how to connect to teknik servo drives

Hello, I have a custom CNC router built in the late 90's It has Teknik SST-1500-XLW servo drives, It currently uses WinCnc for the controller software, and some custom breakout board. but I would like to take advantage of the benefits Linux has to offer. I'm going to upgrade the PC and need to know what is the best way to interface with the servo drives. I contacted WinCNC and they use a PCI-7200 card with daughterboards. Not really sure what that is for, as I've seen CNC setups run from the parallel port. Can someone please explain?

A quick google search shows that those drives support step and direction and analog velocity mode
Step/Dir will work with just a parallel port (though there may be maximum speed limitations)

thanks

Generally these higher-end drives export the native servo encoder resolution as the step resolution, and that is often quite high. So, the typical step rates available from a parallel port via software step generation will be very limited. I suspect a hardware step generator would be needed. One possible choice is the Pico Systems Universal Stepper Controller, which can conservatively output up to 300,000 steps/second on all axes simultaneously. It supports up to 4 axes, and has 16 digital inputs and place to mount up to 8 solid state relays for digital outputs. You can run open-loop, and just send steps to the drive, or you can run closed-loop, and have the drive send position back to the controller.

Jon (disclaimer: I am Pico Systems)

The Wincnc control set up uses the PCi-7200 card along with an attached proprietary daughter card to generate hardware step generation. A lot faster than you'll ever get from a parallel port. It is all uses proprietary software and drivers, I don't think you'll ever be able to make that card setup work with Linuxcnc. On the plus side if you decide to try software stepping, the Teknik drives can do software gear ratios so you can pretty much make your step to distance traveled what ever suits your fancy. Personally I would suggest some form of hardware stepgen(something from Mesa or Pico???).

I am running a machine that was once runing Wincnc software with Linuxcnc and a Mesa 5i25/7i85S combo. It has Tekniks 1500-ACX servo drives.