Setting up Pickit with Stäubli

The setup of Pickit with a Stäubli consists of 4 steps:

Check Stäubli software version

The software version should be at least 7.

To verify this go to MENU > CONTROL PANEL > CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION > VERSION.

Stäubli pendant Main menu listing Application manager, Task manager, Control panel, Calibration and Events logger Stäubli Control panel Versions page showing the system version s7.7.1 and other controller details

Setup the network connection

Hardware connection

The Pickit processor and the robot controller connect via Ethernet. An Ethernet cable should be connected to a port of the robot controller, and to the Pickit processor as described here.

IP configuration

To allow communication between Pickit and the robot controller both must have a different IP address in the same subnet.

By default, the Pickit robot connection is configured to have the following static IP address: 169.254.5.180 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0.

If this setting is kept, the following has to be done on the robot controller:

For the CS8 controller, go to MENU > CONTROL PANEL > CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION > NETWORK > J204 or J205.

For the CS9 controller this can be found in HOME > SETTINGS > NETWORK > J204 or J205.

  • Set the IP address of the robot to 169.254.5.182 which is an IP address in the same subnet as the Pickit IP address.

  • Set the subnet mask to 255.255.0.0.

Push Enter to edit. Push F8 OK.

The IP address of the robot can of course not be the same as the IP address of the Pickit processor.

Stäubli Control panel IP settings dialog with address 169.254.5.182 and mask 255.255.0.0

Setup socket

For the CS8 controller, go to MENU > CONTROL PANEL > IO > SOCKETS > TCP CLIENTS > NEW.

For the CS9 controller this can be found in HOME > IO > SOCKETS > TCP CLIENTS > +.

  • Choose Type: Client

  • Add name: pickit

  • Add the Pickit IP address

    • IP: 169.254.5.180

    • Port: 5001

Stäubli Control panel I/O Socket tree with a New dialog creating a socket of Type Client named pickit Stäubli Control panel under Socket, TCP Clients, showing the client pickit 169.254.5.180,5001

Now the new socket connection can be tested on the robot side.

Test robot connection on Pickit

On the Pickit side, details on testing the connection to the robot can be found on: Testing the Robot to Pickit connection.

Load the program files

Loading the program files consists of 4 steps:

Download the right files

Download the Pickit Stäubli files

Upload the files to the robot

The Pickit Stäubli files can be uploaded to the Robot using Stäubli Robot Software (SRS). To establish connection between SRS and the robot, a harware connection (Ethernet cable) is needed between the PC and the robot controller. The correct protocol (FTPS + FTP) need to be set on the controller side. Also, a fixed address needs to be set on the pc in the range of the controller.

Stäubli Robot Suite Transfer Manager transferring the VAL3 applications MultiPoseCalib, OpenComm, Pick-it_library, SimplePicking and SinglePoseCalib to the controller

Start and verify communication

Starting and verifying communication consists of 2 steps:

Start communication

To start the communication, on the robot you have to select a Pickit example program. You can test this by using the OpenComm program.

Verify on the Pickit interface

To verify that the data packages are received by Pickit: Check for the V icon next to ‘Robot’ in the top bar of the Pickit interface.