Great reply and info. Jeff. Kinda like a tutor post. Your full of good information. 

Brett

I have to disagree here...........

Opto Isolation is THE way to go. I was getting my 5 axis Shoptask ready for the Mach3 Convention SE. The computer motor board was old (BTW opto isolation works both ways). Any way I was using some first Generation C-10's from CNC4PC (the new stuff is isolated, the old was not).  At any rate I was testing my machine, and something went BANG in my computer, and it promply died..........  I opened the case and some capacitors had Blown up (this machine had run for about 5 years), these caps took out my mother board and PP ports......

But that is not the worst, it also took out BOTH of my BOBs (I held these up and showed the participants of the show why ISO is good), and further when the BOBs went they in turn took out 3 or my 5 Geckos..........  Total cost: One computer, 2 BOBs, 2 PP's, 3 Geckos and lots and lots of Klenex tisssues for all the crying that I did.

The lesson is, sometimes it is NOT you, sometimes Electronics just go bad with age and Fail ALWAYS at an inopertune time, like 2 Days before a planned Demo.....

Scott

The lesson is, sometimes it is NOT you, sometimes Electronics just go bad with age and Fail ALWAYS at an inopertune time, like 2 Days before a planned Demo....

Very well put Scott...no wonder they invented opto-isolation 

Great information (everyone)! 

Perhaps I should (figure how to) create a new topic on this -- but it's slightly related to the current dialog...

What's the basic method for interfacing to the otpo-22 SSRs via Mach 3 I/O?  Is there a plug-in enabling Mach 3 to "talk" with the Opto-22 SSRs on the break out board?
I did a quick search and didn't see one. For instance, given that the Galil plug-in allows an I/O interface, does it follow that there is an Opto-22 plug-in for I/O? 

Or is it serial I/O? I read a while back that the Opto-22's ISA board (in my setup) is basically a common PC I/O interface board (Com ports or printer ports, I forget) that decodes commands sent to it and performs the respective I/O with the opto-22 SSRs mounted on the break out board. 

I've written standalone code in C++ to interface with Opto-22's (ISA and Ethernet) using their Opto-22's programming library, but I'd rather not have to do that again for Mach 3 if it already's been done somehow .

--Scott

Sorry to jump on the band wagon re BreakOut Boards.

I purchased 2 "Parallel interface cards (c1)"  from cnc4rpc some time ago. I cant find any info on their site about these cards any more - must be old model?

Will these cards give me any protection for my PC?

Try this link,
RC

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=47

Thanks for the link,

I have been there, but my board is not listed.  Must be to old!

Thanks anyway.

The link is to the C1 product page. 
Are you sure what you have is a C1 ?
RC

Here is a pic of the card.


Cheers,

 Bruce

Hello Bruce,
That must be like you say, an older version of the C1.
I would say that it probably is buffered and isolated due to the fact that it need s a separate 5V supply.
On the newer ones, the chips are in sockets for easy replacement.
Several other options were added as well.
You could email Mr Duncan to be sure, he's always been happy to help and quick to respond.
His components are all that I use...and I've had no problems.
Regards,
RC