(233,’2006-07-22 12:00:00′,’figNoggle’,’2006-12-20 08:04:46′,’david’,’How To Select The Right Breakout Board’,”,’Well, we’re off researching the various breakout board options out there.
Why do we need a breakout board? We keep hearing the term “breakout board” this and “breakout board” that. It’s actually only half of the question and answer as we’re finding out. What we _really_ need is something to isolate power going back into the PC from the various drivers and servo or step motors that will be under at least 5VDC of power (if not more!). Turns out that the breakout board, which in its most basic sense is “just” a board that takes the pins of the DB25/parallel port on the PC to terminals that can be easily accessed. Sure, we could solder things like limit and home switches to the Xylotex board for example, but they offer only pass-through terminals, which is basically the essence of the breakout board for those pins that are available.
There are two options here. If we decide to buy another Xylotex board, we’ll need a way to isolate voltage (aka opto-isolation) i.e. offer voltage protection for the PC. We can wire up something ourselves and then connect them to the available terminals and then have Mach or TurboCNC for example work with those available pins to control home and/or limit switches. The other option is to buy a mega breakout board that actually serves to do a bunch of things, one of which is voltage isolation.
For now, BreakoutBoards.com has some wiki-style information that can be updated by anyone so that all the facts can be provided for others who are just getting into the learning curve of selecting the “right” breakout board.
Moral of this story? A “breakout board” is probably not exactly what you’re looking for. Find the functions that you want and match that with a board that satisfies those requirements. More than likely, it’ll still be marketed as a “breakout board” but you’ll know going into it what you really wanted to begin with. Hope this helps!
Oh and by the way, they are also sometimes referred to as “computer control interface boards”, “controller cards” to create more confusion!
‘,’
Well, we’re off researching the various breakout board options out there.
Why do we need a breakout board? We keep hearing the term “breakout board” this and “breakout board” that. It’s actually only half of the question and answer as we’re finding out. What we really need is something to isolate power going back into the PC from the various drivers and servo or step motors that will be under at least 5VDC of power (if not more!). Turns out that the breakout board, which in its most basic sense is “just” a board that takes the pins of the DB25/parallel port on the PC to terminals that can be easily accessed. Sure, we could solder things like limit and home switches to the Xylotex board for example, but they offer only pass-through terminals, which is basically the essence of the breakout board for those pins that are available.
There are two options here. If we decide to buy another Xylotex board, we’ll need a way to isolate voltage (aka opto-isolation) i.e. offer voltage protection for the PC. We can wire up something ourselves and then connect them to the available terminals and then have Mach or TurboCNC for example work with those available pins to control home and/or limit switches. The other option is to buy a mega breakout board that actually serves to do a bunch of things, one of which is voltage isolation.
For now, BreakoutBoards.com has some wiki-style information that can be updated by anyone so that all the facts can be provided for others who are just getting into the learning curve of selecting the “right” breakout board.
Moral of this story? A “breakout board” is probably not exactly what you’re looking for. Find the functions that you want and match that with a board that satisfies those requirements. More than likely, it’ll still be marketed as a “breakout board” but you’ll know going into it what you really wanted to begin with. Hope this helps!
Oh and by the way, they are also sometimes referred to as “computer control interface boards”, “controller cards” to create more confusion!
‘,”,”,”,’Home-Brewed-CNC-Vertical-Mill’,”,0,”,0,4,1,1,’article’,”,”,’how-to-select-the-right-breakout-board’,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,’5fa7738058af55b986406c9bdc134257′,’2006-07-22′);