RJ2 S420 (GM robots)

[dafrenchman]

Greetings,

I need some suggestions from the knowledgeable fellows on this forum..... Ok enough grovelling!
I have some of these robots at our facility, they are the typical pull with cut cables and all.

I finally got one of the mechanical units working, last problem is I need a SINGLE output to go to an air valve solenoid.
The robot has Device net (in error mode) I disconnected that, I have no way to program that at the moment.
It also has ER1T board ABRIO / ethernet. Not sure If that can be used.

What I was thinking is maybe use one of the Robot Ouputs, there are 8. Does anyone know if that would be doable?
If so how?

Thanks for your help.

[Industrialrobotix]

If the robot has a connector on the upper arm labled EE, then you can use a RO for the solenoid...  Some were not wired with EE however - they were wired and labled "I/O" which is different (its a pass-through only)....on the upper arm on the back side there is a box where the air line comes through, and there will be some connectors back there...EE is on top, I/O is below it...  There also may be some other pass-through AP- style connectors as well...  hope that helps...

[dafrenchman]

well, there's a connector on the upper arm, but no cable available to plug into it.... guess that means i will need to reconfigure devicenet wago system 750-306. anyone have experience with that?

thanks!

[Ydna]

You can buy and install one of the various I/O racks (model-A, etc), though if the controller is configured for ethernet and devicenet right now, you'll probably have to dig through some system variables to get standard I/O functionality....

[ironcollarworker]

Actually if you want to install an "A" interface it is quite easy. There are no system variables to change. Just configure it as you normally would and it will work fine. I have done several of these.

[dafrenchman]

I see some components that maybe useable on ebay.
I imagine a cable, a rack and output module would do the trick?

Not sure on the right part numbers, when one talks about I/O unit Model A, is it the same for all robot controllers?

Thanks

[Dark]

I did start a GM S420iW last week. It was a real P.I.T.A. to start beacus they where originally made to run in network. We bought 4 Kit (robot+RJ2 controller with spotTOOL) and they all only have a devicenet card, no I/O process card.
I think that without a I/O process card, we're unable to add any more I/O card, 'caus they're plugged in the I/O process card (as said in my handling tool manual).

Mabe im wrong...
I'm looking to have I/O too, and the easyest way I found right now is to use DeviceNet card with a AB PLC to use the PLC I/O's.

Any suggestion? I'll have to study DeviceNet, i'm a newbie with it.

Regards,


Dark

[dafrenchman]

That's the exact same thing i have. I'll keep posting here on my findings. Will likely buy a cheap IO rack and try it and see.

[dafrenchman]

Any progress Dark? Very curious to see what you come up with.

[Ydna]

I think if you already have Allen Bradley PLC hardware available, a devicenet route might be the cheapest to go. But if not then a model-a setup would be better, though you'll have to install new hardware either way since the model-a is laid out exactly like a expandable PLC in terms of connections.

Though like I said, getting the controller to stop checking for ethernet/intranet/devicenet can be its own bag of tricks. At the very least you can set the robot so it'll work right but give out a few errors at startup when it does most of the checking.

[roboguy528]

Since you have AB/RIO why don't you use Model B I/O modules (blue hose)? That's what GM used on those types of robots and they come in a variety of configs...
What version of software do you have and does the robot have a dense-pack?

For GM, Process I/O was only used on arc/mig (ArcTool) welding robots never on SpotTool ones.


Good Luck

[Dark]

Any progress Dark? Very curious to see what you come up with.

Ok, after a lot of work, I made a Huge pannel with an A-B PLC with a Devicenet scanner (card). It supposed to be easy to install and to perform, but the trick is *sob* that Fanuc don't want to help. They want money.
To make the devicenet network working, we should have the correct EDS (Electronic DataSheet) of the Fanuc DeviceNet card in the controller. This EDS will have all the configs inside and will give to the scanner all the information needed to communicate and exchange I/O's. Fanuc want us to pay for a "blabla" license... We paid for the robots, and becaus they're used, they want us to pay them more. What a racket...

If anybody have a EDS file about Fanuc Devicenet card, let me know... It will be very useful for us. For now, i'm trying to get a bit from the controller to the network... The basic start.

Dark

[Napierian]

I have never actually setup Devicenet between a PLC and RJ2, but I have set it up between an RJ3 and an RJ2.  I had to setup the RJ3 to use the following values
Vendor ID = 8
Device Type = 12
Product code = 0

You may be able to use the information here as well http://www.robot-forum.com/robotforum/fanuc_robot_forum/sst_dn31041_interface_config-t5683.0.html  I know it is not for the RJ2, but the Devicenet options are similar among the different generations.

Hope this will help point you in the right direction

[Dark]

Thanks.

With some blinds testings, I've just created my own EDS File with RSNetworks, and it worked. Now I have a fully network-wired cell with 3 robots. And, surprize, this morning a Fanuc Rep sended me the Eds files that I needed... 2 weeks after, 1 week late!

Fanuc after sale service is crap. And their thinking about their Own used robots is crap. Fortunately for them, the Fanuc robots are pretty good stuff...

Sorry for whining, a bit of cumulated frustration here....

But (hehe) wise guys never dies! I just found my way to make my robots working without them!

If anybody wants E-Manuals about R-J2 controllers, or Eds files, E-Mail me.

Dark

[dan5172]

If anybody wants E-Manuals about R-J2 controllers, or Eds files, E-Mail me.

Dark

   This site definitely has some great info and suggestions. I'm a newbie here, but we just got some R-J2 controls and robots that I am trying to make operational without manuals (of course) and we could greatly use some manuals. Anyone have any PDF's out there?
    By the way, we have a very large collection of controls manuals (not robot related, but machine controls) if anyone needs any please email me and I will see what I can do. Thanks in advance, I'll be back soon!