Posts by greenman

What welding system are you using with it? Each welding system has a different comms configuration. Post the test_weld code you are using. Are you coding it in AS with a computer or in Block directly on the TP?

Thank you for the assistance.
Super embarrassed-the ‘new’ TP seems to have a different left and right (A) button. On the right I can feel the pressing action. But the left is just a touch. No haptic feedback when it is pressed. Turns out I also had an e-stop problem. Something odd makes the left button not beep when the ratio is pressed. But the right button still beeps and give haptic feedback.
When I released the E-stop after studying my video and noticing the little red words.
All works well.
Nothing like a mild unnecessary panic as the project nears completeness.
I am heading to site with the robot tomorrow. It’s all packed up into 9 pallets.
Fingers crossed.

Thanks kwakisaki as always for your assistance.

Quote from kwakisaki

AFAIK there is a system switch available for the A button functionality and I think there is an option to disable/prohibit the left A button.
As there are 2 buttons available, then if you can disable it permanently this may be a work around.

This may be super helpful - I will go looking for that switch... before I turn to google - can you point me at how to access the system switches? via TP I assume?

EDIT with the answer: SWITCH in terminal lists all switches and their status.

CURSOR_LEFT_A_KEY OFF

not it...

Quote from kwakisaki

If motors cannot be turned on, then it may be the emergency stop or deadmans that are faulty.

Have you opened the teach pendant to see if everything is connected correctly?

You are 100% correct here - when I opened up the TP to switch cables the E-Stop got depressed - I was so focused on the buttons - I didn't notice the red E-STOP on the right-hand side - so I am not completely stuck...

So far the suppliers are communicative. But on the other side of the world, so the conversation is slow. They have a pretty good rating on E-bay, so I expect them to do all they can to assist.

So my sorry saga continues. I bought a second hand TP off eBay and a spare cable to replace the broken one.
The TP has the left (A) key stuck down and constantly activated. So that’s not gonna be useful.

My back-up plan with the spare cable -I replaced the faulty cable and I can do almost everything on the old TP-except for power the motors.
either the cable is no good, or the TP shorted something when the cable was severed.
Hopefully the supplier will take them all back- but I guess I have lost out on the import duties and shipping and the two weeks in between.
My last option will be to try and switch the cable on my spare TP. The 20meters will be helpful. 5meters isn’t sufficient for my welder.

I did a similar thing for a project and am about to deploy it. I will keep an eye out for your questions and try and assist where I can. Post a picture of your system, it might be similar to mine and I can send you some configuration documents I was able to track down.

I have had a similar incident - dropping a piece of steel severed the tp cable -

50978-0360-L20. The cable is not sold separately from the TP. The replacement TP is USD4444.

The gray market on ebay has replacement cables for $1200 - $1900 - but I am thinking perhaps I can add a plug for $300 at the break to rejoin the ends - I am not sure a soldier and heat shrink joint will provide the strain relief needed for tugging on the cable.

HARTING Configuration 5PBN.

any advise is appreciated.

Thank you kwakisaki : success

The full backup I had made a week earlier also worked to restore the default.as file-

I have recently got a new error when I open K-Roset. It cannot connect to the controller. It is only on my current project. Previous versions of the project open and connect without an issue.

ERROR MESSAGE:

Controller : R01[C01]
ErrorCode : ERR-0008-4
Detail : Communication module._OpenNortc() Failed. ctrlno=0,ret_val=-4129

The help file (FAQ) and Google haven't assisted me this time - I am wondering if anybody else has come across this issue and has a suggested fix? Thx in advance.

Thank you for the videos - they are tough to follow without any sound. I have tried a couple of times, but I always get sidetracked. I will keep pushing on till I get through them.

Thanks kwakisaki. I don't close and re-open KRoset every time I save, or save every time I synchronise. I tend to save after I have completed a black of successful work. Is it advisable to be that diligent?

Also: I am not sure of the 'best' flow for writing and testing .AS code. Maybe you can advise?

I write it in VisualStudio, then use the "display in the editor" to load a program with the load icon - then save it to the controller

at that time it will do a syntax check for me, and I iterate that (edit in VS, load to the editor, save to the controller) until it loads with no errors. Then synchronise controller -> K-roset so that both parts of the program have the same data.

I know there are three places where programs can be executed. I don't know which is best, or correct. And I think they might also run different code from different places, so if I haven't synchronised properly, I can get different versions running depending on where I start the program. I shared the video of starting from the Virtual TP ,using the cycle start button: with K-Roset support: they advised that the simulation plug-in is the intended execution method. but each change in the code I write takes so many mouse clicks to get to a point where I can execute it.

