PICs as replacements for L297s

Just wondering how Larry Edington is coming in his project using PICs
as replacements for L297s. Things sounded like they were moving fast
and furious a few weeks back.

I guess the idea is one of those "great minds think alike" sort of
things. I'd looked into getting some "step/direction" chips locally,
and was told "yea, we could get em, but you'd have to order 25."
They had lots of the one time programmable PICs, and they were cheep,
so I got to thinking . . .

Strange how life seems to flow in circles though.

I got heavily into reading the comp.home.automation newsgroup last
fall when I started playing with X-10 stuff again. Started
reading about customizing some of the control modules by replacing
the PICs. Saw a flier from a nearby surplus shop with a sale on
small steppers. Thought they might be fun to play with. Also though
that maybe with a customized module, I could use them to control
opening and closing the blinds. Started browsing the web for
information on using the steppers. One of the stepper projects used
a PIC, which reminded me to look at the PIC programming sites.
Following links about steppers, took me to sites of people building
their own small home CNC machines. Naturally saw one that "milled"
circuit boards. Thought that would be great to make the PIC
programmer board (as well as a few other projects). The more I
looked at home built CNC sites, the more my mind hit on hundreds of
things I could with a CNC machine. Naturally that led to joining
this email list. I started collecting the bits and pieces of stuff I
needed for my own little machine when I hit the "order 25" thing. A
week later or so, the "PICs as replacements for L297s" thread started.

You know, I believed in that sort of stuff, I'd almost think it was
karma.

Ian C.