How many uncoordinated axis can linuxcnc drive?

So we have the 9 normal ones.....problem is I need 16axis total.
 

Found a machine that needs a new controller and peaked my interest on how would I do it..... It has 20ish stepper motors on it

It's a machining version of a progressive stamping die. Where 4 drills and a tap station are positioned into place via steppers than ran pneumatically after that. Thus most of the axis are used at the start of the program... after that they aren't used. These do have working homing switches. 


A saw, bar feeder, bar magazine, and prob the tap station are the things that need live axis/gcode control..... But none of the axis needs to be coordinated As everything fires (drill, tap, saw) then the bar feeder advances one station. 


The lame way would be to have 8 solenoids (3PDT) connect the step, direction, and home switch pins for each of those 4 drills (2 axis each), then home and position it. So all 8 axis could be "one axis" in software..... Seems complex.

Surely a software solution exists. Custom M code? 

Will use gcode for as much as possible but not opposed to Python or hal scripts. 


Thanks








 

Ahhh thanks, that extra joints is what I need for sure.

Hoping I can make a custom M code to control them

Also looks like the number of joints can be increased if recompiled. Per the docs.

The limits for the following items are compile-time settings:
num_joints: Maximum number of joints is set by EMCMOT_MAX_JOINTS.

Will give this a shot, thanks