John,
As John Koziol mentioned you need to contact the manufacturer. I would also suggest contacting the manufacturer of the board that controls the stepper/servo they should have a set of API's available to control the board.
Whatever the API's are written will determine which language to use.I wouldn't suggest using VFP becuase of timing concerns. Good Luck

Mark A. Struck

>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.
>
>
>>
>>I need some advice on how to communicate and control a stepper or servo motor through VB of VFP.
>>
>>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.
>>
>>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.
>>
>>John Vlahos