1. from the terminal.

execute testmotion.

I believe this executes it directly on the controller (not in K-Roset?) it is easier for just running one procedure at a time, like initialisations. and I use it to change variables to test different behaviours. ie. Test side = 1.

2. Then, after I synchronise controller => K-roset, I can open the simulator, select the program and 'play' it. (K-Roset supports' preferred option) but requires a lot of synchronisation, and if I have edited a process variable in the virtual TP, or in the terminal, then it is not updated in the simulation (that took me a while to figure out, side 2 (displayed on the virtual TP) was automatically changed back to side 1, without any code being executed).

3. I can also use the virtual TP, select it in the directory, and cycle start. I don't know if that is running the version of code on the controller, or in K-roset.

I have an operator interface on the TP and I haven't figured out where the best place to start the IO_Manager.pc program from. at this point I always start from the terminal.

Interesting thread - I have just gotten through recovering from the same issue.

The K-Roset controller stopped turning off the 1015 automatically, and the robot stopped being automated when it executed a program. I was unable to solve the problem. It was only for my complicated simulation - an old simpler simulation still executed.

I did have another symptom, when closing K-Roset using the [x], it would not close, but the 'File' option would become greyed out. I had to use task manager to kill K-Roset.

this shows the greyed out 'file' option after trying to close.

fail to close, and working older simpler program

closing K-Roset doesnt actually close.load a simpler program, it runs.And the simpler program closes with "File" "Exit"

www.youtube.com

and some more odd behaviour - it getting stuck on the first line (before I realised the 1015 was stuck off.

Ext_hold not allowing program to run

screen recording of 24ft sim 250113 halting execution of program on first line of code.

www.youtube.com

I uninstalled K-Roset, reinstalled it, and rebuilt the simulation from scratch, it is working now.

Well it isn't yet - but that's my coding rather than issues with K-Roset.

EDIT: something that regularly catches me is the "STEP ONCE" vs "STEP CONT" - it makes the program stop at motion points, not every step - which can be frustrating.

Thanks for the feedback.

Perhaps this should be the start of a new thread, but the context of this query is that I am hoping I can use touch sensing to overcome a small challenge. The robot zero plates seem to have been tampered with in the past, and the TCP doesn't stay fixed when rotated about tool TCP. The implication is that I cannot change the tool angle without changing the TCP position.

The BA series robots don't have an available zero kit like the RS series.

This is a video of the TCP shift during angular change

The paint lines on the bolts don't match up anymore, I suspect they were removed and replaced when the robot was painted. Kawasaki told me that some of the blue robots were painted on the production line and others were done after the fact. I think this is an after-the-fact one.

I got the factory zero settings for the encoders, but that doesn't improve the situation. It actually makes the TCP stability worse. I have double-checked the Tool definition, and I tried the automatic tool definition process (repeatedly), but it gave many errors and didn't result in a satisfactory result.

I am going to add a smaller tool to the robot flange (calibration spike) with measurable offsets and then double-check the TCP stability again. The welding tool offsets are very difficult to measure accurately.

As plan B, if I am unable to re-zero the robot, is to try and get around the x,y,z position error by adding an offset to each weld position, into free space, then using SSENS or XAC to detect the exact position of each weld start and end before it is executed. I big cycle time hit for the process.

Reporting back on successful resolution - instead of removing the split, I added in jumpers to X204 cable to pass through the signals.

Temporary fix for the time being. and easier to reinstate cubic-s in the future should I get to that point. But i do need to buy a connector rather than this temporary wire-only solution...

Thanks for all the assistance in this thread.

Thank you for sharing the code. This is very interesting implementation to find the start point for a weld kwakisaki. Considering that the SSENSING option exists and is intended to achieve the same thing. However, as I understand things (so far), SSENSING doesn't shift the weld end-point (to preserve the weld trajectory), and SSENSE also doesn't have the ability to record the amount that the target point differs from the new detected start point.

Therefore, I deduce that without TRPM, SSENSE is not as powerful as the example that you provided above. Have I missed anything in the logic?

I don't have the RTPM board, but would like to shift the entire weld seam by the shift in the start point. I suppose the safest option would be to shift the start point using an adaptation of your example (XAC rather then SSENSE) , and then measure and shift the end-point of the weld seam (with XAC as well). Based on how much difference there is between the start-point shift and the end-point shift, I can decide if using the start-point shift alone is sufficient to shift the end-point and have a successful weld.

It was as you deduced, however, with Fronius job mode there are different ways to specify the welding parameters.

