I'm reading a Mitsubishi servo drive manual that effectively says it has a step/dir mode is available for its inputs. 
Does anybody here have any experience in trying to use Mitsubishi drives in a Mach3 system?  Is there any reason why one of these drives couldn't/shouldn't be driven from Mach3's parallel port?

Are there any other major manufacturers whose products will accept step/dir inputs?

Also, does anybody know a way to use Parker-Hannafin Aries drives (analog inputs) and controllers with Mach3?

Do you know of anybody working on a simple, low-cost, open-source step-to-analog converter?

I'm aware of Gecko, Galil, DSPMC, K-FLOP/K-Analogue, but there really ought to be a way for us to utilize the surplus servo drives & brushless motors that sell on eBay for pennies on the dollar.

Regards to all...
Dave

Hi Servolock,
I really can't help you with the Mitsi stuff but I would like to point out that I am on my second retrofit and we have used a Kanalog/Kflop board in both cases and, with the extraordinary assistance we get from Tom Kerekes, I believe we are getting far better than "pennies on the dollar" value.
Tom's help is the torch that keeps us from floundering too far in the dark and that is absolutely invaluable to us.
Admittedly, if you are a little more savvy in matters pertaining to the electronic wizardry that occurs with these machines, other alternatives may be just as suitable

Ross

Another contributor here, Hood, just told me about YAPSC:10V, which is an open-source product that may address the need I'm seeing.  I'm ordering a set of parts to try it out.  I'm hoping it will indeed be the missing link that will let us use conventional analog servo drives with Mach3's step/dir outputs.

Dave

The drives offer system builders a choice of servomotor, closed-loop vector or V/Hz motor control modes, combined with an array of features and configuration options that provide exceptional versatility of use.The servo drives are connected via industry-standard Ethernet to the test machine's host computer, which runs National Instruments' LabVIEW software, and are controlled via TCP/IP using the built-in ActiveX commands in Baldor's Mint programming language.

A industrial quality servodriver that supports almost every input format is Granite devices VSD-E, hobby price and pro features in my opinion.
http://www.granitedevices.fi/ (Not affiliated, just a happy customer!)
Some Berger-Lahr servo and high voltage 3-phase stepper drivers also accept step/dir, good german stuff that somtimes can be had cheap.

I've just picked up a servo driven Denford Triac, which has Baldor DBCSC 1100/1000 drives which take step/direction inputs. Hoping to squeeze Mach3 in there somehow...wish me luck.

Any info on this, i would be grateful.