Stepper system working off the laptop. Phew!
After months of research (and a bit of guesswork, with a lot of dreaming), the baby has come alive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nncvO3ZgguM
It took a bit of fiddling to get it to move. All of the initial settings had it moving so little, you couldn't see it move.
These movements are amplified to show the functionality of it.
Still deciding if Mach3 is "go" for using it to control the scope, as they say Mach3 doesn't really work well on laptops (due to the power saving features).
This is using an eBay bought expresscard (PCI-e) parallel port.
I know the system is portable now, but I tried the power inverter the other day and the power supply unit didn't like it.
Unsure if it was the Wattage rating, or if the modified sine wave had something to do with it. The inverter was rated (continuously) just above what the power supply was rated at.
So still have to think of another alternative for power.