What am I missing?

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    Welcome to the forum...……….:beerchug:

    'Trigger' in Kawasaki is referring to the deadmans or 'External trigger' wired into the 1TR board Connector X8.

    Basically, a manual motion request is being made without the Deadman's and external trigger signals present.

    Deadman's switch in the middle position needs to be maintained for manual motion, also check 1TR board X8 connector for correct links fitted (pins 5-6 and pins 7-8)

    I attached a picture as to what I believe is X8, correct? X7 is identified as the top connector and X9 is identified as the bottom connector. I'm only assuming the middle one is X8.

    I'm not sure if those four open ends on that plug is 5-6 & 7-8? Should those be jumpered?

    At this time, the robot is a stand alone unit and is not connected to a plc. I'm just trying to do some general things.

    Thanks

    Those links look good to go (default from shipping).

    I think you're going to have to provide some further details as there's a lot of guessing that's going to be involved:

    1. Controller Type

    2. Robot Arm

    3. Any additional hardware/options fitted

    4. Cubic S fitted and configured or not

    5. I'm just trying to do some general things. - What does this mean exactly?

    1. E Controller (E52G)

    2. BX200

    3. Not 100% certain... This is a special project we're doing for a company and I had been told by Kawasaki that "all options are being given"

    4. Not configured

    5. I just want to move the robot. Maybe create some generic programs that will allow me to refamiliarize myself with this robot. Lower the arm, to allow the EOAT to be put on, etc. Nothing in full speed/motion, etc.

    Not familiar with that type of controller - Is it Toyota Controller?

    So have you been able to move it yet?

    1. Make sure no Estop if active.

    2. Turn on Motor Power

    3. Turn Teach Lock to 'Hand' or 'On'

    4. Confirm it is in RUN

    5. Press and hold deadmans in middle position (you should hear the brakes lift).

    6. Set interpolation, speed and press axis keys for motion.

    With the help of Kawasaki tech support, my issue has been solved!

    Long story short...

    From Kawasaki:

    "The original wiring forces the input from the teach pendant deadman to go through the Cubic-S, and since you're not connected to safety or a PLC, the Cubic-S isn't passing it forward from there. Connecting X204 directly into the motherboard will mitigate this and allow the teach pendant deadman input to go directly to the motherboard."

    ---

    That's the reasoning as to what was going on. Prior to that, he explained what to do to mitigate the bypass until I can get the PLC and safety setup. Since I'm "bypassing" something, I'm not sure if I should post directly on this thread what was swapped around inside the controller. This is temporary and I will be undoing these changes once I move further along.

    Anyways,

    I appreciate your attention in trying to help me with this!



    As I said, I'm not familiar with that controller.

    If it's what I am thinking, you are not bypassing anything and you can post it if you like.

    Glad to hear you've managed to resolve it though and thanks for letting us know, always benefits when discussing alternative equipment and feeding back the results.

    **Edit**

    The Teach pendant normally is connected to X204 and X205 on the 1TX board on all E series controllers.

    This carries all communication, power and safety signals from teach pendant to 1TR board via 1TX.

    On your Controller (E52) then, there must be an option to 'splinter' the Deadman's signals off to an external device then, and then have the external device control when the Deadman's signal is delivered back to the controller.

    This must be part of the Cubic S harness assembly supplied.

    Strange as that is exactly what I thought you could use X8 external trigger circuit to do instead as it lies in series with the teach pendant Deadman's already.

    I take it, this connection was open circuit and this is what you have had to connect up - not bypassing it.

    I'm wondering if you are using a different version of Cubic S here.....If you get chance, could you post the version of this, I would be interested to know?

    I'm smelling Toyota version 2......

    ---Here's what the tech had wanted me do:

    "1. Connect to the robot using CS-Configurator (Cubic-S software) and then go to Parameter Tree View -> Safety I/O -> Safety Input Settings and make sure the "Emergency Stop" setting is off."

    "2. In the controller, take a look at the X204 connector; it's located at the bottom of the card rack. I'm going to attach images to give you a reference, they're also from an E52 controller. Disconnect X204 from X204A, disconnect X204B from the motherboard, then plug X204 directly into the motherboard. The original wiring forces the input from the teach pendant deadman to go through the Cubic-S, and since you're not connected to safety or a PLC, the Cubic-S isn't passing it forward from there. Connecting X204 directly into the motherboard will mitigate this and allow the teach pendant deadman input to go directly to the motherboard." 

    ---This was his initial thoughts prior to giving me instructions to fix the issue:

    "...Ford-spec controllers; this type of controller (E52) is setup so that when there are several robots in a cell, only 1 robot can be in teach before the robot moves. So if you have 2 robots in teach, it won't work. It's possible that you need that signal coming from the PLC to let the robot know it's the only robot in teach. I'm not sure yet, that's my best guess. It may also be possible that you can't jog without having the PLC and safety setup first, but I'm going to find that out."


    ---Now for my scenario, I never had Cubic-S setup to begin with and couldn't even connect for some reason. So, I went ahead and went to step two and that resolved my issue. Looks like how X204 was originally setup was to a Ford Spec and I wasn't quite ready with my cell build to allow that to properly work. Once that all gets setup, I can then just return X204 to the way it was.

    ---Cubic-S Version(???): CubicsVersionInfo,CSUV010333305 2013/01/11 12:00 70de:70de CSUW010333305 2013/01/11 12:00 c44f:c44f

    • Best Answer

    Hmmmm…..some interesting information in there for sure......

    The Cubic S module as standard is a 'parallel' monitoring system.

    So with the connection harnesses, you find that Kawasaki has implemented these 'parallel' signal lines to allow the splintering of signals to be dispersed to the Cubic S module aswell as the controller with all Cubic S module kits.

    ie the encoders, not only connect to the controller (as standard), but also are connected to the Cubic S module via XCS3 and XCS4.

    Your Cubic S module is version 3.

    From what I know, this was just for E0x series controllers (at least the harnessing kit is intended for that type) and not the cabinet style controllers.

    I wonder whether Kawasaki (not that I am surprised) has another type of harnessing kit available for cabinet controllers, or whether this is just intended for E52 controllers and these controllers are just Ford Spec too......

    I wonder whether the X204 (X204A and X204B Interface) has just been introduced for the Ford Spec Controllers (E52) then and goes to XCS6 on the Cubic S module.

    With what you mention about only 1 controller allowed to be in teach mode at any one time...….would definitely make sense then, allowing the external device to monitor/control/allow which robot to be used.

    I know recently that Ford has received a big influx of Kawasaki (just from Linked in connections).

    Excellent to know and see this in the forum that there is 'another' hybrid of Kawasaki controllers out there.....I appreciate the additional info....:top:

    Especially with something just as simple as being able to manually move the robot, then there will be an alternate procedure associated with the E52 and Ford Spec controllers.

    I think not only newcomers to Kawasaki but some experienced guys out there will be scratching their heads when they cannot do something as simple as moving the robot manually due to this new configuration.

    So the information you've provided will benefit others for sure.....I know I have...….:respect:

    Yea, the process took about 6+ hours to resolve going back and forth thru emails and what not until this got resolved. Once the tech support got a hold of an automotive guy at kri, it was solved fairly quickly.

    ericwiz:

    Yea we have two at our shop. From what I've seen and heard, it's quite the "project"...

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