PICstep Was: Interface. Gauging interest.

When I first wrote about this I wasn't even considering steppers, for
all of the usual reasons. Because parallel ports are free and any RTOS
can provide precise pulse stream timing, I didn't see the point. I
still don't really -- if you have old motherboards laying around, it's
easy enough to give them new life controlling mills and garage doors.

And all steppers offer is reduced cost and high starting torque (which
you can get from a DC servo if you really want it.) If you want
precise motion, you still need feedback from the motor shaft and a
controller that can microstep, so you're back into the cost range of a
servo.

So what's wrong with http://www.usbcnc.com/ ? Again, everything goes
in the PIC code.

On 5/15/06, Graham Stabler <eexgs@...> wrote:
> I'm happy using my parallel port at the moment but it sure is nice to
> feel a bit future proofed by the USB developments. A more lowly g-rex
> for bog standard apps would be pretty good.
>
> Graham