I'm curious

Why don't I see more CNC guys putting together drive system from major
manufacturers.
I've been watching this group for the last month and looking in the archives
it seems like this hobby is stuck in the late 70's.

I've looked at these "Gecko" type drivers they sell to drive Bi/Uni polar
motors at best half step for $150 and up, and all this is purely amateur
hour stuff.

Ridiculous! Seriously this seems really crazy to me. Why on earth would I
drive several hundreds if not thousands of pound worth of machinery moving
at high speeds with pulses from a parallel port and using DOS no less.
When you can talk to an professional industrial grade indexer via serial or
device driver and run it under Windows or Linux if you must. These indexers
are very intelligent and handle all the I/O, Encoders, drivers, backlash,
deadband, linked moves, curve interpolation, limit monitoring, and more.

I just did a quick search for Compumotor products (my personal favorite) and
here what I found today;

A pair of 50000 Microstep Stepper Drivers starting at $19 with $180 buy it
now
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7532426297
or other microstepper drivers (Zetas 4 are great)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7530904583
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7530594973
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7530907082
Paired up with any S 57 or 83 series motor
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7532121199 $25 (low
torque)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7531200682 $24 (low)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7530594904 $10 (high
400oz)
slap some $40 US Digital 2000 line encoders on these and it a closed loop at
8000 ppr.


Servo Drivers?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7532283428 $75
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7531003102 $23
Pair it up with these motors;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7532283649 $45
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7531512855 $35

I see PC-23 and 6000 series indexers for sale for a few hundred all the
time.

There's a 6K2 with an Expansion i/o module for $780 but that's a bit high.

There are also TWO whole 4 axis system starting at $1000 with indexer,
drivers, motors!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7532416649

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest... Guess the reaming is next :)