Hello, first time posting on the forum.
I am completing an automation associates degree. I have an opportunity with an integrator and I am interested in tools needed for a robotic technician job. Most of the time will be spent programming the robot. Some of the time will be spent on site installing software, troubleshooting, and updating clients work cells.
Any info would be appreciated.
Robotic technician tools
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Ian619 -
May 25, 2017 at 5:30 PM -
Thread is marked as Resolved.
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Can you elaborate?, do you mean physical (hand) tools, software tools or training can be classed as a tool.
...and welcome to the forum.
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RoboWeld, first, thank you for the reply. I meant in regards to hand tools needed. I would be traveling by plane with a set to and from my facility to various offsite locations. I have a multimeter and some basic hand tools already. I will be working mostly with Fanuc robots and didn't know if I should spring for an electricians set or piece together a set up from a big box store. Mostly simple wiring, troubleshooting and quick repair from what I can tell. Sorry to be vague.
Maybe a push in the right direction of what type of hand tools I should look into.
Also, if there are any certain hand tools that are a necessity. I've seen techs that have not pulled a single tool out at a site visit so maybe I'm over thinking this. I dont want to show up and not have the necessities covered. Thanks again -
Well, I've accumulated an entire rolling toolbox over the years, but when I started out...
Screwdrivers. A good multi-tip screwdriver will cover most bases, plus a couple of the small, narrow ones for getting into tight spots or deep holes
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-auto…/p-00947380000P
https://amzn.to/2ZOfUkRAllen wrenches. Again, cover the most likely range that you'll need, but you'll never be able to carry every possible size. I like to ensure I have both Metric and Imperial:
https://amzn.to/2ZPlFyuA good pocket multitool is always a good idea -- I'm a Victorinox man myself, but I have a lot of co-workers who swear by Leatherman or Gerber.
A small pocket flashlight is always good.
A pair of needle-nose pliers, and a pair of wire cutters (or a wire cutting/stripping tool). Maybe one or two pairs of regular pliers, just in case you end up needing to tighten/loosen both sides of a bolt/nut pair. Later, you might buy a set of sockets or wrenches, but I'd save that until you get some experience in what you're most likely to need and what you probably won't.
A decent multi-meter. Buy something that can accept a variety of leads/probes, and get some different leads (alligator clips, tiny probes, heavy probes, etc). I've never bought a Fluke -- excellent devices, no argument, but I've never needed their quality enough to justify paying their inflated prices. YYMV. I've got several under-$20 cheapo meters that have worked for me quite well over the years -- start with something like that and work up to a Fluke, if you need it.
Make up some jumper wires with insulated tips or gator clips, and keep them in your bag for when you need to test around a component, or ring out a long cable. Maybe carry a small spool of speaker wire.
A small voltage detector would be wise -- some circuits can stay live even when you turn off the main switch. At these voltages, an extra minute spent checking could be the difference between life and death.
Zip ties -- always have some spare zip ties. Maybe some velcro strap, too. ALWAYS comes in handy.
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SkyeFire. That info is extremely helpful. Turns out I landed the programmers job and will need to start gathering tools right away. Thank you for the help.
Have you had to travel with a rolling tool bag? If so, I've heard the airlines can be brutal on these. I've been looking at the Klein tools tradesman pro or the Veto pro pac. I am considering hard cases also. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks again. Take care. -
I strongly recommend the rolling tool bag. I couldn't do the back pack thing
Check dimensions before buying it, be sure fits on the plane. Weight is important too, don't overloaded, use your luggage for heavy things and transfer them to your bag at the hotelThey will make your life easier if you spend many hours at the airport (transit, delays, cancellations) and also inside the plant where the parking could be far away form the robot site. You don't want ot do that walk twice a day with a backpack full of tools, parts and laptops
Adding to the list: FUSES, specially the ones that take care of the 24 VDC.
Take pictures before you do any repairs (wiring, board locations, etc )
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SkyeFire. That info is extremely helpful. Turns out I landed the programmers job and will need to start gathering tools right away. Thank you for the help.
Have you had to travel with a rolling tool bag? If so, I've heard the airlines can be brutal on these. I've been looking at the Klein tools tradesman pro or the Veto pro pac. I am considering hard cases also. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks again. Take care.I generally had to pack my tools into my checked luggage -- I'm pretty sure that screwdrivers over a certain length were treated like knives, as far as carry-on baggage is concerned. But the rules change so often (and are so variably enforced), it would be a good idea to check the TSA web site guidelines.
I usually had a small soft toolbag that I packed inside my (oversize) suitcase -- I didn't worry about the weight much, since I was able to expense my baggage fees.Another item: interface cables. I've found retractable cables (USB, Ethernet, etc) to be lifesavers when I'm doing the road-warrior gig. Sooo much more handy than coiling cables with velcro bits. They do tend to fail more often, but I generally buy the cheap versions 3-4 at a time, and just treat them as semi-disposable. What you need, of course, will vary with the hardware you're working on. You might need to invest in a USB-to-RS232 cable for connecting to older systems.
