@arvest said in challenge: controlling 88 output pins:
So to summarize: you would use a separate valve controller (arduino + shift registers) to which you send the pattern for the current layer through M118 before starting the layer
I guess it would be safer and faster, when the arduino part holds the pattern data on it's own SD-card. The duet would only control the moves and send a "line number" or a next line signal to the valve controller.
I'm almost tempted to say, a good old RAMPS-controller could do the trick without UART or SPI bottleneck. Everything is onboard, except the shift registers.