Configuring automatic external in VKRC2, missing variables

    Second hand (or third, or fourth..) robot, VKRC2 controller, CD drive not working, missing floppy drive.

    I'm trying to configure the automatic external mode. I have been reading manuals for the past four hours but there's some system variables that do not exist in the configure automatic external menu.

    .

    These are the 'original' settings it had. Since the CD drive isn't working and there's no kuka cd either, I have only been able to set up devicenet so far by booting directly into Windows and editing the .ini files manually. I have taken a look at the two files that manage these system variables (config.dat and machine.dat if I remember well) but there's no trace of signals like DRIVES_ON, MOVE_ENABLE and so on.

    I have no idea if it's because the controller is a VKRC2 or those pop up when you log in as expert. I have tried mounting three spare IDE drives I have laying around here and getting windows to install them, but nothing happens after it asks me to reboot. Still nothing under ARCHIVE. USB ports are disabled in this controller so I don't know what else to do to try to log in as expert.

  • Go to Best Answer

    make sure you are using correct documentation for your system. see READ FIRST and get the manuals from Xpert.

    if your system is VKRC then it does not run KSS, it runs VSS (special Volkswagen version of system software...) and there - some things are just different.

    for example (because this is VW only version) many things are not even translated, they are still in German. For example 'DrivesOn' equivalent is ANTEIN ("Antriebe Ein").

    so you need to determine exact VSS version and get manuals for it.

    1) read pinned topic: READ FIRST...

    2) if you have an issue with robot, post question in the correct forum section... do NOT contact me directly

    3) read 1 and 2

    if this controller has a floppy disk, I presume it is a first gen VKRC2 (VKRC2 ED05, the second generation, has no CD drive or floppy. Just USB ports).

    I'm not sure if it is necessary be in Expert mode to edit these values through HMI, and if it really is, You need a working cd drive to get in Expert mode, or edit files manually. Config.dat has the most user variables, but some of them are in other files, as $machine.dat (both files) and also custom.dat.

    Quote from massula

    if this controller has a floppy disk, I presume it is a first gen VKRC2 (VKRC2 ED05, the second generation, has no CD drive or floppy. Just USB ports).

    Yes, this is right. It's from 2003. I doubt I have to be in expert user mode for this but I also doubt I'm going to make this work without ever needing it. Win95 identified all the drives I plugged and found drivers for them, but they still don't show up in the explorer.

    Quote from panic mode

    make sure you are using correct documentation for your system. see READ FIRST and get the manuals from Xpert.

    if your system is VKRC then it does not run KSS, it runs VSS (special Volkswagen version of system software...) and there - some things are just different.

    That's what I thought. I followed some threads here that were about this same controller but they all had dead links to manuals and other threads.

    I'm currently browsing the kuka portal and seems promising. I don't remember the exact software version so I'm gonna see and report in a couple days. Thanks

    Thanks. The oldest manual I found in that kuka portal is for a VSS 5.4, though it still shows the same setup as this one. It's what it's showing on the controller. I'm personally missing some generic signals but thread is solved.

    For the record I managed to log in as expert (Key file not found). I found a working floppy drive and it worked on the controller right off the bat. There was no way to change the floppy drive letter from A: to D: (not even forcefully, using LetAssgn), but I could transfer data back and forth so I downloaded a generic CD ROM driver from here (goldstar) and the controller detected the CD drive after rebooting.

    I burned the files in this thread on CD and they work on this controller. 👍

    I have another question. In the VSS Operation Handbook Release 3.3 there's a chapter dedicated to setting up the CELL file (section 5.4), by means of a configuration window. It's pretty straight forward but this program doesn't work for me. Picture from the manual:

    8HALvra.jpg

    I follow the procedure or press all buttons in the window but nothing happens. Folge1 isn't added to the cell. It does detect my folge since actFolge shows 1; if I delete the folge it shows 0.

    I really don't need to change between programs since this is only a main palletizing UP that branches out to smaller subprograms. Can I just bypass the cell routine? I read yesterday a thread I'm actually trying to find that discussed just this, by writing a call to your program in the SPS file. But this file looks nothing like what was shown.

    Since there's no call to CELL in this SPS file I'm guessing one would need to select it first before going AUT EXT, but as I said I would rather jump all of this.

    Cell is a VW / VKRC requirement, so the easier way to run you robot in automatic would be using it, but I think you can try to skip this, with some creative programming.

    Anyway, Cellproj is just a frontend. If isn't working for you, You can simply edit cell.src manually. I will try to find a sample file and upload it here.

    Thanks massula. I'm going to try your file and report back. I did find a workaround though. It's not the most elegant solution but it works as long as the robot keeps powering off hibernating, remembering the active program.

    I selected in T my main UP, wrote a routine there that checks if it was powered off and if so restarts the program from the beginning. Since the controller remembers the last active program I wrote them all in a way that they fall back to the master when I send a dedicated bit from the PLC. I have a homing subroutine at the top so I gracefully move the robot back to a safe position before executing anything else.

Advertising from our partners