[ODE] adhesive strength of Hingejoint

[Patrick Oppermann@gmx.de]

Hi!
I am  working on a virtual assembly arm (with the jMonkeyEngine and  
jmePhysics), which basically consists of boxes connected by  
JointHinge objects.

The Problem is that the arm is always sagging down because of its own  
weight as soon as it is stopped by setting the hinge’s velocity to 0.  
Neither reducing the mass solves the problem, nor does increasing the  
torque.

Is there a way to stabilize the arm when it is not moving? Is there a  
specific ode parameter that controls the ‚grip’, the adhesive  
strength of the Joint? I couldn’t find any yet.

I tried to stabilize it by setting the Hinge’s minAngle and maxAngle  
stops to its current rotation angle (plus/minus a little tolerance)  
when it is stopped. Unluckily the Joint seems to be reset completely  
by dJointSetHingeParam() with the parameter dParamVel. Is that so?

greetings
Patrick