Stepper drivers I have covered already -- will most probably be using 2 Gecko 201's ( http://geckodrive.com/product.aspx?c=3&i=14458 ), and 2 home-built EAS drivers ( http://www.embeddedtronics.com/microstep.html ), plus 4 PWM servos. What I was looking for is a way for the controller I use to spit out enough pulse/direction signals per second to feed those drivers. I had not though about the Arduino this way -- as the intermediary. That could work I bet. Actually, I just realized I made a mistake with the math. 200ipm * .001" resolution * 4 microsteps is not 800KHz as I prev calculated, but 800 pulses per minute, so it's actually 16.7KHz. Ack! That certainly changes things ... for the better thankfully. I'm investigating "Processing" at a high-level now since David suggested it also. Looks very interesting. I will pose this to the kids tomorrow to see which they're more comfortable with. Cheers, -Neil. Quoting "William \"Chops\" Westfield" : > On Jan 31, 2010, at 10:06 AM, PICdude wrote: > >> - Talk to stepper motor drivers and servos > > Except for this, you're well into to "straight PC" category, and there > ARE external motor controllers you can connect up. They're > particularly common and inexpensive for servos (eg > http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/207 > ) Stepper controllers will be harder to find, I think, and more > expensive (since it involves power drivers.) > > Here's a 4-motor stepper controller: > http://www.trossenrobotics.com/phidgetstepper-unipolar-usb-4-motor-stepper-controller.aspx?feed=Froogle > > I'll second the recommendation for Arduino; not as the overall > solution to your request, but as the low-level interface between a PC > and actual hardware stuff. This is one of the niches that Arduino > where arduino has secured a spot. An Arduino plus OTS motor driver (2 > servos + 2 steppers) would run about $50 and provide for analog sensor > connections and additional digital outputs (blinking lights) as well! > OTOH: > > >> My other major concern is its ability to deliver stepper pulses at >> over 1MHz to each of a few steppers simultaneously at different >> speeds, cause IIRC it runs on a 16Mhz or 20Mhz microcontroller. > > I'm pretty sure that that's WAY far out on the bell curve WRT stepper > drivers. I don't think there is any way you're going to achieve that > without dedicated hardware drivers. (and looking at some of the > dedicated hardware from Allegro, it seems that 500kHz is a more > typical max step frequency.) I'm also pretty sure that not very many > "high performance" processors can achieve that sort of pulse frequency > under SW control. 2GHz may sound really fast, but once you start > trying to do IO off-chip, things slow WAY down... (the above > referenced stepper controller apparently maxes out at about 350 half- > steps/second...) > >> 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? > > Processing (processing.org) is Java, and has a supposedly beginner- > friendly IDE (the same one used for Arduino, more or less.) Realbasic > (realbasic.com) is also pretty nice (not free, except for eval, > though.) Both are multi-OS homed (Windows, Mac, linux.) I'm not sure > about other "teaching" IDEs; when I use linux I tend to be using > "professional mode" toolsets (bash/gcc/make, or maybe eclipse), but I > don't think anyone has ever claimed that those are "simple." > > BillW > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist