take a look at EMC running in linux
It'll run steppers out a parallel port at fairly insane step rates.

it can also run hobby servos as well as the real deal.

if you want more then use a mesa card to provide hardware stepping and 
servo I/O.

you can interact with EMC through python.

PICdude wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm doing some science/engineering/robotics projects with a handful of  
> high-school students and for our current project, we're looking for a  
> "controller" -- a hardware platform, with OS and programming  
> language/environment, so I'm seeking suggestions.
>
> This controller will/should...
> - Have a keyboard and video interface (like a PC),
> - Talk to stepper motor drivers and servos,
> - Have a USB host interface (so we can transfer files using USB flash drives).
> - Have a high-school-student friendly programming  
> language/environment.  C is probably okay, but Basic or Pascal would  
> be less cryptic for them.  Also, I'd prefer a common (well-known)  
> language as they can learn something that makes them more marketable.
> - Be stable (as bug-free or crash-free as possible).
>
> So far this is pretty much a PC, but to control the steppers & servos  
> (PWM), we'd need to use a real-time OS, or use a fake-time (???) OS  
> and build an intermediate hardware piece to take parallel/serial/USB  
> signals and convert them to real-time signals for the stepper drivers  
> and servos.  The latter I can do with a PIC, or use a USB-to-I2C or  
> Serial-to-I2C interface and build a PIC-based hardware device to  
> convert the I2C signals to stepper and servo signals.  Or perhaps  
> there are low-cost USB to stepper devices already available...?
>
> I have a not-currently-in-use Mini-ITX mobo here (with PS, RAM, etc),  
> and really want to use that, unless someone can talk me out of it, but  
> need to find an O.S. for this.  A decent low-cost real-time Linux O.S.  
> would be nice, or a regular Linux distro if I use the hardware  
> interfaces for the stepper/servos.  But I don't know what the current  
> offerings are for programming languages/environments on that -- any  
> decent/simple IDEs?  Windows seems to have many user-friendly  
> programming environments, but is not real-time and is less stable.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Cheers,
> -Neil.
>
>
>
>
>
>   

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