R30ib - Software Reboot/Controlled Start

    Hi,

    Does anybody know of a way to reboot a fanuc controller via software only?

    We're currently using Robot Server for our windows application. We sometimes release updated software that needs to update BG Logic programs, and in order to do so the controller needs to be restarted.

    Currently the user has to follow steps, but I'm trying to automate it to remove human error...

    (My last resort will be using the remote power IO and adding hardware to control it from the PC... but that would require lots of upgrades on various machine setups. So I'm trying to find all possible alternatives in order to evaluate before making any large changes).

    The robots can all run karel if required.

    I tried searching this forum... but the search function is lacking lots of features (Or I need to RTFM lol).

    Thanks,

    Based on my research so far, i came to the conclusion that it was not possible to do a software restart by the use of a system variable of some sort.

    Though if you are familiar with the controled start procedure you will notice you can do a cold start via a menu (FCT).
    What i would like to do now is to dwelve into how menus works in the controller and check if they are any infos(like file) stored on the controller to understand how this function is achieved.
    Sadly i dont have the time to do so at the moment, however if you're willing to explore this way i would love to hear of your progress :icon_mrgreen:.

    Thanks for taking some time to look! I agree with what you're saying for the FCT menu. That is exactly the behaviour I'm hoping to re-create.

    After also looking through system variables I came up with some I wanted to test.

    $RESTART.$FLAG
    $RESTART.$DSB_SIGNAL
    $RESTART.$STARTUP_CND
    $REPOWER.$FLAG

    Based off of the names I was pretty hopefully I could get something working...

    My interpretation after some brief testing is that $RESTART.$FLAG when set to True/1 makes $DSB_SIGNAL and $STARTUP_FLAG active upon a manual power off/on. My interpretation is based off of some blind testing.

    When I set $RESTART.$STARTUP_CND =3 and $RESTART.$FLAG = True the controller booted into "Controlled Start" but crashed spectacularly.

    I'm not sure how to figure out how the FCT menu works... I tried sniffing network packets using wireshark + Roboguide's Teach pendant and it's a big mess...

    I've also asked Fanuc Tech support... I've had zero luck with them on advanced questions in the past so I'm not very hopeful. (Basically any idea that is "out of the box" gets an answer along the lines of "you can't do that"...

    I'll make sure to update this thread if I get anywhere.


    EDIT:

    Forgot to mention that my guess for "DSB_SIGNAL" would be that DSB = Disable... but everywhere else Disable's shorthand version is "DSBL"... But All three would make sense. The flag so it knows it needs a special boot, Startup_CND in order to specify which type of boot and Disable_Signal in order to trigger the reboot. Sounds wonderful, but doesn't seem to work at all.

    Also, if anyone wants to try them, run a TP program in order to change their values since they are read-only.

    Edited once, last by druneau (September 12, 2016 at 8:12 PM).

    I just finished with the Karel basic programming class about 3 weeks ago. The instructor actually asked all of us students the same question. He wants to be able to do the same thing via karel. He was also told by Fanuc Tech support that this cannot be done.

    I, like a lot of people I am sure would love to have this feature. Especially being an integrator, this would be very helpful when setting up the I/O configuration.

    Besides, it would be cool as well.

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