Programatically engage and disengage brake

[ademedeiros]

Hi All,

Im using a cRIO-9030 with a Kollmorgen AKM servo drive and a motor with a brake. Is there a way to engage and disengage the brake using softmotion? There is a "Brake Enable" property node, but that specifically notes that the property node does not enable or disable the brake.

Specifies whether the connected motor has a brake. This item does not enable or disable the brake, 
but signals the drive firmware to check for brake circuit signal changes. If no brake is present, disable this checkbox. 
Enabling this checkbox when no brake is present results in a drive fault. 

I am using this to maintain tension on a piece of fabric. I can apply the brake by disabling the drive and axis, but there is a short period of time where the motor is not being powered before the brake kicks on. The built up tension causes the motor to freewheel, which causes the fabric to lose its tension.

Keeping the motor in position mode at this point does not work due to the torque required to hold position causes the motor to go into an over power condition. We're working on modifying our mechanical setup to alleviate this, but I would still like to know if I can actively engage the brake.

[ks30]

Hi Ademedeiros,

You are right, the Brake Enable property node only behaves in the way descirbed by the help document. 

What are your current Brake Settings for the drive in the Kollmorgen WorkBench? In particular, what are you setting Brake Behavior and Brake Apply Delay to?

Regards,

Kyle S.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

http://www.ni.com/support

[ademedeiros]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for the response! I was able to change the behavior in workbench to produce the desireable results.

Thanks!