You definite need to use a microcontroller. Something like the
68HC11F1 is a good single-chip solution (though the F1 only has
512 bytes of E^2). I'm sure Motorola has newer chips with more
on-board E^2. Stepper motors can be manipulated from a PC parallel
port but you will never get smooth output and you can forget about
momentum accelleration.
There are also a huge number of Intel-derivative microcontrollers that
are as self contained and in much smaller packages then typical motorola
parts.
I'm most familiar with the Motorola's... For a stepper or waveform output
I've always liked the motorola MCUs because they have timer output
compare registers that will automatically flip a bit for you on an
output port, giving you timer resolution down to crystal / 4 and
accuracy that is at the crystal accuracy.
But the Intel derivatives are going to be much, much cheaper... $2 or $3
for an MCU that does what you want and extremely easy to program. Look
at the MCS51 and MCS96 series. Note that there are dozens of manfacturers
of Intel-style controllers.
-Matt
To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
