Questions/requests regarding the Omnicore FlexPendant

Newman

Hi
After some weeks with the new OmniCore FlexPendant I have a few questions/requests.
1. Is it possible to lock the screen orientation? (stop automatic flipping between horisontal/portrait view). Very annoying when crawling around setting work object for example.
2. Make the jog speed slider visible when jogging. Visualize screen pops up and cover the slider in current version.
3. Jog increment is not working properly. Won't change when switching between increments.
4. Debug->move PP to row is annoying. One must select the hole row otherwise its not possible to move PP to row. 
5. Overall the screen touch and feel is slow and lagging. Sometimes you have to press several times. Not a good sign when this is a brand new platform.

MOD EDIT: I made this thread a "sticky" so we can collect the feedback in one place. //Maxim

Fritz

Point 1 is really annoying. I support the need for option to lock the rotation of the screen.

I would add one more point to this list:

6. Page closing option is working randomly. It seam's that you have to hold page button exactly correct amount of time to make "Close" menu to appear. Too short - nothing happens; too long - nothing happens. And sometimes nothing happens at all (RW 7.2).

Newman

I didn’t even know that there was a way you could close a window because for some reason there is no ”X” in the top right corner.

Newman

I find quite often that it's impossible to find the program pointer on FlexPendant.
Debug -> Cursor to PP doesn't work but same procedure in RobotStudio does. 

Newman

Some more weeks has passed with the new FlexPendant and I must say it more and more feels like a disaster. Performance is so slow in general, often you have to wait after you press or even press several times, e.g. when switching between linear and reorient. Often its also impossible to find program pointer. When you spend your hole days with this thing you just want to throw it in the bin and go back to the old one. Function wise it’s ok but the performance sucks.

Newman

Annoying: The selected I/O filter will disapear when switching between windows. Say you filter for "Favourite signals", then you go to Code window and back to I/O window, all I/O's will be shown again.

Good news: Robotware 7.3 has made program pointer easier to find with the new "Program pointer location" function.

Newman

Very annoying that you get a notification and you need to acknowledge every triggered protective Stop (robot cell gate opened). Your "real" errors will drown in a sea of unacknowledged door openings.

Tompanhuhu

Like the image posted above, why is it a warning that abb's connected services is disabled?

We as an integrator have sold a system and would like to provide future service and repairs the the customer.
We don't want ABB's spyware on the systems we deliver.
It's annoying it's considered a warning and it's also prominent on the sidebar menu. 

I'm also curious if ABB sent these systems out to existing system integrators for review before launch. 
I can't think of anyone who actually works with commissioning IRC5 systems that would think the omnicore system is an upgrade.  

Like when integrating the system with a safety PLC combined with other equipment.
The robot is reporting it's ES button triggered just because the safety PLC dosen't say ES Chain is ok?
How am I supposed to reset the ES Chain if the robot reports it's button as triggered even when it's not?
In a way that's compliant with safety regulations?

Currently I have to (as a work-around, I have no clue if it's allowed) reset the ES Chain ONLY to the robot. Check if it's button status changes from triggered to OK. And only then reset the ES Chain to all equipment. 
It's so stupid.

Newman

@Tompanhuhu:
I agree 100%. We had to do the same stupid workaround with the ES.

Regarding the spyware, I finally found a setting somewhere in system parameters to disable connected services and then the warnings disappeared.

We as integrators don’t have time with this kind of nonsense. I think the best place to bring these things up are in the ABB programming Facebook group, cause I know a lot of ABB people follows it. This forum only get attension from RobotStudio developers, and they do the best they can to support us, but when it comes to these kind of topics their hands are tied so to speak. 

Maxim Riabichev

Hey guys,

I hear your frustration.

While we value your opinions on these FlexPendant issues, David does have a point in saying that these forums are mainly monitored by employees at ABB who work with the RobotStudio product, unfortunately. That is why there is no "UpFeed" section for any other product than RobotStudio.

