Re: Recommendations on motion control boards & Single Board Computer
First, what's your budget for the controls end of your project?
Then let's look at the required I/O, how much do you need? That will narrow the field a bit. Dynomotion Kflop is well supported and has expandable I/O. Dynomotion KMotionCNC might be worth a look also. You might also look at Centroid Acorn, I don't know much about it.
I have successfully used the little fanless micro computers for machine operation, in fact I'm just getting ready to order one for a 5 axis project. They normally come with Win10 installed, but you may be able to order one with Win7. Using one of those you will want a USB or Ethernet motion controller.
If you use Mach3, the computer is doing all of the heavy lifting as far as the motion control. It's what Mach3 does so you will want a computer that will keep up. When Mach3 is connected to a Galil board it turns the really intelligent Galil into a zombie, and Mach3 still does all of the heavy lifting. A bit of a waste IMHO.
I normally use Galil products in my projects just because I have been installing them for at least 20 years, so I don't have to learn new stuff and I'm getting old Oh, and they work well.
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA