After several months of fighting with parallel port break-out boards, I finally found one that was so easy, so perfectly designed, that a newbe like me could set it up in 5-minutes! It has LED's for everything and every pinout !, It has its own Safety Charge Pump! It has its own power supply! It even has a relay for controlling AC devices!
As with most people who attempt to build their own CNC router table, I kept buying the cheaper boards and controllers! The last one drove me absolutely NUTS! It would only spin the stepper in one direction! Now, after spending the extra bucks, I have a break-out board that was designed by someone who uses Mach software and Gecko drives to control stepper motors!
The only fault I can find, is the onboard power supply was not strong enough to run two .84A cooling fans. But does handle the four Geckos!
The PC parallel port break-out board was developed by James Cullins. James is the owner of Sound Logic in Grapevine Texas. The cost of their Mach2 board is $130.