[Karl]

Our arm had a pretty significant collision and we ended up replacing the spindle. I have a calibrated cell that I was about to start filtering programs through, but after the collision I wanted to recalibrate it with the new spindle.

1) is this necessary? If not, I'll stop here and start filtering. I don't have a ballbar to test it as is, maybe I could mill a small test part instead to verify it.


2) I was setting up the cell and got to the point to create the 65 calibration poses, and keep getting a python code failure.

[Karl]

I'm also trying to recalibrate the rotary table here, the level was adjusted soon after the last calibration.

The green dot on Base 17 means that base was calibrated, right? What do I recalibrate it wrt?

[Albert]

If you want to calibrate the robot you should remove the synchronization with external axes:

• Right click the robot
  
• Select Synchronize external axes
  
• Select Remove Sync
  
• Select OK
  

You should then be able to run the Create measurements script.

You can also create a workspace to avoid collisions or accessing unwanted areas. @Samrecently created a new add-in that helps you customize this better. Or let us know what areas you want to avoid and we can prepare it for you.

On the other hand, if you don't have a measurement system in hand (such as a laser tracker) you could try recalibrating the tool (TCP). If you see that the accuracy of the TCP is reasonable you may not need to recalibrate the robot (for example, under 0.5 mm for over 10 points, or whatever accuracy you were expecting).

[Albert]

The green dot means that it is the active tool or reference frames. This means you are using that tool or reference when creating programs and simulating them.

It is the little accuracy sign that you have on BASE 1 and Tools 1-3 that means they were calibrated.

[Karl]

Okay cool I'll give it a whirl. We're running filtered programs right now, and the paths are filtering just fine as far as I can tell. Fighting with the CAM program to give me a better path to start with.

Does the filtering account for the base being slightly off-level, if the toolpath was imported assuming the base was perfectly square to the world?

[Albert]

The filtering accounts for your active tool and reference frame (whatever values you entered in RoboDK, including your BASE 1 root point and the offset attached to your turntable). You should make sure they match your controller values if you use indexed $TOOL and $BASE.

A good way to fine tune your optimal settings would be to generate a very short path and import it in RoboDK to see what the result looks like and adjust your settings if necessary.