Frequent System Failures and Joint not synchronized errors

Robot Controller
1

Hi all, I’m new here. Been working with robots for 13 years.

We have had this ABB IRC5 2600ID welding cell for about 5 years now.

Over the course of this year we have been dealing with random System Failures and after recovering from System Failure state we are prompted with joint not synchronized and needing to update revolution counters. This is something that NEVER happened in years past. It’s always when there is a power outage or a power flicker/surge.

Back in May, I performed a Reset system (I-Start) as per my past discussions about this issue with our integrator. All went well with that. We went roughly 5 weeks before this issue presented itself again.

The robot can be in middle of program or sitting at home position. Axes can vary on which ones need updated, sometimes all of them, sometimes axis 4 is fine. Track axis is also random, sometimes it’s okay. STN1 axis only needs updated when it wasn’t at home in middle of program. I just take them all back to sync position and go to calibrate and update rev counters and everything is fine until another episode happens again.

So far this year we have changed the batteries, replaced the SMB board in the robot base, performed an I-Start and restored a good known backup, checked the SMB cable going from robot base through the track all the way to the controller cabinet. Checked shielding ground on cable and all pins for continuity and also checked if any pins were bridging across others. Cable tested fine.

I was recommended to look into a Uninterruptible Power Supply Kit from ABB to help with these issues. But is there anything else I can check that could be causing this? Is there other pending hardware failure within the cabinet? Because like I said, we never had these issues before with it having frequent system failures and having to update rev counters.

Thanks.

2

What other errors are in the logs at the same time? Especially hardware log.

3

I have multiple error log backup of when this occurred. Particularly one occasion where I was prompted to update rev counters on robot, track, and STN1.

Under the hardware log, all that shows up is 3 instances of this:

37001 Motors ON contactor activation error Motors ON contactor 1 in drive module 1 failed to close when ordered.

I have the whole error log if I can send an attachment somehow.

4

Does that error that you wrote happen at the same time as a sysfail?

5

What version of robotware, btw.

6

Have your sent a diagnostic log to your local ABB robotics team?
This might revel where the problem lies.

7

Yes. That was taken during the System Failure state.

RobotWare Base 6.08.00.00

I am in contact with ABB directly now and they requested a System Diagnostic file next time the robot is in a System Failure.

8

Sounds similar to a problem experienced where I work. Unexpected system failures, the reason was a loose DC power terminal connector on the main cpu.

9

I’ve only been inside the controller cabinet a few times, so my navigation of hardware isn’t well rounded. Do you know where this wire was located? Something I would like to check.

10

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11

Awesome. Thank you. I’ll check that out.