Turning a broken 2 ton robot into a CNC-machine | ABB IRB6400

Here's an overview of the project I've been working on for the past few months: resurrecting this 2 ton cast iron beast from the dead and turning it into a CNC milling machine, mainly for foam.

The robot is an ABB IRB6400 / 2.4-200, manufactured in 1999.
The documents that were still with the robot state that the original customer was the Eurostar train factory located in Austria, where it served as a welding robot.

Upon the first startup attempt the controller wouldn't perform a cold start and gave me : "Error 03:07003 Unexpected interrupt on MC". After talking to some experts on the ABB robotics forum (thank you graemepaulin for your expertise) they pointed me in the right direction and told me to replace the main or robot computer. Replacing the Robot computer fixed te issue and the S4C controller was able to perform a cold start. I then installed Robotware OS 3.1 and after this i was able to get some movement out of the robot. Once the axis were callibrated again (because the backup battery inside the robot itself also died) i was able to make linear moves and start creating simple programs. Full thread on the ABB Robotics forum can be found here: https://forums.robotstudio.com/discussion/13488/irb6400-s4c-controller-error-03-07003-unexpected-interrupt-on-mc#latest

Furthermore I replaced both backup batteries inside the S4C controller and swapped the Floppy drive for a USB one.

This whole process to get the robot up and running took about 2 weeks (had to wait for some parts to arrive). The rest of the time was spend on the development of a program to send coordinates directly to the S4C controller from a PC. Even with the floppy drive swapped for a USB one, the internal memory size was still about the size of a floppy disk (1.4mb). Which means I was still only able to execute programs of max 1.4mb or around 15.000 lines of code. Anyone who ever worked with CNC-machines know that even the simplest programs exceed 15.000 lines. So that's why i made the application. I'm now able to execute any file size that I need.
During the development of the program I used an Arduino Mega as an emulator for the S4C controller, to test out the serial communication protocols and handshakes.

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More info about this project can be found here:
https://bbprojects.technology/blogs/projects/turning-a-broken-2-ton-robot-into-a-cnc-machine
and here:
https://hackaday.io/project/190511-turning-a-broken-2-ton-robot-into-a-cnc-machine

The Rapid2Serial program shown at 05:04 can be purchased from my website: https://bbprojects.technology/collections/software/products/rapid2serial-program

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:15 Transportation
00:30 Cleaning
00:52 First startup attempt
01:18 Fixing the robot
01:50 First movements
02:12 First program
02:38 Can test full program
03:01 Testing of repeatability
03:40 G-code to Rapid
03:54 3D-printed motor mount
04:10 TCP setup test
04:38 First milling test
05:04 Rapid2Serial Application
05:47 Fine tuning
06:32 Tesla Roadster wheel front
07:19 Tesla Roadster wheel back
08:07 Showcase
08:21 Outro

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Music credit:
Outro song: Sustainable Dignity by Catalyst Belgium
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMMAsQ1kyBQ
Link to their channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2x8566EI-h7XoaJSrf43Vg Their website: https://catalystbelgium.com/
For use and licensing of this song, please contact Catalyst Belgium.

Song: Joakim Karud - Classic (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/COWVJbyEaW4

Видео Turning a broken 2 ton robot into a CNC-machine | ABB IRB6400 канала Brian Brocken