Hi John ---

Most devices of this type can communicate through an A/D port (used commonly in manufacturing)....I haven't ever tried to work with this on the PC side, but I imagine that you'll need to use VC++ (or maybe VB) to peek/poke (jeez - old terms) the values directly. Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer of the stepper/servo and see what they have in the way of softwear tools.


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>I need some advice on how to communicate and control a stepper or servo motor through VB of VFP.
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>Are there any Activex controls which I may purchase from a third party customer that will allow me to acheive this?
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>Do I need any interface cards, or can I send signals directly through a parallel and/or serial port to to be used as a clock signal for a counter IC (Integrated Circuit)? The second method is the preferred method.
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>I would also like to control the frequency of this pulse signal.
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>Again, I need a simple solution, which does not require the need to buy expensive hardware and software. Presently I have the stepper motor, and a board for the phase sequencing, which does not plug into a computer slot or any controller. I need to simply send pulses directly to the board using only my serial and/or parallel port, which will be connected to this board via cable, whih in turn connects to the motor.
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>If this doable, do I need to boost the signal coming from the computer, or is the signal strong enough as is.
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> I am consulting a manufacturing company, and this is the project I have accepted. Personally, I do not have much experience with this. so any advice is strongly appreciated.
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>Thank you very much.
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>John Vlahos