Initial setup of a robot with referece backups

    Hello,

    we have a test robot in our office. In future, we want to build this robot cell in the same configuration multiple times.
    How can i speed up the initial setup of the robots? We don't want to do that manually, so we tried to use the AoA-Backups (without SYSMAST.SV) but afterwards both robots had the same serial number (the number of the robot we backuped).

    We talked to Fanuc and they told us, that we can't use backups for the initial setup of another robot. Instead we should use a PC program called "Initial Setup Function" in combination with the robot software ". But i can't find any informations about this tools.

    So my questions:
    - Has somebody informations about this tools?

    - Which other possibilities i have for the initial setup?
    - Are we doing something wrong with loading backups? Does it normally works with reference backups?

    Thanks for your help

  • Roland Keller October 19, 2023 at 10:36 AM

    Approved the thread.

    Well, they aren't totally honest with their answer. It is clear that they would like to sell you more software to make more money.

    Although you should not load an entire AOA backup as you have done, there are certain files that you can load to speed up the process. This will depend on your robot configuration and software revision. Meaning, you can load some variable files, as long as the recipient robots software revision is the same as the donor. FANUC advises against loading files like .SV from different versions (e.g. V8.2 to V9.1). I have had some luck doing this as the robot can convert variables from older versions.

    Additionally, you can load .TP files from robots with similar configurations. You cannot load a .TP program to a robot that doesn't have similar motion or instruction commands (e.g. SPOT instruction to a Handling robot). Although you won't risk damaging anything like you could loading .SV files, you will get an alarm.

    If you search "Program and File Manipulation" in the SpotTool manual, there is a list of loadable files.

    You can load AoA backups from one robot to another, but you will copy some unwanted stuff with the backup. You should definetely avoid overwriting the sysmast.sv (and probably orderfil.dat). It is not advised by Fanuc to do so but it will work.

    The Tool you are talking about is probably J737 Robot Setup Assist, here you can output a CSV file from your existing robot and load it into the new one and all the configuration will be done for you. I've not used this feature so i can't tell you if it works well or not.

    Another option would be to find the system variables for the things you need to configure, and then write a karel program which will set those config values for you. It can be a lot of work but most things are configurable via the system variables. Then you just need to execute this program and everything is set up.

    Quote from retobor

    Additionally, you can load .TP files from robots with similar configurations. You cannot load a .TP program to a robot that doesn't have similar motion or instruction commands (e.g. SPOT instruction to a Handling robot). Although you won't risk damaging anything like you could loading .SV files, you will get an alarm.

    An additional issue can crop up when the .TP files are from an older version. We have a set of standard programs for specific applications, one of which calls a program with arguments that passes those arguments to a Karel program. Loading the old .TP file messes with that somehow so that (as far as it seems to me) the arguments don't get passed to the Karel program. Compiling the LS file on a newer version controller fixes that though.

    Thanks for your help.

    We tried it with an AOA backup without the sysmast.sv but afterwards, both robots had the same serial number.

    Can Sombedoy tell us which file with have to exclude so that the serial number doesn't change?


    We use DCS. Which file we can transfer to another robot to speed up the initial setup for the dcs menu?

    Please refrain from loading (at least) the following files from other robots:

    SYSMAST.SV - contains the mastering data

    SYSSERVO.SV - contains servo motor parameters that are specific for that version of the system software as well as for that robot model

    SYSVARS.SV - unfortunately contains a whole lot of settings such as (but not limited to) payloads, system config settings, robot serial number that shows up in CTRL Start (and also is written in the SUMMARY.DG-file in a backup)

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