Standalone controller

[Sanghera]

Hi,
I was looking around and I found a stanalone controller from durhamrobotics, seems like a very reasonable price. Just wondering what would it take to build one of these? It would be soo cool if you could just plug a program into it, then it handles all the rest including limit switches etc. I don't really understand how to homing and whatnot would work though. Any of you guys seen similar, or one's that people have made?
Thanks.

[Al_The_Man]

If it is like this one, they are usually intended to run dedicated applications, although you can have a serial type operator interface, they are programmed usually in the native language of the system which in the case of this example i.e. Galil, they are very simple two-letter instructions.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7507866865
The PC version of these cards is what Camsoft uses etc in thier CNC controller.
Al

[Sanghera]

So could you get one of those and then use the step and direction signals for another controller board, say a xylotex?
Thanks.