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Ah, the old backup game. What could be more fun than taking backups for a
dozen, a hundred, or a thousand robots? If you’re reading this, you probably
know that there is something that’s a lot less fun than managing backups: not
having a backup when you need one. Reprogramming a production robot from
scratch – now that sounds like a pain. In this post, we’ll look at how to backup
and restore a Fanuc R-30iB controller.
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Like many electronic controllers, the Fanuc R-30iB offers more than one possible
backup method. The two common Fanuc backup solutions are referred to as
“MD backups” and “image backups” (or “IMG backups”).
Fanuc MD Backups
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Frames
Variables
Mastering
Menu settings
I/O configuration
and more
MD backups are not a complete controller backup. If you lose a main board or
FROM/SRAM module, or otherwise have to completely reload your robot
controller, an MD backup will not get you up and running by itself.
With that said, it would certainly be better than nothing. If you had a similar
robot nearby, you could backup and restore an image from that robot. After
doing so, you could restore your MD backup on top of the image. You would
have a lot of work to do before you’d be out of the woods, and would be
reteaching a lot of positions, but at least you’d have all of your programs.
While MD backups won’t fully restore a controller, they do have their distinct
uses. I would say MD backups are most useful for two purposes:
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For instance, let’s say the integrator on the previous shift moves a position to
try to improve cycle time. During your shift, you find that the new position
causes a portion of the robot dress to contact the part. If you have a copy of the
MD backup on a thumb drive (or in PC File Services), you can quickly load
your backed up version of just that one program.
Image backups are obviously the more complete backup solution. There’s no
doubt about it – it is an absolute necessity to maintain an image backup for each
and every robot, especially for production robots.
With that said, IMG backups do have one major drawback. Their contents are
not easily read. As a result, they don’t offer the same value in reference and
simplicity that’s found with MD backups. Images are all or nothing – their only
use is to completely restore the controller.
You have to have images. There’s no getting around it unless you want to be
teaching every point and doing a ton of config whenever you lose a main board
or controller.
If you’re already visiting every robot in your facility to take image backups, it’s
only a few more minutes per controller to take MD’s as well. You might as well
perform both backup processes at each robot. You’ll get the imagesBack To Top
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plus the MD’s, which might just come in handy for development, debug, and
partial restorations.
2. Insert the thumb drive into either the USB port in the black door on the
controller (UD1:) or the USB port on the right side of the teach pendant
(UT1:)
3. On the TP, press the MENU button then select File -> File
4. On the FILE menu, press F5 [UTIL]. If [UTIL] is not shown above F5, press
NEXT until [UTIL] is shown and then press F5
8. Enter a new directory name that will help you remember which robot you’ve
Back
backed up. I like to use the Upper Case input method (like my old To flip
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phone)
9. Once you have made your new directory, you should be taken there. The
directory listed on the top line should be UT1:\ (or UD1:\) {YOUR-NEW-
DIR}\*.*
12. You will be prompted to “Delete UT1:\ (or UD1:\) {YOUR-NEW-DIR}\ and
backup all files?”. Press F4 YES
13. The MD backup will commence. Typical backup time is ~2-3 minutes,
depending on the contents of your robot
If you would like to save the ASCII (human-readable) versions of the robot
programs as well, then, without leaving your thumb drive directory in the FILE
menu:
1. Press F4 [BACKUP]
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1. Obtain a thumb drive with a previous MD backup for the robot you’re working
on
2. Insert the thumb drive into either the USB port in the black door on the
controller (UD1:) or the USB port on the right side of the teach pendant
(UT1:)
2. As soon as the robot starts to power back up, hold PREV and NEXT
on the teach pendant to be taken to the Configuration Menu
4. Once the teach pendant boots back up, press the MENU button then select
File -> File
5. On the FILE menu, press F5 [UTIL]. If [UTIL] is not shown above F5, press
NEXT until [UTIL] is shown and then press F5
11. Select the type of restore action that you want: Back To Top
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5. Vision data
6. All of above
12. You will be prompted with “Restore from UT1: (or UD1:\) (OVERWRT)?”.
Press F4 YES
13. The TP will show “Accessing device. PREV to exit.” for about 30-60 seconds,
then the restore will commence. Once it begins, typical restore time is ~2-6
minutes, depending on the contents of your robot
14. As many files as possible will be restored. Once the restore is complete,
you will need to perform a Cold Start:
1. Press FCTN
1. Make sure that the file you want to restore is not currently being edited
2. Obtain a thumb drive with a previous MD backup for the robot you’re working
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3. Insert the thumb drive into either the USB port in the black door on the
controller (UD1:) or the USB port on the right side of the teach pendant
(UT1:)
4. On the TP, press the MENU button then select File -> File
5. On the FILE menu, press F5 [UTIL]. If [UTIL] is not shown above F5, press
NEXT until [UTIL] is shown and then press F5
12. If it’s an existing program, you will be prompted with “UT1:\ (or UD1:\)
{YOUR-BACKUP-DIR}\{PROGRAM-NAME}.TP already exists”. Press F3
OVERWRITE
13. The restore will commence. Once it does, it should only take a few seconds,
and you should see “Loaded UT1:\ (or UD1:\) {YOUR-BACKUP-DIR}\
{PROGRAM-NAME}.TP” when the restore is complete.
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2. Insert the thumb drive into either the USB port in the black door on the
controller (UD1:) or the USB port on the right side of the teach pendant
(UT1:)
3. On the TP, press the MENU button then select File -> File
4. On the FILE menu, press F5 [UTIL]. If [UTIL] is not shown above F5, press
NEXT until [UTIL] is shown and then press F5
8. Enter a new directory name that will help you remember which robot you’ve
backed up. I like to use the Upper Case input method (like my old Nokia flip
phone)
9. Once you have made your new directory, you should be taken there. The
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directory listed on the top line should be UT1:\ (or UD1:\) {YOUR-NEW- Privacidad - Condiciones
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DIR}\*.*
11. Once in Teach, press F4 [BACKUP]. Hit the right arrow button to go to
the second menu page and select Image backup
12. On the Desination device menu that pops up, select Current Directory
14. The robot will restart and the image backup will begin
15. The Fanuc image backup process takes about 4-5 minutes and then the robot
will start back up
16. If you’re taking backups of many robots, it goes a lot quicker if you get about
5 thumb drives per person and perform multiple backups at the same time
1. Obtain a thumb drive with a previous IMG backup for the robot you’re
working on
2. Insert the thumb drive into either the USB port in the black door on the
controller (UD1:) or the USB port on the right side of the teach pendant
(UT1:)
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6. Type the appropriate number to select your device (UD1: or UT1:) and
press ENTER
7. Type the appropriate number to select the directory in which your IMG
backups are stored, or type 0 for the next listing of directories or
9. Make sure the FROM and SRAM images are the appropriate size (64Mb and
2Mb respectively for the controller model I was using). If everything looks
good, type 1 and press ENTER
10. The restore process will begin. Once initiated, the Fanuc image restore
process takes about 5 minutes
11. When the restore is complete, you will be prompted with “Press ENTER to
return >”. Press ENTER
13. Once the Configuration menu loads, type 2 for Cold start and press ENTER
14. After the robot restarts, check for mastering errors. Correct any errors
15. Validate that robot program positions have not changed. Reteach positions as
necessary
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I hope this is helpful for you. For more automation content, plug in your email
address below and I’ll let you know whenever I have something new for you.
Thanks for reading and happy robot programming!
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