Almost embarrassed to ask, given some of the more technical questions asked in other threads on this boards but any help would be greatful.
Recently I assembled a lynx 6 robot arm for a small demonstration project. The robot came with the SSC-32 controller, Although I have configured the robot and given it a new default home position home, I have found it really difficult to program and run a sequence. Spent many hours over the wkend trying to do so but got nowhere basically! I did save some additional points in the ‘moves’ form but I dont really know what Im doing when it comes to creating, saving and running a new project - or indeed what is the best way to approach it.
All I wish to do is create a simple pick and place sequence. Maybe introduce a delay before the grippers open each time to simulate some sort of ‘handshake’ between the robot and and some other system.
Any help would be very greatful, as I am sadly stuck and time is running out for me. Many thanks in advance.
You have written a nice post, but the details are a little lacking. What is it specifically that you are not able to figure out? Have you opened the help PDF? It can be a great help in learning the program.
Apologies for lack of detail. I have read over the pdf help file but even so was still left a little uncertain of the method for writting the program, by which I mean what is the best way to go recording positions (other than its default/home position). Should you move the robot to a position and then save its position as a step appended to a saquence, or a sequence appended to a project? Just mainly unsure about this area.
Apologies if these are deemed self explanatory questions, but it did my head in trying to program and getting nowhere so thought I’d ask some ppl who could put me in the know.
Basically just start a new project. Click the plus sign by Project to start a new one. This automatically sets the current position as the first step in the sequence. Then you move the gripper in XYZ space till it’s where you want it, then click the plus sign by Step. This is now a two step sequence in an otherwise empty project. Keep moving and adding steps till some useful thing has been acomplished, then play them back. You can easily Goto a step, reposition, and overwrite that step. I hope this helps…
It worked out ok to be honest. What I wanted to do was simulate a automated process in a factory using the lynx 6 robot.
To simulate a pick and place operation I had originally planned on using 2 eggs and moving them around three egg cups and finally back into an egg carton…perhaps a little lame. However, while teaching in the points through which I wanted the robot to move what I actually found ws the comms kept failing which was very frustrating as I had to almost start again each time a sthe robot would crash to ground. I say comms as the power indicator LED was still on but you couldn’t control the motors (you couldn’t hear the distinctive noise the motors usually make either). I had thought that may be in some way to do with the weight of the egg, so instead decided to place small lightweight candles into candle holders - but the same problem kept happening (i.e. power to servo motors kept failing and the robot would just crash at that point). This wasnt because the ambulance/e-stop icon was active either, sometimes I’d activate it and deactivate it in order to restore power - it sometimes worked and sometimes didnt - then I’d close and reopen the program
In the end I settled for using lipstick, where I picked and placed the cap on top of it and then moved it to another position before returning the robot to a home position. The sudden power failures became too much of a frustration in the end - does this happen if the robot is being used for more than 4/5 hours? As I say I just had to keep closing the program down, switch power off etc to re-establish comms.
That aside the program I got in the end was decent. Thanks very much for your info. Although once I started using it properly I found it quite intuitive. Overall I did enjoy programming the robot to do something useful…or rather, useful-ish. Interested to hear any thoughts on the power/comms loss I kept experiencing, which really did my head in. But outsode of that I thought its a great little device
Yeah perhaps. SO annoying cos you practice doing what you want to do for ages and everythings fine. Then you think ‘right thats it I’ll program it to do that’ and then the power goes on and off intermittently for the rest of the day. Found that sometimes turning it off completeley for periods of time sometimes helps but also less and less each time… or so it seemed…but that may have been my patience to
What you were experiencing was the SSC-32 servo controller browning out due to the servos drawing more current than the power supply could provide. The solution is easy though… Look at image 2. You basically remove the VS=VL jumper and provide a separate supply for the (logic) VL. This isolates the two supplies and prevents brownouts.
