Ethernet I/P Communication Between Fanuc LR Mate 200iC and LabVIEW

[nausfaratu]

How can I read outputs and write to inputs of a an Ethernet/IP device using the NI Ethernet/IP drivers?

I recently get the NI Ethernet/IP driver from NI in order to communicate with a Fanuc LR Mate 200iC robot using this communication protocol. Actually, I configure the robot as an adapter setting up digital input 1 to 64 and digital output 1 to 64 through the Ethernet/IP configuration.

What I need to do is for example, in determined moment of my logic I have to know the status of an output of the Fanuc Robot to take some action, or give an input to the Fanuc Robot so this do some operations. Now, as I mention before, I get this drivers recently and apparently they are new in NI so the regular technical support do not give support to this product. Basically there is no documentation appart from the LabVIEW help about this drivers, and this help doesn't help too much really.

So, if anyone can help me to make this work I will really appreciate it a lot. I am in the middle of a project that we showld integrate using Ethernet/IP. Below is a screenshot of the The inputs and outputs in the Fanuc Robot configuration are set to Slot 1. Attached is a table with a summary of the Fanuc Robot configuration parameters that should be used to configure the scanner (in this case, LabVIEW):

I am using LabVIEW 2011 with the Ethernet/IP v1.2 drivers in a Windows 7 Professional computer

Again, any help with this matter will be really appreciated. Thanks.

[Chris.W · Accepted solution]

Hi Ferdinand,

Please refer to the help documentations as below:

1. Open LabVIEW, go to Menu Help -> NI-Industrial Communications for Ethernet/IP. This is EIP help documentations for all related applicaitons.

2. In the Getting Started Window of LabVIEW, please go to Find Examples. And check the directory:

Hardware Input and Output -> NI-Industrial Communications -> EtherNet/IP

Under this directory, there are several examples for EIP use.

And for your case, please read through the example of "AccessAssablyInstanceData(Explicit).vi", which should be very similar.

If any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks.

Chris

[nausfaratu]

Chris,

Thanks a lot for your replay. I couldn't find the example that you mentioned until a little bit ago. By any reazon the Ethernet/IP example weren't in my system. I had to reinstall the Ethernet/IP drivers and then I get the examples. What you mention is exactly what I need, I actually made the communication with the robot and everything work like a charm. Thanks a lot for your support.

[Chris.W]

Great.

And as for the reason why you didn't see it before, here might be some clue.

1. You'd better install LabVIEW first and then to install EIP driver.

2. When you install EIP driver, you could check the installation feature tree for the details.

If you do the two things then you won't miss anything.

Regards,

Chris

[T._P_Titherington]

Hi,

I am working with the same Fanuc robot and I’m using a Compact RIO 9074. If you don’t mind, I have a few questions about how you got the system working. I first configured the Compact RIO’s Ethernet Adapter eth1 port to TCP/IP Network and entered the static IP address to the same subnet as the Fanuc LR. This was then saved and deployed to the Compact RIO. I then created the VI for the Access Assembly Instance Data through Explicit Messages, built the application and deployed it to the Compact Rio. This VI was ran but I still couldn’t get the two systems to communication.

If you don’t mind my asking, how did you set up your Fanuc system to communication with the Compact RIO? My Fanuc parameters are the same as the attached table shown in Ferdinand’s link.

Thomas Titherington

[[dk]]

It looks like your new thread post is being followed up on here:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Industrial-Communications/Compact-RIO-EtherNet-IP-Industrial-Communication-D...

[anishm]

Dear Ferdinand Martinez,

I believe you are able to communicate with robot from LabVIEW. For one of the my project, i am trying to communicate Fanuc iRobot using EtherNET I/P, but i got error as CIP status message not available error Getting Assembly Instance Data in Access Assembly Instance Data (Explicit).vi ( example NI VI).

Any help in this matter will be really appreciated.

Thanks,

Prithivi

[WenR]

Hi Prithivi

Could you be a little more specific about the code that you are using and the circumstances under which this error occurs? Maybe indicate:

- Which example from NI is the one that you are running? in which version.?

- When exactly does this error occur? Is it as soon as you run the VI? 

- Could you please share a screenshot of the error window that you get?

I think this information could be very helpful to try to help you troubleshoot this issue.

WenR

[nausfaratu]

Hi Prithivi,
In my case, I set the Fanuc Robot as an adapter (slave) and set the I/Os slots and parameters accordingly. On the LabVIEW part, I used the "CIP Get Attribute Single.vi" to get the output from the robot. Set the correct IP Address, class, instance and attribute. Connect the output of the CIP to an index array, the output of the index array to a number to Boolean array, the output of the number to Boolean array to an array to cluster and the output of the array to cluster to an unbundle and from the unbundle you get your robot signals. I would like to attach an screenshot, but I'm replying to you from my mobile device. Maybe during the weekend I get a chance to connect with my computer an attach an screenshot.

[Fontyshogeschool]

Hello everyone,

I have a problem with the communication between the Fanuc LR Mate 200iD and Labview. What I want to do is read (and in the future write) the current position of the TCP of the robot with Labview.

I have attached my VI where I use the CIP Get attribute single.vi to get the data from the robot. This more or less works the way I want it to, but the output of this vi is a 1D array with values I don’t understand. The values of the 1D array change when I move the robot but I can’t see a logical order in the output array.

Does anyone have an idea how I can interpret this 1D array or how I can unbundle it so that it has got the right coordinates of the robot’s position?

Luc Hermse

Student Fontys University Venlo, The Netherlands.