How do we connect Kolver EDU2AE/TOP/TA to a UR3 robot?

erin_thomas 2019-08-30

We recently purchased a UR3 robot and Kolver Pluto10CA/TA driver along with the EDU2AE/TOP/TA control box. We have minimal experience in robotics and are trying to understand how to connect the control box to the robot.

PaulGWF 2019-09-02

Hi erin_thomas,

What is it you need to do? The UR3 robot comes with a control unit that has lots of digital inputs and outputs, as well as some analog inputs and outputs.

Regards.

Paul

erin_thomas 2019-09-02

Thanks Paul,

Our maintenance team have connected the Kolver control unit to the UR Control unit, but we now need to try and get them working together....we are unsure of how to programme this.

Regards,

Erin

PaulGWF 2019-09-02

Well, have you taken a look at https://www.universal-robots.com/academy/? There’s plenty of ressources there to help understand how to program the UR robot’s input/output. Especially, take a look at the fifth training for the E-Series, it is focused on interfacing with external machines.

Regards.

Paul

erin_thomas 2019-09-02

Thanks Paul, we have looked at the fifth training module and set up the parameters based on that tutorial. However, when we select the '1' option on the tool digital output, the signal is not being received by the screwdriver i.e.nothing happens. The 24V signal is being sent, as maintenance has checked using a voltmeter but not received. Unsure why.

Thanks,

Erin

PaulGWF 2019-09-02

Have you taken a look at the documentation of your control box and screwdriver? I think the control box requires some configuration to turn on your tool when its input from the UR robot is high.

Configuring should be easy, you’re almost there ;)

matthewd92 2019-09-02

You can also get a URCap from Universal Robots for screw driving by upgrading to version 5.4 or later. Go to the installation tab, under the General category on the left hand side, the last entry is screw driving. Here you can setup which outputs and inputs you want to use to control the screw driver as well as which TCP setting defines the end of the screw gun. Then when you are writing the program, under the advanced tab is a screw driving section where you can define what you are trying to do with the screw driver. Hopefully this helps to simplify what you are trying to do.

Check out this manual, pages 18-23, and you will see that a lot of those inputs and outputs correspond directly to the selections that you make on the installation tab for screw driving.

erin_thomas 2019-09-03

Thanks Matthew,

We are just updating the robot, but the most up to date version available for the UR5 (CB Series) is 3.10.1??

How do we download the screw driving URCaps? Can't find anything referring to a download.

matthewd92 2019-09-03

Ah, sorry about that, I incorrectly assumed you had an E-Series robot. I do not believe that screw driving is available on the CB3 model since there is no built-in force/torque sensor. The screw driving function is built-in to the E-Series robots as of software 5.4.

Basically having briefly read through the screw driver controller manual you will need to hook up a couple of the IO as described on the pages I pointed out in the previous post. You will need to hook up inputs for the OK and Error signal and then output for selecting the program, turning the driver on and direction at a minimum. I believe you also have to define a program on the controller before you can use the screwdriver. You’re able to create 8 unique programs with that controller.

Have you created a program yet on the screwdriver controller? Also, which output are you connecting to on the screwdriver when you say you set the signal high but it didn’t seem to receive it?

matthewd92 2019-09-03

@Ryan_Weaver can you offer any insight here? I know you guys have integrated one of these systems with UR before.

Ryan_Weaver 2019-09-10

@matthewd92 We have tied them together before, but I'll be honest, it's been quite a while. Unfortunately I was only involved in the robot programming itself (simple I/O communication as you describe above), and not on the tie in to the screwing controller. Due to the lack of "plug-and-play" we wouldn't normally just sell these two components to anyone and expect them to hook it together on their own without quite a bit of help on the front end.

Long story short, I would definitely follow your advice by combing through the screwdriver controller manual thoroughly. Wish I had more specific help!