KRC5 micro. What is the difference between a basic and an initial project?

initial project is just an empty shell and it is quite useless. you cannot really do anything with it... don't really know why is this even presented to the user.

basic project is usable. it contains the most essential factory configuration that still allows robot to move... this is meant as a starting point for users to create their own projects.

controller can have several projects, those are just two included from the factory....

only one project can be active. this is project that is actually used. one can activate at any point a different project (which could have completely different robot arm, fieldbus configuration etc.). this action would "de-throne" previously active project...

creating new project from user perspective means starting with some already functional project (at least basic project, usually the previously active project). there is no case that i can think of that user should ever want to start with initial project...

also when making own project it is important to give it different name. so when project is deployed, it should not overwrite other projects that are on the controller. because if something goes wrong, one should be able to simply activate another project and be back at the previous point - which is still functional system...

and as always, the most important thing is to at least get back to where you started.... this means getting informed and making sufficient backup(s). ideally there should be more than one form of backup... and one of them is complete HDD image...

If you made an Archive (File->Archive All) of the robot before trying to make any changes (ALWAYS DO THIS!), the Archive should contain copies of every Project that was on the robot when the Archive was made. You should be able to re-deploy this to the robot.

Or, connect a DVI monitor, and USB keyboard&mouse, directly to the KRC motherboard. This may get you to the KUKA HMI and allow you to use the Project button to activate a different project that's on the robot.

However, deploying a project should not disable SmartPad communications. The usual culprit when that happens is that someone went into Windows on the KRC and tampered with the Ethernet IP Address settings (NEVER DO THIS!). If that happened, then the only fix is to re-install the robot from "bare metal," using a system image from KUKA (unless you made a full KSR backup on first power-up (ALWAYS DO THIS!)) and a KSR stick.