Turning the key for mode exchange without teach pendant

Dear forum members,

Is there a way to "hack" the KRC in order to allow switching between control modes without the teach pendant? Maybe using external PLC for that?

We have the KRC4 compact controller and for some reason after power fault (not related to the robot, power supply was cut due to some reason) the robot from time to time changed mode from EXT to T1. Since we do not work with the teach pendant and the access to the robot is limited, we wish to be able to switch back to EXT mode without reconnecting the teach pendant, which is later disconnected and robot needs to be restarted in order to work again without teach pendant.

There are 8 cables for the teach pendant - 2 for power, 2 apparently for the E-button ?(X40 on the board) and 4 for network connection (X42).

Is the signal for the manual key rotation sent as a network packet? is there a way to send it via the maintenance network connection instead of the teach pendant?

I sincerely appreciate any assistance.

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Avi

Quote from panic mode

>> Is there a way to "hack" the KRC in order to allow switching between control modes without the teach pendant? Maybe using external PLC for that?

>Probably, after all this is something created by humans, not passed down from some alien civilisation. Someone did some pretty interesting things with stuxnet too...

Question is is this is reasonable or worth the effort...

- It does worth the effort for us. Not always the system is accessible for humans.

>> We have the KRC4 compact controller and for some reason after power fault (not related to the robot, power supply was cut due to some reason) the robot from time to time changed mode from EXT to T1. Since we do not work with the teach pendant and the access to the robot is limited, we wish to be able to switch back to EXT mode without reconnecting the teach pendant, which is later disconnected and robot needs to be restarted in order to work again without teach pendant.

>Are you maintaining your robot? Are batteries connected and in good shape? What is the KSS version? Did you send KRCDiag to Kuka Support to check it out?

- Yes, I was not sure if this information is relevant to this question, but it can be provided if necessary.

>>There are 8 cables for the teach pendant - 2 for power, 2 apparently for the E-button ?(X40 on the board) and 4 for network connection (X42).

Is the signal for the manual key rotation sent as a network packet? is there a way to send it via the maintenance network connection instead of the teach pendant?

>not exactly , there is one cable to smartPad and it has eight conductors:

two of them are power (X306)

two of them are circuit telling if smartPad is connected (X407)

and the remaining 4 are EtherCat (X42, KSB)

- Perfect, thank you for clearing that out.

>all signals are exchanged over the EtherCat (KSB). This includes any information displayed on smartPad, data services for USB port(s), safety signals for EStop, enabling switch, mode selector switch, etc. replicating this using some hack is very likely to be a daunting task, as everything here is proprietery (not disclosed) and reverse engineering would require skills (a lot of specialized knowledge) and possibly luck.

Hence practical solution is to not disconnect smartPad or ... keep connecting it as needed.

- Thank you for clearing that out. EtherCat sniffing might be the solution. I'll give it a try.

Any more information or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again Panic Mode.

Best regards,

Avi

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