Hi I am new to this forum and have a basic question. Is it possible to use the software that is available for the Lynx arms and use it to control either stepper motors or dc motors with rotary encoders? The reason I ask is I would like to make a large robotic arm, I am a machinist and have a full machine shop and also access to mechanical engineering expertise, so the mechanics are not a problem. I have built stepper control boxes by using gecko drives and an interface board, so motor control is not a problem. But software is!! Is this at all possible, maybe a circuit that converts the signal sent to the servo controller into stap and direction signals? Thank you for any input.
The only way to use the RIOS program with steppers or hope brew servos is to build the control boards to accept the 500uS to 2500uS control pulses. Not terribly difficult for servos, as there are ample resources on the webs to help, but I have never seen a servo pulses to stepper motor controller. 
You would need something in the middle to translate.
If all you are looking for as input to your stepper drive is step and direction then you can quite possibly do this with one of the atom stamp controller things on an abb. it can measure servo pulses on an input, examine the feedback pot voltage using it’s a/d input, do the necessary processing, and provide output pulses and a direction signal to control the stepper drive. that could be an interesting small programming project if you are not just looking for a quick canned solution.
For a large arm, you might be able to still use servos in a setup to control larger motors or linear actuators.