I already knew about how induction motors work but I did not know that BLDC motors would stall the way you describe. In my experience when a stepper is being stepped fairly fast and enough load is applied to stall it when the load is removed the stepper is likely stay nearly stalled-it just vibrates-until the step frequency is lowered enough and then it will start to step again. So BLDC motors act the same. I should have figured that out. Thanks for pointing that out. Eric