RAP on S4C/M98 for a 6400

tomC

Hi,
I'm trying to find info on developing a program that talks to our 6400 through RAP.  I have been looking at the docs for RAB on the ABB website and it seems to support more modern controllers and not my old S4C/M98.  I'm having a lot of trouble finding info /examples of the Remote Procedure Calls (Sun Standard I believe) that our version of RAP uses.  I'm feeling totally lost and hoping that someone can offer some guidance...  Is there an old library that handles all the RPC C structs, etc.  that people used to use?  What was the 1990's equivalent of Robot Application Builder?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Tom

John Wiberg

I've not done any RAP stuff myself but I think I can answer some of your questions.
If you would send me a PM with your email I can send you some old stuff I found in a folder (not mine but might help).
(To send a PM click the dropdown next to a user name and select Send Private Message).

My first question though would be, what do you want to do with your RAP application?
My second question would be, which BaseWare does your robot run on? (If you don't know, then its in the "backinfo.txt" file in a backup folder; for example "

>>PRODUCTS_ID:
3HAC6811-1.94 009 System Pack 4.0").
My third question would be, is your robot already ethernet enabled?

Q) What was the 1990's equivalent of Robot Application Builder?
A) That was the WebWare SDK. The WebWare SDK included some ActiveX components that let you add controls to your form easily for basic stuff like file copying, IO tracking, controller status etc. Then it had a helper object which let you do more advanced stuff. Tell me if you can see the pdf on this link. WebWare SDK can still be purchased but its a legacy/classic product so its a bit expensive and difficult to order. But there are still people who could do consulting on it. So depending on what you want to do it might be cheaper/faster to hire someone with the WWSDK developers environment that delivers an application for your use?

Now regarding RAP information, which manuals do you have? These are all necessary;
BaseWare Option - RAP Protocol
Advanced user?_Ts guide - BaseWare option - RAP Protocol specification
User?_Ts guide - BaseWare option - Ethernet services - FTP and NSF

If you post your BaseWare I could most likely link to all of those (depending on internal/external security settings in the document database).

tomC

What I'm hoping to accomplish with RAP is real-time control over motion: drip  feeding of robTargets and integrating a joy stick control (input data originating from our CAD software).  Monitoring and other more "passive" features would be a plus, but are not as important to me. 

We are running BaseWare 3.2, and we are Ethernet equipped.  I can't get to the PDF link you have provided.  I am going to the development work in house - hiring an outside consultant is not a path we want to take.

I have the RAP protocol manual and the basic User's Guide.  A link to the Advanced User's Guide would be great.
Thanks

John Wiberg

That sounds like very advanced functionality for someone new to RAP.

Motion control is one of the trickier fields one can get into.

 

So given those parameters I'd still recommend trying out WWSDK instead, but its still going to be a complex solution.