Quote Originally Posted by dazp1976 View Post
There are no driver to motor cables. It's all built in.
There's just:
3 wires for main DC power incl gnd.
10 Wires for controls (step/dir) etc.
5 wires for RS232.
That's it.
Yes, I knew this but Andrew may also go the Closed-loop route if these don't work out which is why I answered like I did, it also doesn't hurt for anyone else who's watching in the background and might be unsure.!

Personally, I'm not a fan of drivers attached to motors for a number of reasons, vibration, dust, or fluid ingress and heat that will shorten electronics life are some.

Then you have the fact that unless you mount the controller close to the motors you are running sensitive low voltage signal wires around the machine on long wire runs which can basically become an aerial antenna for picking up electrical noise causing all kinds of brain curdling frustrations!
Also, with very long cable runs then you could experience voltage drop and signal loss, etc not good for a stable machine!

Andrew, if running control wires around the machine and through cable chains etc my suggestion is to buy a good quality shielded cable 22Awg (0.35mm) and keep the wire runs short as possible and keep signal cables away from high power cables like mains voltage or high-frequency cables like the spindle. An obviously good grounding in the control box is a must.