SET_ARC_W1JOBNO 1=1 ;corrolate job number and weld condition number
SET_ARC_W2JOBNO 1=1 ;corrolate job number and weld condition number for crater en end
Set_ARC_WELDMODE 3 ;3 = job mode
SET_ARC_W1JOBCOND 1=38,1 ;weld speed cm/min ,job number
SET_ARC_W2JOBCOND 1=1,1 ;TIME, job number

And it welded away.

thanks for your help...

Now onto start point sensing that doesn't seem to be working... but that is another thread if I cannot get to the bottom of it myself.

Thank you kwakisaki - I will try that.

I was advised by Kawasaki to use the SETCONDW1 and SETCONDW2. previously, I was just using the settings in AUX1401 and AUX1402 to set the weld parameters for the different conditions. But based on your explanation, I suspect I have implemented the parameters incorrectly.

I am using a Fronius welding system in job mode. it is one of 4 possible operational modes. I know that much of this data in the SETCONDW1 and SETCONDW2 (Aux 1401 and 1402) is not used or communicated to the Fronius welding system when using job mode. The Fronius power supply controls it in its job definitions. I may therefore be inadvertently causing the clash by trying to specify data that is not used. I duplicated the job data in both the Kawasaki weldconditions and in the Fronius Power supply, assuming that if it were not needed or used that it would be ignored.

I spent some more time in the manuals and I found an example of job mode, where the unused/unnecessary parameters are all 0. hopefully making the superfluous data 0 will fix my problem.

I will let you know tomorrow if that solves my challenges. Thanks again for taking the time to assist.

I have a welding robot and I have been welding in block step without problem. Robot motion instructions are specified with AC (air cut). WS (weld start), WC, (weld continue) and WE (weld end).

I now want to move to implement the code that I have been testing in K-Roset, which uses the AS language. But I get Error E1102 -

This Code creates the error:

Jappro testpoint1,200

setcondw1 1= 31,500,1,1,0,0,1
setcondw2 1= 1.5,1,550,0,1
LWS testpoint1
LWE testpoint2 ,1,1
Ldepart 200

This code in block step works fine:

AC JOINT SPEED4 ACCU4 TIMER0 OX= WX= #[93.479,39.738,-124.75,101.16,-62.735,-127.57,0] ;
WS LINEAR SPEED4 TIMER0 OX= WX= #[88.229,47.754,-122.92,109.47,-63.288,-134.58,0] ;
WE LINEAR WELD_COND1 OX= WX= #[88.319,46.178,-127.01,110.53,-64.153,-137.21,0] ;
AC JOINT SPEED9 ACCU4 TIMER0 OX= WX= #[92.957,39.02,-128.77,103.3,-63.305,-131.21,0] ;

I feel like the error indicates that there is an option that Kawasaki needs to assist me to turn on? I cannot find anything more than the Error text int he manuals, and my internet searching hasn't helped, yet.

Does anybody here have any ideas?

Thanks

Quote from ArcadeMachinist

Here is the pic before I removed it.

I have no idea how you reached down there to disconnect it. I tried unsuccessfully to remove the Power unit to get underneath it. I dropped a screw that took me ages to recover. Eventually, I resorted to the wiring diagrams and added jumpers to the plug on the branch - not a long-term solution as the jumpers are not held in place by anything more than friction. but it will do until I can source a plug and crimp the connections - but it worked and the robot is functioning. Thank you for the assistance.

Quote from ArcadeMachinist

The weird thing is I get "Torch interference" error on every power on.
It can come immediately on boot or 2 minutes later, robot is not even moving.
After resetting, it does not pop up again.

Sorry, I am a bit late to this thread. As you discovered, all Fronius communication is over ethernet. and Fronius has a torch collision detection mechanism with a magnetic connection between robot and the torch. If the torch collides it breaks the magnet pair, and the "torch interference" signal is given. Without a torch, or more specifically, without the torch side of the magnet pair, the system will always detect the "torch collision", as the circuit is always broken.

Without any ethernet comms, and therefore nothing to tell you that the magnet circuit is good or bad, I assume that the "torch interference" is by default 'high'.

Nice to read about "setting to 1000" being an override option - I didn't know about that.

Quote from ArcadeMachinist

X204 is branched, you need either remove the branch or figure out Cubic XIN_1 and a loopback for "SAF1", which might be a challenge. I did remove that extra cable.

I tried hard to find this in my controller. But I guess we have the same thing, but different. I traced all wires from XIN1 and SAF1 and didn’t find a 204 spliced cable as per your post. Either it’s just late in the day (possible) or the harness is different in my controller.
Might be the case, as my SAF2 as connected to cubic-s. And you mentioned yours was just an empty harness inside?
I made a video trying to explain the harness as I understand it.
Thx