Ok, I understand what needs to happen here to make the system work. As Jim said, I need to find how it is all going to connect together. Jim, yes there is a controller, they call it a pendant, it is a DOS based computer system that connects to the panel shown above, it works, just doesn't do what I need it to do and will not accept large quantities of G-code. I have considered drip feeding it as well but I think it would be better to just upgrade as much as I can, please correct me if anyone has another suggestions.
I emailed the company that made it back again and asked if the servo drives would accept step and direction inputs, here is his reply
"The motors on the MX3 unit are DC motors not stepper motors. They use a variable square wave signal from the computer to move and to control direction of movement. If the signal is longer in the positive direction than the negative, the motor will move forward
in the positive direction, etc.
Tip: The "brain" for the MX3 is equivalent to a desktop computer, but it contains a special plug-in board that controls movement of the motors."
The special plug in board sounds like a controller board to me? This would be taken place by my PC, Mach and the smooth stepper wouldn't it?
Does the "variable square wave signal" sound like step and directional inputs?
Thanks again all of you for your help,
Scott