Motors never reverse

jblain wrote:

Since parallel pci cards are cheap (10 $) would it just be simplest to find a good 5 volts one and just install it ?
If so, would you have any suggestions as to what card to buy ?

It might be one solution. But if it doesn't work….

For only 10x the price of a cheap parport ($80) you can have a Mesa 5i25, which does so much more.

Some limited info:

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NetMos
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Startech

I think that the Oxford Semiconductor one were OK too.

They nearly all work, but some won't do EPP properly (which isn't a problem for your use)

jblain wrote:

Ok I have had a look at the mesanet website. If I understand correctly, I should basically get
One mesa 5I85 and one mesa 7I76 connection box with matching cable. I would then be all set to connect my drivers. Right ?

Assuming you mean 5i25, then yes.

How hard is it to configure hal for this hardware. Is it directly supported ?

It is supported by HAL and the Hostmot2 driver. It is not included properly in the pncconf wizard yet.

It takes up a single pci slot (low profile) but I suppose that 2 db 25 connectors flange come out of the PC back ?

It only comes with one DB25 connector as standard. You probablly don't need the extra one as the single connector gives you 5 axes of step/dir, a spindle drive voltage/switches and 48 IO pins. You can plug one extension board into the 7i76 for another 48 IO pins. Only when you have used up all that would you need to start populating the other 25-pin connector, and for that you would need to source something like
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160576097779
Apart from the extra IO the big advantage of the board is that it takes your maximum step rate from about 50kHz to 10MHz. Admittedly you can't spin the motors that fast, but there is a great reduction in step-rate granularity.