Signal light and blocking popups

TVRU

We're integrating a UR in combination with a signal light. The signal light represents any required action:

• Green: robot running without issues
• Yellow: operator input required (e.g. blocking pop-up active)
  
• Red: robot stopped, or error active
  

Green and red don't pose any problems, after attaching a couple of relays and configuring outputs, but an easy solution to turn on the yellow light when operator input is required turns out to be harder than we thought.

Now (as a short-term solution) we're manually building code around every pop-up, or scripting it, so the yellow signal light is on as long as the pop-up is active. This however seems a bit unwieldy, since:

• .. there is an option in scripting to set 'blocking' to true or false, which suggests it's a variable that can also be requested if necessary. We didn't find a way however to read this variable in a separate thread.
• .. the run-mode of a thread is changed from running to paused. We didn't find a solution to check the run-mode in a separate thread, to set the signal lights accordingly.

Did we just miss an option in scripting, didn't we look in the right solution space, or is the unwieldy way the only way?

matthewd92

No, you didn't miss anything.  Basically the easiest way to do this is to write your own function that does exactly what you want it to do.  Something like this would work

def customPopup(msg, blocking = True): #Would give you the ability to use this in a non-blocking fashion and should not flash the yellow light since the thread would be killed as soon as it was started
  local threadID = run flashYellowThrd()
  popup(msg, title = "Our Popup", warning = False, error = False, blocking = blocking)
  kill threadID
  set Yellow Low
end

thread flashYellowThrd():
  while (True):
    set Yellow High
    wait 0.5 
    set Yellow Low
    wait 0.5
  end
end

Then in your code when you want to call the custom popup just use a single script line

customPopup("Some message that requires an operator to be notified that its on the screen so flash the yellow light")

TVRU

Thanks for the answer! I'll try it in an hour, and hope to come back to you asap.

TVRU

It took some time, but I got it up and running. I had some trouble with the syntax, which is understandable if you copy the script above without checking it '^^

Thanks a bunch!

matthewd92

You're welcome, glad that it worked for you.

TVRU

I run into problems when trying to import the scripts.

In order I did:

1. Create two separate script files: CustomPopup.script and ThreadBlinkYellow.script
2. Import them in BeforeStart - this resulted in a syntax error, so I deleted it again.
3. Created a separate thread in which the ThreadBlinkYellow.script is ran - this also resulted in a syntax error, so I deleted it again
4. Cut the thread call and kill from the CustomPopup.script and ran it in BeforeStart - this also resulted in a syntax error, so I deleted it again. It seems it doesn't like to be initiated without having a value for 'msg'
5. Not literally import the scripts in the program, just try to run the single-line command 'customPopup("test") - this resulted in an error, as I expected, but it was worth trying.

When I search the forum I come over this page: https://www.zacobria.com/universal-robots-zacobria-forum-hints-tips-how-to/thread-in-script-file-example/. This didn't help me any further either.

So, as a follow up question: where should I import the scripts, to be able to run it later-on?

Thanks beforehand!

TVRU

I run into problems when trying to import the scripts.

In order I did:

1. Create two separate script files: CustomPopup.script and ThreadBlinkYellow.script
2. Import them in BeforeStart - this resulted in a syntax error, so I deleted it again.
3. Created a separate thread in which the ThreadBlinkYellow.script is ran - this also resulted in a syntax error, so I deleted it again
4. Cut the thread call and kill from the CustomPopup.script and ran it in BeforeStart - this also resulted in a syntax error, so I deleted it again. It seems it doesn't like to be initiated without having a value for 'msg'
5. Not literally import the scripts in the program, just try to run the single-line command 'customPopup("test") - this resulted in an error, as I expected, but it was worth trying.

When I search the forum I come over this page: https://www.zacobria.com/universal-robots-zacobria-forum-hints-tips-how-to/thread-in-script-file-example/. This didn't help me any further either.

So, as a follow up question: where should I import the scripts, to be able to run it later-on?

Thanks beforehand!