I've preordered a Carve-X 1000x1000mm with Nema 23 stepper motors which are rated at 2.8A and 200 steps per rotation. I have a smoothie 5 x and will have to use external stepper drivers. I have a couple questions about choosing drivers and setting them up.
1. Is it possible to use external drivers as well as doubling the drivers? I'm new at this, but I'm guessing that I could connect two external drivers in parallel to the M2breakout pins(for my y-axis) or would it be better to enslave one of the additional outputs such as M4 or M5?
2. Also trying to choose my external stepper drivers and I'm noticing that some of them do not have a setting for steps per revolution. Does this apply to me or is this set in the smoothie?
3. I'm really liking the price on the 1 axis TB6560 3A Driver Boards. Will it work with the smoothie? It is much cheaper than the other drivers I've looked at. Will I regret cheaping out on these?
4.I plan to set my smoothie up to run via the network port, so I need to figure out the best way to power the board since I will not be using the usb port. VBB input with a 5v voltage regulator or is there a better way?