[Emc-users] disabling a stepper motor between moves?

2012-06-15 Thread Scott Hasse 
I've been working to create some integration between the reprap RAMPS
stepper driver board and LinuxCNC.  One interesting thing some 3D printers
do is disable the Z stepper motor when it is not moving.  This relies on
the friction of the Z axis assembly for keeping the head in place, but
allows hand-adjustment of that axis while the machine is in motion, for
instance when starting a print.  In fact a popular part to print is a small
hand wheel for the Z axis to adjust it.

Putting the question of if this is a good or bad thing aside for a moment,
I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about how this would be done with
LinuxCNC.  Somewhat complicating things is that stepper drivers typically
have an enable delay, so that would likely need to be respected, presumably
by the motion component prior to moving the axis.

Thoughts on this interesting problem?

Thanks,

Scott
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Re: [Emc-users] disabling a stepper motor between moves?

2012-06-15 Thread andy pugh 
On 15 June 2012 22:03, Scott Hasse scott.ha...@gmail.com wrote:

 Putting the question of if this is a good or bad thing aside for a moment,
 I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about how this would be done with
 LinuxCNC.

If you work your way through this thread, I came up with a comp for
the job eventually:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.distributions.emc.user/26042/focus=26105

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