driver boards for stepper motor

[Miaa]

Hello folks, I am curious in finding out if it is possible to connect one of the following driver boards in between the parallel port and stepper motor.  What do we have to consider in our designs before actually taking this route ......http://www.hobbyengineering.com/H1259.htmlhttp://www.electrokits.com/electronics/motor-control/79.htmI mean driver boards like above are availble in market. Is there any other design requirment which one should re-evaluate before ordering these kits to be used with ni stepper motor program ??thanks

[Bolin]

Hi Miaa, I am not sure what you mean by "parallel port."&nbsp; Do you literally mean the 25-pin printer parallel port on your PC?&nbsp; If so, I am not sure you would be able to send reliable step and direction commands to the drive.If you intend on using our NI-Motion drivers, they will work exclusively with our hardware.&nbsp; Any of our PCI or PXI controller cards, such as the <a href="http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/14338" target="_blank">PCI-7332</a>, will be able to control a stepper motor.&nbsp; These controllers give you access to advanced trajectory control. If you simply wanted to send step commands, you could use a counter card such as the <a href="http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/3589" target="_blank">PCI-6601</a>.&nbsp; This card would use DAQmx instead of NI-Motion, and you would not have any advanced control functions.

[Miaa]

Hi Bolin, This is what i trying to achieve. Instead of the traditional way of interfacing :(1. Visual Basic &gt; 2.parallel port &gt; 3.PIC controller &gt; 4.which has driver circuit &gt; 5.and other data lines used for features like FORWARD direction, STEP, REVERSE direction )i am trying to use( 1.LabVIEW program &gt; 2.parallel port &gt; 3.driver circuit board &gt; 4.to use features like FORWARD direction , STEP, REVERSE direction )So correct me if i understood you correctly. You are saying we can not use parallel port with ( labview + driver board from third party ) to run the stepper. If we have to run labview then the ONLY option is to buy the NI PCI PCI or PXI controller cards.But if i need to send only PWM pulses to the stepper we can do that by using the four counters on counter card such as the <a href="http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/3589" target="_blank">PCI-6601</a>. Each counter will send its own PWM and will allow us to "monitor " the motion using the pulses sent over time. Can we use M-series DAQs which has two couter pins ( PFI0 AND PFI1) to send PWM pulses and use it for Forward and reverse motion. That&nbsp; is use PFI0&nbsp; for&nbsp; reverse and forward motion of&nbsp; stepper motor A and PFI1 for reverse and forward motion of stepper motor B ???Many thanks

[CXB]

Hi Miaa, If the driver circuit board you are planning on purchasing will run from parallel port commands (from a language like VB), then LabVIEW should be able to send these commands and move your motor as well.&nbsp; See the LabVIEW example in the example finder entitled Parallel Port Read and Write Loop.vi.

[Miaa]

so lets suppose i want to drive three stepper motors using the parallel read write program. Since a unipolar motor will take atleast 4 signals so for&nbsp; three unipolar stepper motors i will need 12 signals . Does that means i will need 2 parallel ports now ??

[CXB]

Hi Miaa, I have never personally seen a parallel-port motion set-up.&nbsp; If you need more than the 8 data channels found in a typical <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_port#Pinouts" target="_blank">DB25 connector</a>, then this would necessitate another parallel port.