KUKA KRC4 Power management via PROFINET

Hello there,

I am currently programming a KUKA KRC4 controller (KSS v 8.3.17) with KR 90 R2700 pro arm. I am using SIEMENS S7-1200 CPU 1214FC DC/DC/DC as my PLC of choice for EXT mode.

Right now I am looking into the possibility of power management using the PLC. My PLC of choice cannot be used as ProfiEnergy master, but reading the KUKA manual for PROFINET I read that there is option to activate or deactivate power-saving modes using 1 byte of input and read the results in 1 byte of output.

The manual is rather vague, and I am unable to find answers elsewhere. The manual is simply referring to Input byte 0 and Output byte 0. I tried to use PROFINET input byte 0 but nothing happens. Now, the PROFINET Input byte 0 as well as Output byte 0 are configured through WorkVisual to be mapped to KRC4 digital I/O's. Is that the problem? Do these bytes need to be left unmapped?

If not, what bytes is the manual referring to?

Thanks!

Quote from panic mode

only done limited work with ProfiNet and did nothing with power management at all but this is interesting and i would like to find out more.

btw. which exact "manual for PROFINET"? there are dozens of them.

also what is the ProfiNet version you have there? there is more than one for KSS8.3

The manual is "KR C4 PROFINET 3.0", but every "KR C4 PROFINET X.Y" says the same.

The Option package is Profinet ProfiSafe Device 3.2.2.7. I could not find manual "KR C4 PROFINET 3.2"

Quote from DS186

I guess you mean the power management via PROFINET. Please note that this is not PROFIenergy. Furthermore, PROFIenergy and power management cannot be combined.

Did you configure the power management signals in the CabCtrl.xml file located under C:\KRC\ROBOTER\Config\User\Common? Once the signals are configured you can map the signals to every byte you want.

Yes, I fully understand that that is not the same as ProfiEnergy, I mentioned that my PLC is not ProfiEnergy capable.

Thank you, I will look into the configuration. I have not done it before, but should be fine, we have the full backup of the robot available.

Quote from DS186

Did you configure the power management signals in the CabCtrl.xml file located under C:\KRC\ROBOTER\Config\User\Common? Once the signals are configured you can map the signals to every byte you want.

Do I need to configure every single input/output individually?

I have set the PowerDownByPLC activated to "on", set the Driver to "PNIODriver", set the bus to "PNIO-DEV" and bitOffset to "2024" as I want to use the last byte of PROFINET in both the IN and OUT of PROFINET

The corresponding bits on the PROFINET I/O mapping have been disconnected from KRC4 I/O's, but I am still unable to do anything regarding power management via PROFINET, not even read out the AB and BBS values.

Update:

By setting Input bit offset to "2152" for inputs I have managed to turn drives off and on as well as hibernate the KRC4. That number is OK because the PROFINET I/O mapping says that the PROFINET addresses go up to 269.7.

For some reason the KS bit also puts KRC4 into hibernate, not restart, I have no idea why.

However, I am still not able to get AB and BBS output values in PLC even though I set the Output bit offset to "2144" since output bits on PROFINET I/O mapping go up to 268.7. I have tried putting it to "2152" with no success.

Update #2:

Apparently setting the Output bit offset to "4312" is the way to go. However, that would mean, according to WorkVisual, that PROFINET I/Os go with order Input,Output and are not separated, and, more importantly, that I used byte 269 in PROFINET outputs, which makes no sense because PROFINET I/O mapping for outputs goes up to 268.7! Any thoughts?

Quote from DS186

I only did it once and I am not sure about every detail. Let's say you have 128 bytes inputs and outputs for communication with the PLC. If you want to use the last byte for the power management then enter 1016 for the bitOffset for input and output. The other settings seems to be correct (according to your above post).

Make sure the last byte ist not mapped in WOV (I'm not 100% sure about this point). But first try to leave it unmapped. If it is not working you can try again with the inputs and outputs mapped to PROFINET.

After you have changed the CabCtrl.xml file you need to perform a cold start with the setting "Reload files" active.

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Hmmm, that is interesting as I never (I mean never, and I have changed plenty of things on the machine, I just use deploy from the WorkVisual) performed cold start with "Reload files" option and got it to work, but somehow backwards. For my thing to work properly the offset would need to be pure data offset on data stream of PROFINET packet, with it being structured as Input,CRC(presumably, it is 1 byte of length),Output,...

I will try to revert back to your, let's call it logical, way then do the cold start reload files and see if that works. It is extremely unlikely, but possible, that the behavior of 2 bits that I have been looking at is just exactly as it should be if they were the correct bits, but somehow are not what I am looking for.

UPDATE:

There are simply way too many bits which do exactly what they should be doing. I added Diagnostic signals via PROFINET as well and they behave the same way. For KUKA somehow the bit sequence on PROFINET goes Inputs,Something(presumably CRC, 1 byte long),Outputs when setting up those signals. I am baffled as to why. Maybe it is one of those nuisances which soft-locks the software for people who have not gone through training?

In any case thanks both of you for your time, panic mode and DS186!