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Are there any CNC controllers that are for non-pro use (read: inexpensive) that are modular enough to support 8+ stepper drivers? I have a project I am working on that would require at LEAST 7, but preferably 8 or more. It has to be fast for the kinematics required, so probably no Arduino based boards.

Beaglebone and CRAMPS cape will but so far I haven't been able to configure linuxcnc for 5, I switched releases and have hope.

The new Aligator board will do 7.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/alli ... controller

For a complex situation like yours, the old maxim of finding the software you want to use, then restricting your choices to the hardware it runs on may be applicable. You'll have some configuring to do, no matter what.

If you find a solution that meets your needs other than the driver count, it's not very difficult to add a driver board so long as there are enough unused GPIO pins broken out from the CPU. You need two pins per driver (Direction & Step), preferably three (Enable is desirable, but could be hardwired or shared). For a working prototype, bread-boarding a motor carrier is straightforward, or one could adapt someone else's add-on board --the CRAMP3 with a custom interface cable would probably work.

Jimustanguitar wrote:The new Aligator board will do 7.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/alli ... controller

The alligator board looks great and I do hope that they can produce enough to eventually be on the open market here in the USA.
A fully configured board looks to be over $400.

Wow, I hadn't even thought about software to run that many steppers. That is definitely going to be a sticky point.

The Azteeg X3 Pro has 8 on-board driver sockets. It's cheap and runs arduino firmware.

mhackney wrote:The Azteeg X3 Pro has 8 on-board driver sockets. It's cheap and runs arduino firmware.

Thanks, that is a good one for what I need!

I could probably be talked out of mine. I want to migrate to a Smoothie board and am just waiting for the group buy discount. Are you in a hurry?

mhackney wrote:I could probably be talked out of mine. I want to migrate to a Smoothie board and am just waiting for the group buy discount. Are you in a hurry?

No, not really, still have a lot of design work to do. Thanks!

JFettig wrote:Beaglebone and CRAMPS cape will but so far I haven't been able to configure linuxcnc for 5, I switched releases and have hope.

Did you manage to get this working? I'm leaning towards the Duet, but the BBB+CRAMPS platform seems way more future-proof.