Which Controller

Projects General Guidance
1

I stumbled upon this amazing Arduino stuff while surfing...

I think I was considering 'stepper motor controllers' to build a home brew CNC....
Started off looking at EMC2, but somehow surfed to a tangent, and started looking at Arduino. WikiPedia is my friend.

Wow...my brain is ready to explode! :astonished: This is like an engineer's Tinker Toy !

There are so many options, and I do tend to get carried away.

So, should I just opt for a solution with the mega1260 ? the uno ?

I have a couple of 'projects' in mind, and do desire flexibility.

Is anyone aware of a 'comparison' article or blog that discusses the all Arduino base options.

Thanks...in advance...

2

The Uno is plenty flexible for many applications.

I would only buy a mega if I had a specific need for it, not just as something to tinker with. (and I personally have never had such a need)

3

If your aim is to build a toy CNC an Uno is a good choice, if you want to build something like a reprap or bigger then you'll need a Mega2560. I have both and I found that the 2560 is far easier to add limit switches and the like to it compared to the Uno which runs out of pins to use fairly quickly.

If your CNC needs encoders for positional feedback then the Mega is definitely the one you want. It can handle 6 of them relatively well.