The Current Bread & Butter Setup?

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30 Nov 2025 17:13 #339508 by Billy Boy
The Current Bread & Butter Setup? was created by Billy Boy
I'm looking for suggestions for a simple bread & butter Linux CNC install.

It seems like an Raspberry Pi 5 + Mesa 7i96S might be the current standard, but it's not super clear? A while back it seemed like the Beaglebone was a good option, but it seems things have not gone that way?

Background...
I've built/retrofitted a number of machines with Linux CNC, but not for perhaps 10 years.  I've done a lot of machining and I'm fully competent with Linux.

I've got a new project that wants to integrate 2 Sherline CNC chucker lathes with some additional widgets.  Each lathe would get its own LinuxCNC hardware & software and the integration would be via ssh/linux command line.

If I can get the system working well, I might get orders for 10 or 50 of these systems over the next few years, so I would really like to use a stable, easy to get, standardized off-the-shelf parts, that can be expected to remain available for the next 5 years. I'm *not* looking to cobble something together out of 10 year old PCs, and I'd prefer not to build on some wierd/cheapo/legacy PC off Amazon which may go away in 3 months.

I'm looking for a simple reliable bread & butter LinuxCNC platform.

Suggestions?

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30 Nov 2025 17:20 #339509 by andypugh
Replied by andypugh on topic The Current Bread & Butter Setup?
For reproducible hardware the Pi5 is probably a good choice. It's not the absolute best of platforms, but it is a known quantity and that would be useful if you are making multiples of the system.

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01 Dec 2025 00:15 #339535 by Billy Boy
Replied by Billy Boy on topic The Current Bread & Butter Setup?
Thanks Andy.

Is the rPi GPIO interface considered fully baked, or is the Mesa 7i96S the smart bet? I would totally love to avoid the $150+ for the Mesa, but only if that does not then cost me an additional $300 in labor time.

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