thanks guys, i googled max nc and found it to be a machine manufacturer, from what i can make from the threads in here the wave driver must be some kind of auto configure for their kit. to be honest i was sceptical about it working as even if mach3 could alternate pulses to two diferent pins, it could not reverse polarity so the motor would only ever run in one direction. i had seen a breakout board advertised which could directly control steppers up to 700mA at 5V without drivers using the wave driver config, this would have been perfect for what i need but as the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
David