RS485 Tool I/O communication with Karel: TLIF functions not compiling.

Hi,

I am investigating how to communicate with a custom tool on the end-effector from a CRX25-ia. I have found functions in KAREL relating to writing data over the RS485 lines in the Plugin SDK manual (Section 11.6, 11.7). The functions are TLIF_WRITE, _READ etc. and are included in a karel program using %ENVIRONMENT TLIF. However any reference to TLIF throws an error when trying to compile using ktrans. I have ktrans installed through WinolPC from a ROBOGUIDE installation. I want to find out what else I need to be able to communicate through the 485 lines in the tool. Do i need to have the Plugin SDK installed? It also doesn't help that the TLIF functions are not included in the regular karel reference and programming guide manuals.

Some unresolved posts also discussing RS485 use:

Post

Rs485 comm fanuc

Hello,

I'm trying to make a comm between a CRX-25iA - Fanuc and a camara bia the Rs485 comm that exists in the end-effector.

Has anyone used this protocol with another Fanuc robot? where can I see what the camera is sending to the robot?

thank you in advance!

BD_710

August 24, 2023 at 7:46 PM

Post

RE: fanuc crx

Only reference I have shows RS485 as an option:

robot-forum.com/attachment/38209/

But the only references to the RS485 look like regular serial comms -- baud rate, parity, stop bits. So I would have said no, except I stumbled across a note referring to using the RS485 through KAREL:

robot-forum.com/attachment/38210/

So... maybe? I suspect it might be very dependent on how you try to implement it. The KAREL commands related to the CRX's RS485 appear to be very minimal (raw bytes-send,…

SkyeFire

August 18, 2023 at 9:50 PM

Post

RS485 - Karel configuration

Hello, everyone,

I am currently working with a Fanuc collaborative robot (CRX-10iAl). We want to use a force sensor using the RS-485 protocol. The EE socket at the end of the robot arm has dedicated connections for this type of protocol, with which we are able to connect. As the force sensor is not a Fanuc product we need to write a program in Karel to communicate with the sensor.

Does anyone have a basic example on how to create a connection to a device with this protocol, send strings and read…

Qu4dri

May 4, 2021 at 12:56 PM

Below is an example program of what I'm trying to compile.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated! I just need to send simple byte strings to a gripper.

PROGRAM TOOLSERIAL

%NOLOCKGROUP

%ENVIRONMENT TLIF -- 'File cannot be opened or created'

%ENVIRONMENT PC

%NOPAUSE=ERROR+COMMAND+TPENABLE

%NOBUSYLAMP

%NOPAUSESHFT




%COMMENT = '0.0.0.0 - 00'

%ALPHABETIZE

%INCLUDE KLEVKEYS

%INCLUDE KLEVKMSK

%INCLUDE KLEVCCDF

%INCLUDE KLIOUOP

%INCLUDE KLIOTYPS

VAR

    status : INTEGER

    send_data : ARRAY[255] OF BYTE -- 32767 is max size

    receive_data : ARRAY[255] OF BYTE -- 32767 is max size

    crc : ARRAY[2] OF BYTE

    start_add : INTEGER

    register_num : INTEGER

    read_size : INTEGER

BEGIN

    TLIF_WRITE(5, send_data, status) -- Not defined since TLIF.ev wont load

END TOOLSERIAL

Quote from pdl

What version of software and controller are you using?

V9.40-1

So it turns out I needed a robot.ini file in the directory where I am building the .pc files and it compiled completely fine afterward. This is strange because I have compiled plenty other karel programs fine without a robot.ini file, only when I included TLIF.ev did it fail. Thats definitely my fault as there is a warning for that I ignored.

Ill come back to this post if i have any issues writing data across the rs485 to the device. But the compilation problem is no more. Hopefully this helps someone.

Thanks for responding quickly anyway.