Mesa Hardware Recommendations

I have been trying to hookup an Arduino THC for my plasma table. It has been a lot of fiddling for very little gain. My engineer brother is enjoying banging his head against the wall. But I want something a little more reliable. I can't be waiting for parts from china when the system inevitably fails.

The obvious choice seems to be Mesa hardware. I will get a THCAD-300 but while I'm at it I would like to get a control board while I'm at it. The shipping is pricy so I might as well go all-in on Mesa stuff.

Peter at Mesa recommended the 7i96 board but that is out of stock. There seems to be a lot of options. Is it worth waiting or is there something equivalent? What are others using?

I've been living without end-stops but I would like to hook up more stuff as I go along. My parallel port BOB has a lot of inputs already tied up.
Thanks for and insight.

I've done most of my searching here: store.mesanet.com/

I didn't find that other site.

My plasma cutter is a hypertherm 600. It's a bit old but it's powerful enough for what I cut.

I can confirm that postage to Canada from US is extortionist. I chatted with Mesa about it, they are very displeased as well with US based shipping costs to out-of-country, all it does it hurt business. It was cheaper to UPS linear rail from China than mail an 8oz package from US (US$43). UPS from US looks less expensive at first until you add their inevitable charges.

While a 7i96 is suggested there must be other combinations that would work?

Thanks for the first hand advice.

Between the 7i76E and 7i96 is there any differences that would affect my usage?

Plasma table with end-stops, ohmic probe, THCAD-300, breakaway switch,

Maybe in the future a scribe, espresso machine, etc.

I understand that adding features is somewhat of an addiction. I don't want to end up limited. I also want to be able to keep up with Plamac's development.