Hi,
should've made it plain the UC100 or PMDX-411 are USB devices, they get their power from the PC when you plug into a USB port. Inside the device
is either a DSP or FPGA chip which takes Mach machine code output from USB and produces highly accurate pulse streams for steppers or servos which
exit the device on a DB25 connector, aka a parallel port.
They are WAY WAY to clever to be called a 'USB to Parallel Converter', they are genuine external motion controllers, but may be thought of as
a converter. As such you could plug it in to the parallel port on the control box you got with your router.
The Gecko 540 I recommended combines a breakout board and multi stepper driver in one. You probably don't really need it but Gecko have a superb
reputation for reliability and they back them up. Most Chinese controllers use a common and cheap Toshiba IC for stepper drivers and they blow up all
the time.
There you have it... the cheapest way to get your machine to go is about $100 for either of the motion controllers, another $300 for a 540 if you want
better drivers plus of course a licence for Mach. There you have a choice, Mach3 is well established and has lots of features and tricks built in for $175.
All development work has ceased on Mach3, it will still be around for years yet but it is or will be overtaken by Mach4. Mach4 is all new, its modular,
designed and engineered in modern fashion. It is still developing but for mills and routers it ready to go. Mach4 is $200. Given that is all new you CANT
upgrade from Mach3...you have to buy new. If you want the latest and greatest go straight to Mach4. Both the UC100 and PMDX-411 have Mach4
plugins available.
You can also of course get a PC with a parallel port. I bought a mini-ITX board base on a dual core Atom CPU a couple of years ago, it had a parallel port
built in and I added another with a PCI card and used Mach3 with two ports for a couple of years. It can be done and cheaply.
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/I have more recently changed to Mach4 and an external motion controller, an ESS by Warp9 but on the same little miniITX board.
Craig