Re: Mesa Control Card Recommendation
Jack, if you are running stepper motors, you really can't go wrong with a Mesa 7i76e. 5 x 10 Mhz stepgens, spindle control, 2 MPG inputs, some A-D inputs, 32 inputs and 16 outputs, not to mention 2 x 25 pin extension ports for standard breakout boards or Mesa daughter cards (fancy to add to more 7i76 cards for a total of 15 stepgens?) and Mesas' smart serial interface as well to add consoles and terminals and more IO ports.
If you don't have a Tormach machine, the best advice I can give you is to not run Path pilot. It will not work with a Mesa ethernet card and it is designed for their machines and includes some proprietary software components. Mesa will tell you exactly the same thing.
The Mesa ethernet cards require the Linux preemptive realtime kernel so the install is a bit more complicated but its now extremely well documented in a how to on the LinuxCNC forum where help is always at hand.
I run my 7i76e from a tiny USFF PC which fits on the palm of your hand...
Rod Webster
www.vehiclemods.net.au