[cheater76c]

what is the cheapest driver to use for a nema 17, 2amp 24volt bipolar stepper motor(http://www.linengineering.com///site/products/4218.html ->4218L-01). are there any cheap preassemble ones for 3 axis?

im thinking if i cant find preassemble of building 3 L297-8 modules from http://www.pminmo.com/. is there any more detailed information on building these modules (like how to connect it to the computer in 3 axis mode and how to add limit switches to the modules)? i searched this site but i found little.

[pminmo]

cheater76c,
Did you look at the 4 axis interface? It makes it easy to connect to the pc, both switches and drivers. What specific details would help you?

[cheater76c]

i looked at the pport.htm, would that setup work with the l297. whats the 4 axis setup ur talking about, i cant find it on your site. i looked at the picture in the l297 page and the second picture theres a transistor and resistors between the board and the pport. what does that do? also how to add limit switches to the circuit, how would i do it.

[pminmo]

cheater76c
Start here: http://pminmo.com/drivers.htm The top part (system electonics overview) Essentially you take the parallel port to the interface board via a standard parallel port cable. The interface board (similar to Break out board) has the connections on it to simple cable to 1 to 4 stepper motor drivers, screw terminals to wire to home and limit switches, and an output to use for contolling a relay off board.
Via simple ribbon cables you connect the interface boards axis outputs to the stepper motor drivers. The ouputs of the stepper motor drivers connect to the stepper motor.
In addition you wire the power supply to the stepper motor drivers.
http://pminmo.com/4axis/4axisinterface.htm is a page on making your own interface board. More info on that is http://pminmo.com/4axis/4axisBOBdata.pdf
http://pminmo.com/ss3977/ss3977.htm is info to make your own bipolar stepper motor driver. http://pminmo.com/ss3977/ss3977.pdf is more documentation on that driver board.

If your not into making pcb's : http://pminmo.com/forsale/blankpcbs.htm
That webpage also has similar documents for those two specific boards.

I would caution though, if you have no electronics knowledge or experience soldering electronics components, it's tough for a beginer.