What software would be recommend?

[Clive S]

Clives S on this forum is the Man you want to ask. He's the Linux Guru around here..

Dean don't take the piss

However linux and luxcnc are quite different. Linuxcnc is a motion controller that is embedded into a version of linux running a real time kernel. Now if you want to try it say for a simple 3 axis machine then it is simple as there is a program that is installed along with Linuxcnc called stepconfig. Stepconf is a program that generates configuration files for LinuxCNC for a specific class of CNC machine: those that are controlled via a standard parallel port, and controlled by signals of type step & direction.

You just fill in the boxes and it generates the configuration files for you. the step pulses etc. are generated within the PC.

If you want to have the pulses generated in hardware then you can use a Mesa card. that is installed in a pci or pcix slot in the pc in this case thee Mesa card is connected to a BOB through a db25 pin cable and will provide you with spindle control plus mpg encoder and loads of input and outputs all 24v etc.etc.

There is also a Mesa card than can be connected via lan cable.

Going down the Mesa route you use a program called Pnconf that is a wizard to get you going.

The download for the latest stable version is :- http://www.linuxcnc.org/linuxcnc-2.7-wheezy.iso
And the Docs:- http://linuxcnc.org/docs/2.7/html/