Replacing IRB4400 with IRB4600 and S4 to Omnicore.

AuxiliumD

Hi. I have been tasked with replacing an old S4 system that has an IRB4400 with a new IRB4600 on an omnicore. I have never replaced a full system before, and I need to know what to consider when making that change. 

Which system files do I keep? Can I keep any? Such as the EIO?
What about programmed points? The robots have different configuration values I would recon, which means there will be config errors?

The most pressing issue is that the program is a mess and I dont really have time to reprogram everything, so I'd like to keep that the way it is.

- Reachability (Should be no issue as the 4600 working area is larger)
- How the controller currently send signals to other devices

graemepaulin

Make sure you have a backup from the S4 system.

The program you can reuse - if the robtargets are relative to a workobject then you just need to reteach the workobject and they should all be okay.
Presume the tool will have to be modified as the flange on the robot is different - if so that needs re-defining first.

The EIO is not reusable directly, you may be able to find a converter on line , but I do it manually.
I add any communication protocols and create one of each type of signal in the Omnicore controller (virtual controller normally as I have not got the new system yet) then save the EIO.
I then paste in the signals from the original eio and use find and replace in a text editor to change the syntax of the signal definitions to match the signals saved from the Omnicore system.

AuxiliumD

graemepaulin said:

Make sure you have a backup from the S4 system.

The program you can reuse - if the robtargets are relative to a workobject then you just need to reteach the workobject and they should all be okay.
Presume the tool will have to be modified as the flange on the robot is different - if so that needs re-defining first.

The EIO is not reusable directly, you may be able to find a converter on line , but I do it manually.
I add any communication protocols and create one of each type of signal in the Omnicore controller (virtual controller normally as I have not got the new system yet) then save the EIO.
I then paste in the signals from the original eio and use find and replace in a text editor to change the syntax of the signal definitions to match the signals saved from the Omnicore system.

Thanks, but wouldn't the axis configurations be wrong with the new robot? I also guess any MoveAbsJ will put the robot in weird positions?

graemepaulin

The MoveAbsJ will definitely need to be updated (re-taught).

The two robots should be in similar positions with standard robtargets so the configurations may be okay.
If you run into config errors on some positions you can turn the config check off ( ConfL\off or ConfJ\off) to reduce the work needed to get the program running. Turn the check back on as soon as possible afterwards.