I have been testing a PandaZhu board for the last couple of months on my CR10s 3d printer. It boasts 8 driver ports and uses a esp-32 processor with wifi and a web ui with prontoface type webpage. I was going to try and see if it would work on my mpcnc but the cold weather and life got in the way. Yu Mark (who developed the board) just posted yesterday that he had released GRBL_esp32 for the Pandazhu and the PandaM4 as well as Marlin 2.0.8. I think these boards would be great on the mpcnc. The M4 may be lacking if you are looking at auto squaring as it only has 4 drivers but does come with 4 TMC2209 drivers integrated on board while the Zhu has a choice of drivers. Yu Mark does excellent support for his boards and is constantly coming up with new ideas and designs. I have also used his PandaPi 2.5 and 2.8 on my printers which uses a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 as it processor, and has octoprint on board. PandaPi store
His GitHub site
Pretty interesting stuff. I have wanted to use a can extruder board on my printer and I like the esp32 cpus a lot. I am sure they could handle an mpcnc.
He is sending me a Can board and will see how it works. I was thinking it for the mpcnc it may be able to add a fifth driver to the pandam4 board by using the Can board to run the z motor (yes the Can board has a tmc2209 on board) but not sure if it would be supported in the grbl firmware. If there is anyone that could do it, I am sure the Yu Mark would. I cannot believe how fast he can take an idea and have have a working prototype, then have the board available for sale. His filament sensor is great and can detect and pause the job if you have a plugged nozzle by comparing the movement of the filament to the esteps of the motor.
I finally got around to looking deeper into this board. I love what I am seeing. I sent Mark an email with a few questions.
I have a couple for you though. Still using this board, is it as awesome as it seems?
I have been using the Panda Zhu with Marlin 2.0.8 on my Creality Cr10s and yes its been a good board. I haven’t tried it on my MPCNC as its been winter up here and its in an unheated garage, I was just putting my new brushless spindle on it later today as I have to do some cutting for a neighbor. Spring is here, finally! Mark is a great guy to deal with, one man show but gets back to you very quickly. He is a software engineer.
Nice! Thanks for the update.