Cotrolling program selection via ethernet for robot

[MKproto]

I talked o my HFO and they were not alot of help. They said it has been done but had no info on integration (since I did not get thier robot is my guess) I purchased a used robot as the master (operator) and the machine as the slave. This is easy on on Heidenhien controls but not so sure about the Haas. And since I know someone will come up with the grand idea or programming the robot to punch keys FWIW it is not an articulated robot so that is not possible. The machine is a 2010 VM2 with all options mcode, probe macros, etc. Any leads in the right direction would be appreciated.

[KenFoulks]

Provide more information, pictures, part descriptions, etc. You can always have a master program active and use the probe to select the program.

[MKproto]

It is an Erowa Robot with a PC and RFID reader. I scan the rfid into the robot and tellwhat Fixture number. This is the point I need to know what the protocal is for communication with the machine so I can have the robot tell the machine what program to run for that particular fixture / pallet. I can interface on the robot side with anything as long as I know what I can work with. All programs would be loaded on the machine hard drive, then ran in the order the robot commands.

this way I can dynamically change my pallet pool on the fly at the robot and not have to worry about a master program in the machine.

[KenFoulks]

Take the number that is scanned and write that number to a macro variable using hyper terminal. Have a program that looks like this:
O00000
G103 P1
If [ #100 EQ 1 ] GOTO1
If [ #100 EQ 2 ] GOTO2
M99

N1 G103
M98 P1
M99

N2 G103
M98 P2
M99

More information can be found in the manual under machine data collect.

[Ydna]

^ that's an interesting idea, I'll have to play around with that. I'm not the biggest fan of HT but sometimes it's the common denominator.

I can't speak to using the ethernet interface for anything but I can say I've done something similar using regular digital signals. What I did was wire the CNC's output signal relays to send a "group input" to the robot (ie. a combination of 8 signals acting as binary, which is then converted to a number 1-256). I don't have experience with your robot but many different models have built-in "group signal" decoding abilities, even if the robot is older. Even if not, you could certainly use the robot's native language to make it work. It would be a pain but doable.

Anyway the machine I used only had 4 available outputs so the CNC could only choose between 14 programs (had to omit the "zero" integer since the signals were also used to initiate the robot's program). I only needed a handful though since the robot was limited to only a few parts due to the gripper design.

Here's the problem though, in this situation the CNC has to be programmed with the correct signals, and the robot simply waited to begin its routine. I was using a PLC to oversee the workcell, however, so neither the robot nor CNC was in charge...it was a different situation.

[MKproto]

Thanks for the responses.

I will test out the Hyper Terminal later this week. I completley missed that page in the mini manual.

I had considered just using m-codes and macros outputs to select a location via the plc. But that would not meet the goals that I have for the system regarding flexibility and overall simplicity of use at the end of integration..