C10 vs KL-DB25 vs Chinese Breakout boards?

I want an inexpensive breakout board to connect 4 IMS stepper drives and nema 17 stepper motors. I already have the IMS drivers and motors. I would use it to make a 3d printer or play around w/ a delta style robot.

These two boards from Automation Technology seem to fit my needs:
KL-DB25 Opto-Isolated Breakout Board $28.04
C10 Bidirectional Breakout Board $28.04

But, what is the advantage over the other?

Another option is the C1G from CNC4PC for $41.60 listed on the EMC2 Supported Hardware Page

I did see some boards on Ebay from China, but the threads on the TB6560 scared me off some. Any comments on these boards if anyone is using them fairly problem free?

5-axis board from China for $11.77
5-axis board from China for $14.88

There's the TB6560 , which has a wiki page and seems to have setup difficulties. I like it cuz then I can directly connect my steppers and not mess w/ driver wiring. But, scared off of the setup.

Any comments on one of the EBAY boards working okay? Would save a few bucks, but maybe not...

OTHERS
Mesa 7i43 $80-ish, need breakout board.

FloppyDisk wrote:

These two boards from Automation Technology seem to fit my needs:
KL-DB25 Opto-Isolated Breakout Board $28.04
C10 Bidirectional Breakout Board $28.04

But, what is the advantage over the other?

They both seem good basic BOBs

The difference is that the C10 board is buffered, which means it can take the weaker 3.3v signals from modern parports and ensure a good strength signal is output.
Several people have fallen foul of 3.3v parports combined with long cable runs being unable to drive their machines properly and producing all sorts of weird faults

Another option is the C1G from CNC4PC for $41.60

CNC4PC as usual are very expensive

5-axis board from China for $11.77
5-axis board from China for $14.88

The 2 chinese boards have a relay on board, so that spindle or whatever can be controlled directly without additional components
The first one does not say it uses opto-isolators, the second one sort of does in bad chinglish

TB6560, there are about 6 different variant knock offs, each with different wiring etc. You already have drivers so don't even need to consider them.

Depends on your exact requirements, I personally would shortlist the C10 and the second Chinese board if that helps

regards

Thanks ArcEye, just what I was looking for.

So I bought the chinese board for $14.88 and the C10 board from ATi for $28.04. The Chinese board arrived yesterday and I guess the ATi board should arrive today. Both showed delivery of yesterday from USPS, but the USPS tracking I never trust too much. But measuring on results only, +0.5 extra for expediency for the chinese board. I would have lost a bet that the chinese board arrives first.

Now I need to find the darn connector, -0.5 for the connector issue... I did a little looking and couldn't find the connector and measured the spacing.

My measurements:
Outside pin to outside pin: 8.12mm or .320"
Pin width 0.6mm or .023"

Spacing
Metric (8.12 - 0.6)/3 spaces = 2.687mm
Standard: .106"

Looks like 0.1" spacing or I just can't measure (and add)/subract?? Any help w/ the connector would be wonderful.

I tried attaching picture 2x. Here:

Unless I am being stupid, you don't need a special connector, those sockets just mirror the screw terminal blocks in front of them.

A quick check with a multimeter should confirm, there is probably an extra ground pin with the sockets (16 pins versus 15 screw terminals)

Will do later tonight when I get a second.

The issue is that the chinglish on the board doesn't match identically.

On the top by the 5 connectors labeled (X, Y, Z, A, B_), there is +5V, CLK, CW, EN.
On the bottom, it goes like this:
XCLK, XDIR, YCLK, YDIR, ZCLK, ZDIR, ACLK, ADIR, EN, BCLK, BDIR, PWM, PC GND, PC5V, PC5V.

What I take that to be is the the XCLK and XDIR are step and direction and will try that from there.

It's quite the board,

Thanks!

PS I found the connector here from Allied: www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70190578
Molex Incorporated 22-01-3047

I purchased a couple of these chinese BOB's and have not been able to get the inputs to work. Let me know if you have success with them.

The outputs work fine.

mtngun wrote:

I purchased a couple of these chinese BOB's and have not been able to get the inputs to work. Let me know if you have success with them.

The outputs work fine.

Wonderful news to hear!

I'll see if I can hook up a simple switch at some point and try the inputs. I fully expected the limit switch input to be operational, so I'll set that up and try it when I get to it. The three things on the top of the list:

1. Configure BOB with Stepconf w/ linuxCNC (fun! - I hope)
2. Try inputs once configured.
3. Connect IMS drives and motors, configure IMS drive. This is harder than it looks because the connectors on the IMS are not easy and the drive is a drive/controller that needs to be set into a drive mode, of which I've never done before. Considering the price, I'm not complaining.