I need to have the steppers off when there is no step signal can anyone help

You can disable all or individual drives to the stepper but how you do that depends on how your controller ( power supply,
dirve, etc. is wired). SAFETY is important, ie; maybe you want to take a measurement or change a tool , and you don't want the motors turning. You don't want to rely on software for this.

I use Geco 201's and have the disable pin switched for each axis, and another which will disable all axis's, also another emergency switch which will shut off power to my controller ( that one is on a cord which can be hand held). I will
call these "hard wired switches".
 
Post what kind of drives, etc you are using and surely someone will be able to relate to what you are using.
If hard wired is not what your interested in then just say so.
RICH

Not really clear as what you are wanting, can you let us know what you want the drives switched off for? and really what you mean by switched off.
Hood

Thanks for you replys


I need to have the steppers off when there is no step signal.
The boards are my build using L297 / 298 and have input for step / direction / and enable.
This has the advantage of not leaving the cards and motors on load when not needed.
For example Kcam which i am using has this facility.

do you have an enable on your drives? if so you can set that up to disable when Mach is in reset.
Hood

Yes i have a disable input on the drives.
All i need is an output to the drives which is on when the step signal to that
drive is active

Then just set up the enable signals for the drives in Ports and pins, outputs, there are up to 6 Enable outputs you can set up for each axis you have or alternatively you can have one which Enables/Disables ALL drives. Doing it that way would save the pins you need to use.
Hood

Yes that is an option but i am reading the manual Mach 3 turn chapter 5 sec 5.4.4 and i
can not understand how to cofigure these outputs. Your help woul be apreciated

Thanks

Does your drive just need a 5V input to disable them? If yes then just choose an output pin to use and connect to your drive and set the chosen pin and port in the Enable that you have chosen to use. Changing the active state will determine whether the pin is High or low when Mach is in reset.
Hood