[RKnack]

Okay, I have purchased three Wantai 57BYGH633 stepper motors on EBay for my Harbor Freight Sieg X2 mini-mill conversion (less than $100 for all three). Gecko drivers are way outside my current budget, and probably will be for some time (this is a "Johnny Cash" project as it is: 'One Piece At A Time'). I have seen a number of drivers available, based on one of three chips: TB6600, THB6064, and TB6560. I have heard that the TB6560 boards tend to self-destruct (of course, I had already purchased a USB 4-axis board on EBay before I read this; it arrived with a damaged component so I am currently trying to get that resolved).

Can anybody recommend an inexpensive (preferably sub-$100) 4-axis board that will work in my conversion? I want a 4-axis board because I eventually want to fit my Soba 4" rotary table with a stepper motor.

Is there any truth to the self-destructing TB6560 board story? Are there any specific boards to avoid?

I plan to buy a used laptop to use as a dedicated CNC computer, probably Windows 7 compatible. Any driver board I get should probably be USB interface with the computer, since I haven't seen very many newer laptops with a parallel port.

Any board I get also needs to use inexpensive (preferably free) software to convert the g-code to something the driver board will accept.

Not trying to be a skinflint, but my ex-wife gets too much of my paycheck to have much of a "fun" budget, so I have to make do with what I CAN afford in order to get things up-and-running, and hopefully upgrade later... >

[RKnack]

Anybody? Nobody?