Socket Communication with UR10 and using Scripts

Sepehr 2019-08-30

Hello all,

I am trying to create a socket through a UR script (socket_open) on a UR10 and then read/send data from/to PC. (read data to move the robot and send a random string to make sure the PC is still connected)
The problem is that the command "isConnected = socket_send_string(\"test\")\n" is always successful (always return true!) even if I disconnect the cable between the robot controller and PC!

Is there a way that I can detect the connection problem between robot and pc? Or am I doing something wrong here?

Thanks in advance for help.

PaulGWF 2019-09-09

Hi Sepehr,

Have you taken a look to the method’s documentation? From what I could find on the internet, this method is to be used after the socket was openned. Socket openning can be done with socket_open method, which returns a boolean indicating wether it has succeded or not.
Do you check the return value of your socket opening?

For more information please follow post about "Ethernet socket communication via URScript - 15678" :)

Regards.

Paul

Sepehr 2019-09-09

@PaulGWF
Yes, the socket_open is used before socket_sent_string and the return value is always true. I thought that if something is blocking the communication between the pc and the controller, socket_send_string will return false, which is not the case! For now, I have removed that check from my robot program. I will investigate it more in the future.

PaulGWF 2019-09-09

@Sepehr
it seems quite odd that the socket_open returns true when connecting to a host that is unreachable.
This might seem very basic to you but are you sure that you are using the correct host address and port?

bcastets 2019-09-09

Maybe can use modbus register of the robot and a stread to check if the connection is correctly running.

- Set a modbus register variable by default the value will be 0 (not connected)
- Make stread on your PC which periodically write a 1 in the modbus register of the robot.
- Make a stread on the robot which:

return the modbus register variable to 0 if it is a 1.
display a disconnection message if the variable is at 0

If the tread frequency on the robot is twice less than the tread frequency of the PC stread, it should work.

I hope it helps,

Sepehr 2019-09-16

PaulGWF said:

@Sepehr
it seems quite odd that the socket_open returns true when connecting to a host that is unreachable.
This might seem very basic to you but are you sure that you are using the correct host address and port?

Yes, that's why I decided to post it here to check if someone else had the same issue before or not!
I validated that the port and IP are correct for openning the socket.
I am still working on this issue! Will keep you updated if I found an answer to this!

Sepehr 2019-09-16

bcastets said:

Maybe can use modbus register of the robot and a stread to check if the connection is correctly running.

- Set a modbus register variable by default the value will be 0 (not connected)
- Make stread on your PC which periodically write a 1 in the modbus register of the robot.
- Make a stread on the robot which:

return the modbus register variable to 0 if it is a 1.
display a disconnection message if the variable is at 0
If the tread frequency on the robot is twice less than the tread frequency of the PC stread, it should work.

I hope it helps,

Thanks for your help.
I will try your solution in the near future. I decided not to continue using this validation in my program for now.