Transitioning from CS7's to the CS8's

[RoboFutbol]

We have three CS7A's and five CS7B's. I have been getting great support to date but know time is running out.

For those who made the transition, what were the biggest hurdles to overcome? What advice can you give me as we make the change?

Thank you in advance...

[TygerDawg]

TX Arms are mechanically stiffer than equivalent RX arms, not as delicate.

Primary user interface is teach pendant, no more "keyboard & monitor" on the shop floor.

User software suite 'Staubli Robotics Studio' contains programming environment 'VAL3 Studio'.  Once mastered, is a joy to use.  But can still use pendant for programming in a pinch.  Pendant highly programmable for custom text-based user menus.

VAL3 language has a lot of "object oriented programming" aspects, so is powerful and more complex than V+.  For one example, to extract the RY value from a location in V+ it would be necessary to DECOMPOSE the location into an array of elements, then use that element.  In VAL3 the location variable is a data structure composed of a transform structure 'trsf' and other parts.  The RY component is directly accessible:  'myRYvalue=locationName.trsf.ry'

Infinite tasks available in the operating system.  Once you get the hang of multitasking, makes your application so much easier to manage different things going on.  Robot motion, pendant menu handling, ESTOP monitoring, TCP/IP communications, could all be separate tasks easily.

Makes extensive use of 'library' programming concept (if desired), unknown in V+.  For example, can write a single application for load/unload of machine with 'generic' part, tool, location names.  If need multiple different parts, then create multiple 'library' applications (that are loaded/unloaded by the main app) containing specific part, tool, location data.   Very clean solution, just requires more thought beforehand.

V+ language is old and mature, also very well documented over the years.  I think this is Staubli's major failure point.  Their VAL3 language documentation is complete, but weak for newbies.

Where are you located?  I have a friend who has asked me to keep an eye out for older CS7 equipment.  If your company is interested in selling, send me message and I'll get you into contact.

[Juggernaut]

V+ is a programmers language shoved into a robot. Val3 is a robotics language made by programmers. Big difference and 100x better to use a language like Val3 for long term ownership. Much easier to learn and maintain val3 on the shop floor.