Is it me or is the new workflow to lock/unlock motors in Easel a pain? We’ve been working with locked motors between carves for several years with Easel and now, when changing bits and if you forget to lock your motors, your zero is now off.
I’m all for upgrades but this should be an option as to whether we want to work with it the way it was or allow unlocking.
What does everyone else think?
One more thing: I sure hate the changes just appearing without advance notice; any of you?
If you re-home after accidentally manually moving the carriage, your zero position will be restored.
But the beauty of not having to rehome is that the motors were locked in the first place. Now it’s an extra step, if you remember.
Personally I ALWAYS rehome after a bit change. Why take the chance to save 30 seconds? It’s cheaper to incorporate it the work flow and not waste material and time.
I’ve been doing it for ever without rehoming. I have a stop screw set at my x and y zero points already. If I’m at the screws, I’m homed. It’s visual, works great and never misses when you have to take a board off for painting, etc. Then putting back on, it lines up perfectly every time without having the motors unlocked.
OK, what am I missing. I have NEVER unlocked or locked the spindle. If I remember on the initial setup two years ago I set it to “locked” and haven’t touched it since. I have never had it move during a bit change and I never re-zero after a bit change. Am I doing it wrong?? Seems to have worked just fine for a bunch of carves.
Find this thread, it will show you how to set it up
Two stage carve motors not locking
Nope, same here aswell 
To OP:
Dip switch #4 to OFF on all three axes (open Xcontroller to locate the blue DP switch block) and make sure $1=255 and motors are “locked” at all times. Locked = energized, resisting external motion.
Granted. Definitely see @HaldorLonningdal’s suggestion above - this will make your motors “permanently” locked.
My post was just to say, even if you do accidentally move the carriage (which can still happen, even with the motors fully locked - you’ve really got to be cranking on it), all is not lost.
Hi @katslod! Nothing in Easel has changed related to locking and unlocking. If you’re still having troubles, please reach out to our Customer Success so they can look into it. You can email or call them here.
Actually there are changes to Easel. For the first time ever, I now have lock and unlock motors buttons that appeared in easel just last night.
Never had them before. Motors were always locked automatically and only by turning off power supply was I able to unlock them.
Now they’re unlocked by default and I can’t change a bit without moving the z axis. I want it to default tonlocked but I don’t see anywhere that can be set up.
Furthermore, the buttons don’t work either.
Clarification: I want it to default to locked.
Hi @katslod - We’re not disagreeing with you that you’re having a new experience, but we haven’t made changes to Easel in this area. If you contact our Customer Success team, someone should be able to help you figure out what’s happening!
