Quote Originally Posted by komatias View Post
The breakout board does not have to be fancy, it can only be there to protect the expensive motion controller and computer or if you want a bit more it can also incorporate relays, switches etc.
Sorry you have this very wrong.!! . . . The Breakout board(BOB) is everything and THE biggest bottle neck and cause of trouble to any machine.
All the signals from your Expensive motion controller go thru the BOB so if it's a cheap device with slow opto's then no point having a motion controller that's capable of 4Mhz if the BOB opto's are restricted to 100khz causing a bottle neck.!!

Like wise no point having those nice clean pulses coming from the motion controller if the poor quality BOB is going to distort and mess with them.!!

Bells and whistle's like Relays yes you can do without but not when it comes to quality of Motor Output signals and for this you need a quality BOB to match your motion controller.
Personally I wouldn't use any BOB with a Smooth stepper other than the PMDX 126. The C25 or any of the Cnc4Pc boards can't hold a Candle to PMDX products. I've got several Cnc4Pc boards here in my scrap/replaced Bin but you won't find any PMDX boards in there.!!

Now Jon if you want the BEST motion controller you want Cslabs Csmio products. They are not the cheapest but they are certainly the best by a long way in this price range.
I've used most motion controllers now and Non come close in performance, reliabilty and quailty. They DONT require a break out board like others with all input/outputs going directly to motion controller via supplied Terminal blocks to avoid exactly the Bottle neck problems mentioned above.
They use 24V Differential I/O so are very noise immune. Again far better than any other motion controller I've ever used. So much so that I can use my machine while welding with high frequency Tig welder right next to the CNC machine running on the same Ring main circuit. (Try that with a EtherNet smooth stepper and see what happens.!!)

Then we have the Software side, Warp9 or should say Greg the maker of the Smooth stepper are disgrace when it comes to Software upgrades or resolving issues. The software plug-ins are poor and Buggy and rarely updated unless half the world jumps up and down at same time. If you have a problem specific to your setup getting Greg to listen or acknowledge is like trying to get an audience with the Queen.

Cslabs on the other hand don't have many issues with Software to start with and the Plug-ins just work perfectly. If they do find bugs they are often very minor and release updates straight away. They also are constantly improving software and releasing updates.
If you do have a Specific issue to your system they will reply in resonable amount of time and often come up with an answer to the problem. (Often it's you not them to Blame.!!. . . .Don't ask how I know that.!! . .Lol)

Again you really do get what you pay for and no point having best of anything unless all the system is matched and balanced. Any machine is only as good as the weakest link and all too often that weak link is the BOB.!!