Quote Originally Posted by ravihotwok View Post
im not sure ig I would need anything else such as drivers for the motors? one advantage is that I could input the program off line so no danger of lost steps or pc crashes.
You would still need drives for the motors, it's only the controller you'd be buying. Also, if you have two motors on one axis ie twin ball-screws, then I've got a feeling these controllers don't allow motor slaving.? I could be wrong because I don't use or like them as I find PC-based controllers are more flexible and you can see what's happening better, they also allow for far more control of the machine.

They also don't take away the chance of missed steps.? They work exactly like any other controller regards step generation so if you over-tune the motors, which is the most common cause of missed steps, then they will do exactly the same as any other controller and you'll get missed steps.!

They will also still crash because it's still essentially a PC inside that's running the show, but yes they are slightly more stable than a PC that's been used for several other tasks. However, if you do a fresh install of windows on a PC, turn off all the crap running in the background and just use it solely for the CNC with a decent motion controller then you won't get crashes.