Freedom of movement when power is off.

[Joseph Shawa]

How smoothly does your laser head move around in the X and Y axes when the power is off? Is it completely free or spotty resistance? I think it is my stepper motors that are spinning and resisting motion but how can I tell if my rails are being pinched?

[Kev Williams]

The steppers resist movement when off because they act like generators when disconnected. I've read on the board here that moving the steppers quickly can back-feed the XY drivers and possibly burn them out. If I move the gantry quickly on my LS900 when powered off, the flourescent tube will light up!

If you reallly want to know what your rails are doing, you need to disconnect the belt(s) so there's no outside resistance.

[Joseph Shawa]

Thanks Kev. It just seemed a bit hurky jerky so I wanted a comparison.