Any USB/Ethernet controller suggestions?

[A_Camera]

If you want to upgrade the controller and spent $5 on a BOB then you are out of pocket $5, if you want to upgrade the drivers you are out of pocket £120 for 4

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cnc-4-2A-...MAAOxyni9TFCPq

To me spend the cash on the AM882's for stall protection and use a cheap BOB then upgrade the electronics later when budget allows.

A cheap BOB is also compatible with mach 3 and linuxcnc so you can try both before locking yourself into a vendor without trying the software out.

It's basically double the cost for AM882's and then the extra cost for supplying 70v instead of 48v, you'll see most of us with 80v drivers make a PSU with transformer, rectifier and capacitors which adds another £70 making 4*AM882, PSU and BOB £320 which is to me the minimum spec for building a new router.

With a cheap PP BOB and a reasonable latency PC if you set microsteps to 8 (Or even 2 on slow PC) you'll get good enough performance to run at max speed on any home machine.

I still don't understand what the benefit would be in using 8A drivers with 3A motors. In my opinion that's overkill. Also, if I would spend that much on the driver I would NOT buy a cheap BOB. I understand that the AM882 has stall protection, but come on... is it really a huge issue? After all, stall is a cause of wrong use or configuration. Also, why not the DM542T? It is more of a realistic match for the 3A motors than the AM882 and is much cheaper. Yes, the AM882 is 80V while the DM542T is only 50V, but again, if a machine is well built you will hit the speed limit anyway, even with the 50V drivers.