_7i76x2.bit just to make sure

You can use a standard IEEE1284 male-male parallel port cable

I have 2 MPG's I can use

HB04 USB
or standard multiwire Chinese special

The HB04 has more buttons which would be very useful but I read is less reliable.

Which one would you use?

One of the reasons I didn't use the 5i25 was the pc wouldn't boot with it in.

I had a DDCSV to hand.

I later traced the PC not booting to a PSU issue, Mesa told me a very small % had this issue and was a MB issue but I tried 5 different MB's before I swapped the PSU in that case.

As soon as I did swap the PSU 5i25 worked with 3 of the MB's didn;t try the other 2.

So if you ever see someone with a 5i25 PCI that won't boot tell them to swap the PSU first.