Hey all,

Im well on the way to building my SX3 CNC mach based machine.  As this is my only milling machine I wanted to be able to use it as a manual machine too, so after looking on ebay I got three chinese mpg wheels and have made some mounting brackets.


I am also making my control unit in a computer box to keep everything tidy.  I plan to fit a 4th axis driver soon too.


But, this requires two inputs per axis plus some other switches to control x10 x100 etc so my question (whilst showing progress) is: are there any opto-isolated breakout boards which favour inputs over outputs i.e. I want as many inputs as possible, that work with a smooth stepper and mach3 and are cheap......

When I get some more time I will post the progress leading upto this point.

Rob.

I like pmdx 122's.  Have a look at their docs on PMDXs site. You can set pins 2-9 as inputs.  There small and with the right stand offs you could stack them up. I ran my MPG straight to the SS though, port 3.  This gives me no optical isolation on those inputs though.  I can't remember all the details of why but the inputs I used for the MPG had to be normal inputs, not outputs selected as inputs (2-9).

Brett

The PMDX 126 is a great unit too. It allows the SS to plug in directly. It has expanded mode capabilities that allow more inputs on a single port if desired. It has plenty more abilities I don't even begin to understand ;-)