Hello all,

I have myself a new job starting soon at which I will be using a 6400 to do some spot welding. By trade I am a PLC programmer, and have programmed many PLC's and quite a few Fanucs. It's not my first time with an ABB, but it has been quite a few years since I used one.

This has the S4 controller, and is a re-conditioned robot. I don't have much more of the specifics than that. Is there any good information available on the internet, or from some other programmers that would help refresh me on these? I have an old manual from when I was using them last (~2000), but don't know if there is anything newer or fancier than that out now.

Thanks in advance

Kind of way late but look at ABB website. If that doesn't help PM me and I can get some info for you.

I have quite a few manuals on CD, got them using bit torrent. Worked with the S4C+ controllers and 64/6600's for about 3 years, very simple to program and maintain. The S4's are a bit primitive when compared to the S4C but a few programming tweaks will fix that. Set up a program to home the robot and reset all the I/O if there isn't one already. That alone will save quite a few headaches.

We had 4 of these about 6 years ago. It's not just the programming you need to concern yourself with but the calibration of the robot. For example, it uses resolvers (if I remember) to work out the fraction of a degree of the inclination of the axis. You can manually move the robot (joystick or pushing it by releasing the brakes) back to zero on all axis and reset counters etc. I cannot remember all the details exactly, but it's stuff like this you also ought to bear in mind.

That, and setting safe areas which the robot cannot travel outside, etc.

I like the RAPID programming language, but the teach pendant was a buggy bit of kit (screen crashes etc) and the controller wasn't without its problems (again crashing). However, things may have improved since.

Not an easy beast to quickly gain experience on (there are mechanical and electrical considerations to bear in mind... and make sure it's well bolted to the floor!!!) but good luck.