Posts by TheRicster

I'm working with a customer using a GMF M-100 robot with manufacture date of 1987. It was set up to "communicate" with a PLC through several Outputs and Inputs. A couple of weeks ago there was a problem with the robot and someone who really didn't know what they were doing tried to use the Teach pendant to manipulate the robot and get it operating. Somehow they got it messed up to the point where it had to be taken off-line to continue manufacturing without the robot.

I was called to help resolve the issue, but I have minimal experience with the M-100, although I do have several manuals. I was able to get the robot running and returned to a calibrated state. The program will run on startup and is at a point where it's waiting for a "start signal" from the PLC. Unfortunately there's a signal to the PLC to indicate "Robot Running" that is not being set by the robot controller. I can see that there are other outputs being set in the control program at various steps, but the output for "Robot Running" does not appear anywhere in the program. My guess is that it is tied to a system variable that indicates the operating state of the robot. I saw a mention of the $USAT - "User Signal Assignment Table". I'm wondering if

1) that table could be used to tie a system variable to a digital output

2) that table could be modified (inadvertently) from the teach pendant

3) how I configure that table if needed to reassign that connection

The manual I have with that reference points me to the "KAREL System Reference Manual" which unfortunately I don't have, and can't seem to find available anywhere.

If anyone has some ideas or can point me in the right directly I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

Ric

I found some manuals on e-Bay, although it would seem they are for a slightly newer version of Karel, v1.5. From the source code I found it looks like what is running on this system is v1.3, not sure how much of a difference there.

My questions are

• does the editing of the source code happen on a PC or on the robot interface?
• how does a PC interface with the system?
• Is software required on a PC to compile the source?
• Since I have some source code files it would seem either editing happens on a PC or there is a way to store/download the files from the M-100 system. Is there some way to get the software for this?

Thanks!

So, the time has come. My customer wants to make some changes to the program on this M-100 robot. I'm at a loss right now as far as how to change the program. I have source code, but I'm not sure how to interface with the robot. There is an RS-232 port, which one manual indicates is for a computer connection, but no info on baud rate. Also not sure if there was PC based software that was used to compile the program or if that was done directly on the M-100 interface. If anyone has some ideas let me know.

BoerderControl,
Thank you very much for your reply. I'll check those manuals out. I haven't had to dig into this much further, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it breaks down!

Thanks for the replies. Sorry, I'm not sure what R-G2 control is. The robot is currently running without any issues (for the time being). I've been working with the customer on other controls projects and several years ago they lost (i.e. passed away) their support contact for this robot. They had made some mechanical changes and were anticipating needing to change one or more of the stop position points. As it turned out they did not need to make any changes, luckily for them and me. I told them that I would continue to look into this to find more information so I would be able to help them in the future.

I'm attaching several pictures. Hopefully these will help narrow down what I'm dealing with and someone can post info on where to find a manual or other programming information.

Thanks,
Ric

Any help with this? If there is a manual that someone could point me to that would be great.

Or, is this just too old to be within anyone's scope of knowledge any more? Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with this robot, so not sure when it was last produced, or if the programming/interface is similar to another system from which I could at least get some information on how to operate.

Thanks,
Ric

I'm working with a customer who has a GMF Robotics M-100 robot with a date code of 1987. They have no documentation for the system and no backup of the program. I haven't worked with one of these before and am looking for a source for some basic information on how to interact with the system. If you're able to point me to something I would appreciate it. Let me know if there are more details that I can include that would help identify the system I'm working with.