Vitual and Master Slave Axes

Are there ways to configure virtual and master-slave axes in Linuxcnc, for multiple motor arrangements?

 

tommylight, I guess that's what I was looking for, can I have an axis that can be homed and controlled while not being attached to an axis, but then slaved to control another axis at the time it's needed in the cnc program.

All the motors are servo motors bldc, with encoder feedback.

A virtual axis would be used for possibly less jitter/smoother profile, that is slaved to another axis. The virtual axis runs the profile without glitches, therefore the slaved axis has no jitter. There are other reasons for this also.
Knife cutoff of material running on a conveyor would be one example of a master slaved arrangement. A manual pulse generator would be another, the mpg encoder pulses run another axis(slaved) which in turn acts like a master to run another slave.

Can an mpg be hooked to Linuxcnc to run all the axes, and if so, can it be switched on and off without disconnecting from the machine?

Thanks for the previous answers tommylight and JT, being a new person to Linux I need all the help I can get.

Thanks for replying Andypugh, to be honest with you I don't really know the inner workings of the knife cutter conveyor, I was just using it as an example. You may be correct with your suggestion.

I'll look more into that.

There isn't really an actual application, just industrial applications I have done in the past and had questions with those in mind.

I did ask this question earlier 'Can an mpg be hooked to Linuxcnc to run all the axes, and if so, can it be switched on and off without disconnecting from the machine?' If this is the case than it would probably do what I was thinking about.

I do apologize for the length of time for me to answer back but eating to much over the holidays fogs my thinking, maybe you can relate.

Thanks Again