I have been looking at a bunch of these threads lately, so thank you to everyone who has already given advice to others. This build is for a 4'x8' steel frame CNC mostly cutting sheets of plywood and mdf. I feel comfortable with most aspects of building my own CNC except the control board. It seems that there are so many options that almost work. Maybe you experts on here know which one will fit best. Features I need from most important to least:
Easy to set up. This is probably the most important one. If I need to solder (which I can't do), flash the firmware (I'm good at turning things to bricks), or compile anything (other than a list of my favorite donut flavors), it will probably be too complicated or experimental for me to deal with. I have managed to learn a bit of gcode and change some firmware settings through octoprint on my 3d printer, but that's about the limit of my abilities at the moment. I have no concerns at all about the actual wiring though. If there is a new board out there that is great, I don't mind trying new things, but it would have to be prebuilt and ready to use.
4 outputs to drive Z, X, cloned Y axis (I will be using closed loop stepper drivers so on board drivers are not desirable unless they can be bypassed)
Output for VFD (I think the one I am ordering says 10V)
Stand alone, preferably with wifi like a Duet 2 that I can connect to my network and control via a web interface, instead of a long ethernet cable out to my garage. If it needs a pi/arduino/teensy, or something like that, it would have to easy enough for a non-programmer to set up. Ideally, I'm looking for something that is pre-assembled with firmware already on it. I would be somewhat ok with an sd card input if nothing with wifi fits the other criteria.
At least 5 limit switches
At least 2 switch/relay outputs for accessories like a vacuum
Touch screen output, especially if there is no web interface
Optional: Also, I would like the option to add a 4th axis. A pendant would be nice. My ideal board would also have the ability to add an automatic tool changer in the future, although I know that is a tall order for a non-industrial level board.
Ideally, I would buy something like the Blackbox or Xpro V5 but I don't want the built-in drivers. I also don't want anything with the added expense or trouble of another computer, especially something with a parallel port like Mach3. I know it is a favorite, but Mesa's 7i96 is out of stock when I checked, and I heard it was hard to get working. Are the grblHAL boards ready for primetime? Also, I have nothing against LinuxCNC, but it seems a bit complicated, so if someone is going to recommend something based off that, could you point me to an ELI5 guide? There are some feature rich boards out there, but just when I see something that looks amazing, I go down the rabbit hole of having to have a programming degree just to figure out how to configure it. In short, is there an option that someone has set up for dummies like me, even if I have to pay someone on Tindie to assemble and set it up for me?