My advice would be to contact your local ABB and report these issues as product defects. They will in turn raise them with R&D, and hopefully, they can be resolved quickly.

Thanks and best regards,
Maxim

Fritz

Tompanhuhu said:

Like when integrating the system with a safety PLC combined with other equipment.
The robot is reporting it's ES button triggered just because the safety PLC dosen't say ES Chain is ok?
How am I supposed to reset the ES Chain if the robot reports it's button as triggered even when it's not?

I totally agree that this is a big issue.

This will prevent ABB robot integration into lines where external safety PLC is used. There is possible to make workaround, if line has only one robot, but with multiple robots it's impossible.

ABB lost a deal as our customer choosed different robot because of that. Local ABB office was unable to provide any solutions.

My personal proposal to ABB development team is following: as X15 connector has more unused contacts, provide additional two-channel output safety signal about status of ONLY emergency button(s), regardless of incoming emergency signal from connector X14.

Newman

@Tompanhuhu
This is the setting to disable the warning for connected services: 

Tompanhuhu

Anyone else have issues with the flexpendant restarting faster than the robotcontroller and fails login?
And then having to manually login after every power up / warmstart. 

Newman

Tompanhuhu said:

Anyone else have issues with the flexpendant restarting faster than the robotcontroller and fails login?
And then having to manually login after every power up / warmstart. 

Yes, this happens all the time. I had to explain to the customer that after warmstarts they have to restart flexpendant again separately 🤦‍♂️

Newman

It’s been almost two years since my last OmniCore robot installation but this week I did one again at customer site.

Latest Robotware 7.10 was installed and I can see that a lot of bugs has been fixed and improvements made since 7.4.

But the Flexpendant and especially the code editor is a joke comparing to IRC5. I love the new IRC5 FP (with omnicore look). It’s lightyears ahead of omnicore FP in speed, ease of use and overall workability.

Here are some reflections from my past week.

Example 1: when scrolling up or down in a test case or large if-statement and you release your finger, the editor often jumps up or down and you have to find tour way back again.
Example 2: Say you want to move PP to a row and you want to select a certain row. Then often only a part of the text (e.g. ”MoveL”) is selected and sometimes also the keyboard appears, and you then need to close it before trying again.
Example 3: ”Move PP to row” all of a sudden gave an alarm (something like ”not supported”) and the FP then needed to be restarted.
Example 4: Why is there still no easy way close a window, like the classic X in the corner?
Example 5: Half bottom of screen sometimes becomes white and FP needs to be restarted.

Does anyone else have any experience with the Omnicore FlexPendant?

Tompanhuhu

Also all the menus you have to jump in / out.
For debug / add instruction / modify position you need to constantly navigate the right menu.

Bottom row on irc5 for instant access to menus if perfect. 

mikek10

Pendant is very laggy - navigating menus and responding to button presses, also jogging at times - nothing nothing nothing then suddenly move too far...

The flex pendant also seems to spontaneously reboot on occasion.  

PP to cursor has a bug that gives an exception, exit debug menu and go back in and now it works.

Same issues of IF statement all getting highlighted and navigation being difficult, unwanted keyboard popping up, etc

Newman

I can’t believe ABB can ship a product as useless as this.
Yesterday I needed to do some changes to rapid code, mostly modposing. It took me two hours, in IRC5 it would have taken 15-30 minutes max.
And after upgrading to rw7.10.1 (and FP firmware)  there is no longer possible to save modules to HOME catalog. We had to tell the end customer to save modules with robotstudio instead.

mikek10

Try updating to latest robotware 7.12.0. Too early to say for sure but seems like a big improvement so far. 

Newman

One of my three FP's has now been replaced by ABB and the new one has got better hardware with more RAM. BIG improvement! The difference is night and day. Also updated to RW7.12.0.

My two old FP's are still useless even when updated to 7.12 so for me it is more a hardware problem.

Latest Omnicore FP version, that started shipping last month, has got resitive touch screen so you can use a stylus "pen" like the one on IRC5.