I’ve been looking at the MPCNC for a while now, trying to learn as much as I can before I dive in. Now that I’m ready to dive in (Beginning printing this week), I find myself wondering if I could use a raspberry pi with a say a Protoneer hat as an all in one head unit rather than having a RAMBO board. I can’t find much in the way of instruction for this. Maybe I’m not navigating the forum correctly. I have seen a couple of youtube videos that seem to have done this, but they don’t explain how. Am I being a moron?
I will assume you are referring to the MPCNC for this part.
I really depends on what you want to do. Currently you will get the most functionality and future proofing out of a 5+ (driver board and what ever controller you want (USB, PI, LCD).
I used that hat for a long time, and I know there were a few other users here in the forums. It works well, runs grbl, not Marlin. The Marlin RAMBO route is well documented, but there are enough grbl users here to help you find your way if you get stuck.