Quote Originally Posted by ukracer View Post
I am trying to learn which parts does what , as much as save money. I hope you understand :)
Ok here's a quick 101

To make a working system you need 5 main components.! . . . Stepper motors, Stepper drivers ,Power supply ,Signal source and control software Ie: Mach3. With an optional but recommended 6th component being a breakout board (BOB) for ease of wiring.

Stepper drivers convert signals from the Signal source, Ie parallel port or external motion controller into eletrical energy to move the stepper motors a set number of steps commanded from the Control software. This energy is provided by the Power supply.
The Breakout board is an option to make wiring easy but can left out and wires taken directly from the Signal source Ie Parallel port cable but it's not recommended for number of reasons, mainly you can fry the parallel port or PC if energy is dumped back into the cable. For this reason BOB's are often opto isolated to prevent this happening so recommended.

Now you have everything but the signal source and possibly control software Ie Mach3.? As stated in my previous post the paralle port is the easy and cheap route for a signal source and USB or Ethernet will require a external motion controller to provide the signal source.

Provide these components are connected together correctly and stepper drivers setup correctly to match the motors then you should have a working system.