[a3dcreator]

does anyone know what the difference is?
is the motion controller as easy to setup as the breakout board?

ive seen some say that you have ot use specific software if using a motion controller.

im going to build a 3 axis router 4' x 8' mostly cutting wood , aluminum and plastics.

thinking bout maybe going mach 4.

[ger21]

Both breakout boards and motion controllers come in a wide range of features and pricing.

Breakout boards basically just pass signals from the software to the motors and switches. Basic breakout boards are just screw terminals connected to a printer cable. More advanced ones may have spindle speed controls and relays.

Motion controllers receive low level signals from the control software, and generate step and direction signals for the motors. They also control time critical functions like homing.

Some motion controllers actually need to use breakout boards to interface with your electronics and hardware.

Motion controllers usually are designed to work with a specific control software.

For Mach4, you can only use motion controllers that have a Mach4 plugin to allow Mach4 to communicate with them.

[Al_The_Man]

A break out board, (BOB) is a board for interfacing different devices etc to the PC, by motion controller I assume you mean the motor controller, whether it be servo or stepper motor, this requires a set up/tuned for your application based on the machine mechanical requirements.
The term machine controller is sometimes used for the trajectory planner such as Mach.
Al.

[Dragonfly]

No, motors have drivers. Mach3 is in a way motion controller but wholly in software which uses a standard PC. A motion controller is a stand alone hardware device with its own CPU which receives G-code (or reads it from some memory device), interprets it, plans and does the synchronous moving by sending dir/step pulses to the drivers.

So a Mach3 code might or might not work depending on the motion device. GRBL is the simplest one I know, based on Arduino.