Wiring an enable / disable switch for each driver

[AndyUK]

Don't think I've ever seen manual enable / disable switches for each Axis - I'm not sure there would be a big use case, unless you wanted to manually position an axis for some reason without using Jog and with no care to machine home or soft limits.

What is commonly done is to wire the enable line up to the controller, so that it can enable the drive when sending it movement commands. I use this as part of my fault system - if one of the drivers or the Spindle has an error, the drives remain powered but are stopped in their tracks and disabled through the enable line. Is that what you're after?

[mbridge87]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the reply.

This is a good explanation for why it's a useful addition to a motion control system. This is an extract from an email chain between myself and the designer of the motion control software.

"Disable switches allow you to turn off a drive without affecting the
others. This is often needed for example if you stall a motor and need
to reset it, and don't want to lose position on the other motors, which
would happen if you turned off mains power. While a motor is disabled
you can manually move it to a home or reference position and then switch
it back on after zeroing the axis. This is typically quicker than
trying to jog it to the home and then rezero, not to mention if you have
software limits, you might not even be able to jog.

Also if you had to swap a cable you can do it again without affecting
the other drives..."

Does that make sense?