In the same vein, a 3.5in floppy drive, a CF-card read/write device, a portable optical drive... depending on the age of the robots you're working on, and how your laptop is configured, you might need any or all of these. And definitely carry some spare cheap USB memory sticks -- they always come in handy.Since your laptop will probably be the core of your work: get an external hard drive as big (or bigger than) your laptop drive, and use Acronis or CloneZilla to make full backup images of your laptop drive on a regular basis. And carry a bootable USB stick set up to boot Acronis/CloneZilla/whatever, plus maybe a copy of Knoppix or Ubuntu, just in case -- this has saved me a couple times in the field when I had a hard drive failure (or a virus -- I've never had a serious virus infection, but the threats are getting more sophisticated over time, not less).
Also, get a cloud account (OwnCloud, GDrive, whatever), and use it to keep copies of your files, separate from your full-drive images, and update as often as possible (that's where the cloud accounts with auto-sync come in handy). You can never back up too often. -
It looks like SkyeFire has covered most of the kit, I would add a small dentist type mirror for looking in places you can't get your head (you soon learn to read part numbers backwards) and one of the LED multi torches with a magnetic base. I used an Antler toolcase (still got it 25 years later) but it looks like they're no longer available, here's an equivalent http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/tool-cases/0460178/ I had one of those folding luggage frames with a couple of wheels on for carting it any distance.
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Thank you everyone for all the great info! This is perfect to get me started and I'll add items as I see what I come up against. Amazon always finds a way to get my money.
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This is a great thread you started Ian. After 2.5 years as a technician I can say adding to the tool collection is never over. Once In a while a new tool shows up and you wonder how you managed without it before.
So I will add a few things and likely be adding more to this thread in the future.
JIS screwdriver, not the same as a regular Phillip's, flush cutters, I ground the ball ends off my extra set of hex keys. Great for holding a sockethead capscrew and guiding it in it's hole.
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You will also accumulate/make special tools to make life easier, example, I made a 2 foot long Allen key to allow me to change the base axis motor on ABB Irb6 in a fraction of the time needed if you follow the factory approved method
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Most are covered above. For your own benefit check tools. There are approved TSA locks if you do the rolling bag thing. I can have as much as 200 pounds of tools for a job site. But, for programming I carry a multi-meter, flat head, phillips head, tweaker, terminal driver, strippers, jumper wire, application specific fuses, laptop (xp, windows 7, windows 10, etc), and connection cables (Ethernet/serial/etc)
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In addition to everything everyone else has said, I would recommend a tape measure that has both mm and inch. This is the one I use: https://amzn.to/2ZQ4IEm
I also like having a laser distance measurement tool. Worth its weight in gold for setting up DCS on Fanucs. I have the Bosch GLM 50, and here is the updated one: https://amzn.to/2M8davn
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I'm sure as old as this thread is you've already bought your bag, but I swear by Veto! A little pricey, but that 5 year zero downtime warranty is awsome!
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I use my cheap machinist scribe all the time - cleans out screwheads, pulls socketed chips, mixes 2-part epoxy, alignment tool, grind down a broken one into a custom pin pusher, fishing washers out of recesses, opening plastic bags, cleaning machining chips from IC leads, cleaning paint out of calibration marks, ...
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You have to try the rolling tool bag. Maybe Fabian Munoz also advises you to use this. Anyhow, I really appreciate on your choice, it's a great thread you started Ian. Best of luck for your future
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Hi! You should check the right tools for robotics here, http://www.robotshop.com/blog/en/how-to…ight-tools-3680. Also, there is interesting toolkit available in the market such as raspberry pi toolkits http://gocoderz.com/blog/raspberry-pi/, these toolkits let you understand the usage of each tool which is really helpful while programming a robot.
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First of all highly welcome to you actually i'm also new one here
Now please will you describe briefly which software's tools and training tools you are practicing ?? -
You have to try the rolling tool bag. Maybe Fabian Munoz also advises you to use this. Anyhow, I really appreciate on your choice, it's a great thread you started Ian. Best of luck for your future....not really applicable to industrial robotics, which is this forum's focus.
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First of all highly welcome to you actually i'm also new one here
Now please will you describe briefly which software's tools and training tools you are practicing ??For industrial robotics, that's a very complex question. There is a great deal of brand-specific, proprietary systems and languages. Most of the education resources are industrial courses and hands-on on-the-job learning, or university-level training.
Likewise, most of the software involved is entirely brand-specific (basically, useless unless you have the actual robot it was intended for available to you), or very expensive, and often both.
Still, for getting a very general idea... the trial version of RoboDK might be helpful. Most articulated robots are, at their core, very similar, even if their programming languages and OSs are as different as iOS, Windows, or Unix. So grasping how these robots move, and combine their many axes into coordinated motions, is applicable across the entire industry.
The forum has lots of manuals and code snippets shared by various users over the years, often with lots of description of how they work. Again, you'll find that there are very large differences between brands, but some concepts are universal -- learning Fortran isn't directly applicable to programming in C++, but the experience in how to program well carries across all languages.
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