Well Jack,
You asked a simple question and off we go to help you or give you more than a simple answer.
I don't like to comment on someones remarks, but, Jeff's reply is very important, also
and i would like to expand on his reply in a different way.
Let's do some design for a machine at a very high level. The motor is sized such that it will move the machines axis with enough power and at some desirable speed along with enough torque. This is true for each of the machines axis's and could be different. The power supply will need to provide the voltage and current to all of the motor drives. Motors can be wired differently to change their operation and thus their voltage and current
requirements will change. Now for each sentence above there are books upon books written.
So lets really confuse the issue of the controller box which usualy contains the power supply, drives, maybe some other boards. You can design something so that it only works within a small range of operation or you can expand the range of operation and allow for some unknown future wants or needs. Also you can be conservative in the design of the components. Cost is also something to consider and could be a deciding factor.
From a cost point of view consider the following:
- Dedicated contoller to one machine to just to get it cnc'd and fool around with to gain experience $=?
- A contoller to use for multiple machines some requiring a better power supply $=?
I would recommend the following for your consideration:
1. Make the box large enough so you can add additional drives allowing room for easy routing of the wires, access, room for other boards etc.
2. Consider a power supply / supplies , or maybe one now and addition of another such that it would take care of future needs. I have have 30 amp power supply at 36 volts, so it can take care of 4 dives easy and that allows me to address about anything at a hobby level i should need.
I just don't want you to spend money and be sorry later on. So think about it.
RICH