[montreal333]

I have a quick question that I'm hoping someone will help me with. I have a no name, usb powered, brand breakout board (ebay special) that I am trying to connect three drivers to.
My problem is, the breakout board only has two connectors for each axis (x,y, or z). One wire out for direction and one wire out for rotation per axis. My driver has two wires (+ and -) for direction and two wires for rotation.
I've read and read and looked at pics and I still can't wrap my head around it. How do I connect the 4 wires from my driver to the breakout board if the board only has two terminals per axis and not 4?
The drivers are 24v oriental motor company 5 phase drivers. The motors are 5 phase. I don't know if that matters or not. I have a separate power supply for the drivers.
Thanks
-Michael

[doorknob]

Typical stepper drivers use optoisolated inputs. That means that the + and - terminals on the driver are actually connected to the leads of an LED (which forms the "transmitter" portion of the optoisolator for each signal).

There are two commonly-used ways to connect the output of a breakout board (for example, the step signal) to an optoisolated driver input. Which one you use can depend on the capabilities of the breakout board to source or sink current. Perhaps the most widely used way to do it is to connect the signal from the breakout board to the - terminal of the driver, and then connect +5 volts to the + terminal on the driver. That way, the LED inside the optoisolator turns on when the signal from the breakout board is a digital "low" (0 volts) and turns off when the signal is a digital "high" (+5 volts). Another way to describe it is to use an "active low" signal from the breakout board to the driver (you would configure "active low" in your Mach3 setup or LinuxCNC setup).

[montreal333]

Thank you doorknob for the quick reply.
After further tinkering, swearing, and general 'wtf am I missing' I finally figured it out. Apparent the cable from computer to the breakout board was a store return at some point because upon further investigating, 6 pins were missing. Of course it was the last thing I thought of to check because it was 'new'. A quick trip to the store for a new, and complete, cable and everything is running perfect. Mach3 has all the motors doing what they should. Now I just need to build the machine.
-Michael