stepgen & direct phase control...

Hello all,

I read here www.linuxcnc.org/docview/html/man/man9/stepgen.9.html that there is a way to configure EMC2 to control each phase of a motor directly. I need this capability to test several motor / driver combos I have some but not all are 5 phase. Once I have basic operating parameters for motors (switching sequence, power, etc.) I intend to replace drivers with new step/dir microstep boards or use pic to translate to phase sequence control signals. The pic method seems like my only option for 5 phase if I want maximum performance from 5 phase motors but that will depend on results of tests, speed of computer, etc.

I guess this means I need to come up with a few different stepgen configs. Does anyone have worked examples that they are willing to share and which they think would be useful / instructive for me? I need to provide a phase control signal for 4 or 5 phases and a strobe to latch the pattern into the driver. There is also a H/L current control but this is not really needed for testing. I can simply jumper this to the high power mode

I am already using ubuntu 10.04 LTS and so, downloaded the appropriate script and ran it to install. One the first PC, it installed ok and I was able to run app. at least in part. I then tried to load on another Lucid laptop and there are unresolvable dependencies (python if I recall - perhaps others). Then I tried the live Lucid cd on the laptop wich seemed to load ok. I can edit / generate the basic config (I prefer my desktop where the initial install succeeded) but want to use either the live cd on a laptop or a dedicated linux pc/install as the test bed.

Thanks to all,

Peter