Would it be an idea to use the SPS for this problem? You could set it up that when you are jogging in T1 that if you move over or under a certain X/Y (worldbase) value your jog speed will be set to 0. I use a similar type of solution to make sure that i never try to jog through a worktable.
I don't advise using this for T2 or auto. I don't think that is a good idea.
I am just curious. what do you mean with a small tilt? is it 5 degrees or maybe 10. I am curious what a small angle like that would add to the reach.
Why are you using a C-bracket? i think a simple Corner would be enough. This would safe some weight. I don't no what you want to mill but i would make the mounting of te spindle as close to the robot as is possible.
Hmm, strange if you have the CD it should work. Have you checked if the CD version and the installed kss version are the same. Most likely it should be "VKR C V3.3.3"
It is correct that the USB ports are not defined. The system is to old to know how too usb. Trying to turn them on could give problems. At least that is what Kuka told me.
Its a CD that you need. If it was not supplied with the robot the only way to get it is through Kuka.
I will look into the Oscilloscope function, i am very curious about what i get to see. and its not like its throwing overload errors it only happend once. I am trying to prevent it getting so far. 
should i add anything for the milling loads? or just use the weight of the spindle? What will happen when i add the load data. does only the acceleration change, or can this also affect the path that the robot travels in for example a PTP move. I am asking because i think i have more than 40 different programs using no load data and i am wondering what the effect will be on those programs.
Well, actually i have not entered any load data. My reasoning for this was that i can calculate the load of the spindle that is mounted to the arm, but i can't calculate the load that milling will add to that.
When i had my training ad kuka Belgium i talked briefly about this matter with the instructor and if i understood correctly that if i would leave the load data empty the controller would expect the worst possible load. Downside to this is that the robot accelerates and moves a bit slower. For us this has not been a problem so far.
Somewhere last week i had a problem with one of our robots (kr150 +krc2). It gave a axis overload on axis 1,3 en 6 during a circular movement. Now i know that this can happen during fast circular movements, especially in small cirkels so at the time i didn't worried about it. When i thought about it some more though is was wondering why a programmed motion that has been run for maybe 500 times or more suddenly gives a overload error. after i got the overload last week I have not seen it return since either so for now it is limited to a single event.
Some more information about the circmovement:
$APO.CVEL = 50
$VEL.CP = 0.3
LIN{z -20} C_VEL
CIRC{x 72,z -96},{x 0,z -168}, CA 360 C_VEL
during this movement the robot uses a circular saw to cut the end of piece of plastic pipe.
Bases on this information, is there something i should worry about? or do these things sometimes just happen?
I don't know why the 24 volts is required, but i can make an estimated guess. If the MFC card worked as a voltage supplier for each node on the devicenet, then each node would put more strain on the MFC card and the powersupply in the PC. I can imagine that as a robot designer that is a unwanted feature. So the obvious solution to this problem is an external powersupply. I am only guessing here but in my mind it makes sense.
Attach the 24v supply only to the MFC card and then try again. I would be interested to know if you get it working.
I did not have time to read your entire code but it seems to me that made a mistake to think that $vel.cp runs the speed of te robot al the time. $vel.cp is the speed that the robot uses in linear movements like LIN,LIN_REL and CIRC. In the PTP movements it runs of a different variable. So when you change the $vel.cp value before a PTP movement it has no affect on the speed of that movement.
If you have the correct settings in krc and the right code in the arduino, it would probably work fine. Don't forget that the Krc needs 24v supply voltage on the combicon connector too.
I had this problem just recently and had a kuka engineer around to have it fixed. Changing the RDW card in the robot has fixed the problem but it wasn't completely clear what caused the problem.
I would like to add another option to the above mentioned answers. Usually i run into problems in using the 3-point base teach method for 2 reasons.
Reason 1 most work pieces that i have to mill don't have a flat surface on the face where the origin is located. So in that case teaching origin is fine, but the other 2 points could get a little difficult as you might imagine. Reason 2 is the other way around, i do have a flat surface to measure, unfortunately the programs origin is not on the work piece.
general in both those cases the 4 point method would be the best option if i had CAD data, but most of the time i don't have that, or it is not reliable enough.
My normal work method is to measure origin just by jogging to it and entering the world coordinates into my program. After that i use the 3-point method to measure the A,B and C values on a surface that i know that is orientated the right way. That data i combine with the first and i have my base, without using CAD data or the 4 point method.
What kind of system do you have? I work with a Krc 2 that is in external mode and i just turn of the main switch when i leave in the evenings. Never had any problems with that.
This might be too simple, but you know that you have to hold 1 of the buttons on the back of the kcp to activate the drives? The only message i see is that the drives are not activated, and the only way too activate the drives in T1 is to hold that button.
Well, configuring a gripper (which is what the tool clamp basically is) with gripper tech is very easy, but it depends of type of clamp that your are using. In my case the spindle needs a high signal to release the tool and a low signal to clamp. In grippertech there are a few different gripper types where you can choose from. All that you have to do is select the right one for you and fill in the correct output that links to your spindle. If you want to and if you a sensor that detects if the toolclamp is open or closed you can also configure that signal with grippertech. Then you could use the grippertech inline form to check if it is open or closed.
I have to say though i only used grippertech for the use of the buttons during teaching. I never use any inline forms in my code. I never liked using them so i don't exactly know what you can do with them.
I don't know if you have grippertech installed but i configured the toolclamp with grippertech and then you can use the buttons on the kcp for clamping and releasing tools. works great during teaching.
Well, it has been a while, more then a year ago when our first automatic product milling and drilling station was finished. In one of the previous posts i made on this topic i mentioned that because of the success of this system we would probably buy a second one. Well it turns out that the robot was such a success that instead of buying 1, we bought 2.
In the next few months i will start with getting the first of the two operational. The plan is to get at least one operational somewhere in October, and the second one in December.
both will get the same treatment as the first one and will be constructed with the same 6 milling stations. I hope if do this accurate enough i can move products from one robot to the other without changing the program. We will have to see how well this will work.
Maybe a bit of a simple answer, but have you tried preforming a cold start? I know that some software versions won't allow you to use input 1025(always on signal) in automatic external mode. Even if you change the signal from 1025 to something else the machine won't start unless you preform a cold start.
I know this because our machine normally runs in automatic external mode and when i am programming in T1 i have to change the move enable input to 1025, because the external source is operating. Sometimes it happened that i switched back to Automatic external before changing the signal parameters back and i would get the same message. After that i could not start it unless i preformed a cold start.
