I am trying to find a way to use the beaglebone blue for bidirectional power flow. I need a connected DC motor to act passive as well as active at different times. Can the beaglebone blue do this, and if so how does it work?
To me "passive" DC motor implies it is being driven in reverse; that
is, the shaft is being spun by some external force, and the wiring is
producing a voltage (acting as a generator). Obviously, that would be
unsafe on most Beaglebone GPIOs due to the risk of exceeding 3.3V limit.
However, a Google search finds this
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi9q7KMiK3pAhUNUa0KHTt1D5EQFjACegQIBhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapm.iitm.ac.in%2Fbiomedical%2Ftouchlab%2Fpapers%2FDCMotorDamping.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3BCcXZjRyGDN6Nat5M4ppT
which indicates that a particular H-Bridge configuration is needed to put a
motor into a "braking" mode. If using the Blue's H-bridges, and the Robot
Control Library, then this would be done by invoking rc_motor_brake()
http://strawsondesign.com/docs/librobotcontrol/group___motor.html#ga470369dde3e084f0a2a5c99db61f9494
(vs rc_motor_free_spin() to coast).