Controller for 8NM closed loop leadshine drivers

Hi everybody.
I need help with choosing suitable controller for my stepper motors.
I'm building 4 axis cnc router witch will run on 5 motors (2 being in tandem on x axis). The motors I have are Leadshine closed loop 8NM steppersES-M23480

with leadshine drivers ES-D1008 EASY SERVO DRIVE

What controller would be good for this setup. Also do I need additional break out board with the controller?
I was looking on some of leadshine controllers but they are mostly 4axis. And I'm guessing ill need 5ft axis as a slave x' axis). Can anybody share some info about it.

Do you want Control software which you use on a PC or dedicated stand alone CNC Control.?

The most common control used at DIY level is PC software based Like Mach3 or LinuxCnc. Mach3 is my first choice as it's better supported with users who speak in laymans terms rather than Geek.

Regards the Breakout board then with PC based then yes you'll need one as it makes connections easier and safer for the PC by providing isolation from return voltage etc causing damage.
If you do use Mach3 then I'd also suggest you think about using an external motion controller to get the very best from your system. They give far cleaner pulse stream than the parallel port so allow higher performance and more stable system. They also use Ethernet or USB connection which means easier connection, the other advantage is they don't need high spec PC as the Motion control card does all the Work. They also allow cheap laptops to be used.
They also allow more Input & outputs for connecting or controlling other devices.

Hi Matt, how bigs the machine? Those are some serious motors!

Ps I too am planning on using Easy Servos so will be keen to see how you get on...

I bought one of these kflop motion controllers to control steppers on a small router. In the end I sold the router before fitting the card but they are worth researching as an option. Motion controller boards have been springing up everywhere over the last couple of years, so things may have moved on fromt the kflop.

You can also close the loop on the Kflop and it works with glass scales.

http://dynomotion.com/KFLOP.html

I've been using eding cnc's CPU5B & Software which is very useful and Damen CNC sell connectors that allow you connect directly from the PCB to Driver, (Greatly reducing the amount of wiring)

Another advantage of this system is that the error reporting from the servo drives can be easily fed back to the cpu.

I'm using these and if you get missed steps the drive just shuts down, so if you dont feed the error back to the control board the other 3/4 axis would carry on regardless!

I'm not sure how easy that is to do in mach, but its a defo if you want to get best use from your investment in the servo drives!

website links :-

http://www.edingcnc.com/

http://www.damencnc.com/

Also a good time to buy from the continent with exchange rate being what it is...

Regards
Andrew