Can any of you techies tell me the difference between the cam and a half system and the binary cam systems? Hoyt's catalogue states that their cam and a half cams are slaved together via a cable. Are all cam and a half systems the same?

The Binary cams are slaved together by BOTH cables, Cam & 1/2 are only slaved together by one cable.

After seeing the pictures of the cable arrangements I see that the binary cam anchors to the other cam and the cam and a half is anchored onto the the cam axle. Are there any other diffences? Or is it a marketing ploy for us to buy equipment?
Sorry for the idiot questions.

To my knowledge with the 2 cam bows the cams can come out of sync or out of alignment, where as the 1 and a half cam bows they can't because they are slaved together. I've never shot a 2 cam bow but i love my hoyt with its cam and a half.

I guess you could call it a marketing ploy in that both systems are trying to offer something unique to sell, but there are very real differences between the two systems. The cam.5 and other hybrids have one power cable from the bottom cam to the upper axle. The other (control) cable keeps the upper cam (idler) in synch with the lower cam. On the Darton CPS style cam system, the upper "wheel" is also slightly bigger than the lower one to assure level nock travel.

The binary system has two cam tracks, the upper and lower cams are the same (other than being top and bottom) except the top cam has the limb stop on it. Neither cam track is tied directly to the opposite axle, but to the opposite cam. In the hybrids, the top "wheel" is slaved to the bottom one. With the binary system, bot cams are slaved to the other cam.