ABB-Developer Center
Release Notes
PC SDK
5.60
Revision: RC5
The information in this manual is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by ABB. ABB assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this manual.
Except as may be expressly stated anywhere in this manual, nothing herein shall be construed as any kind of guarantee or warranty by ABB for losses, damages to persons or property, fitness for a specific purpose or the like.
In no event shall ABB be liable for incidental or consequential damages arising from use of this manual and products described herein.
This manual and parts thereof must not be reproduced or copied without ABB's written permission, and contents thereof must not be imparted to a third party nor be used for any unauthorized purpose. Contravention will be prosecuted.
Additional copies of this document may be obtained from ABB at its then current charge.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved.
ABB AB
Robotics Products
SE-721 68 Västerås
Sweden
2.1 Support for 64-bit Windows Operating systems
2.2 Distribution via Developer Center
2.3 Simplified deployment and project creation
4.1 Solved Product Defect Documents (PDD) in PC SDK 5.60
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved
Table of Contents
3
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
Overview
Description
This document provides information about the new features, problems corrected, and installation of PC SDK.
Product Overview
PC SDK can be used to develop customized PC applications for communication with the IRC5 controller.
It can also be used in combination with RobotStudio SDK to develop RobotStudio addins that interacts with the IRC5 controller.
PC SDK applications can connect to one or several IRC5 controllers, real as well as virtual. The RobotWare Op tion “PC Interface” is required on the controller.
No license is required to develop applications using PC SDK.
For download, information and help getting started, visit our Developer Center: http://developercenter.robotstudio.com
On the User Forum developers discuss problems and solutions online: http://forums.robotstudio.com
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 4
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
1
Release Information
1.1 General
Release Name
The release name is PC SDK 5.60 and the build number is 5.60.5710.0081
Release Date
The release date is November 29 th
, 2013.
1.2 Contents
.NET Assemblies
ABB.Robotics.Controllers.PC.dll
Redistributables
ABBControllerAPI.msm
– Merge module containing the assemblies required by a PC
SDK application.
ABB Robot Communication Runtime 5.60.exe
– Standalone installer for Robot
Communication Runtime.
Merge Modules for Robot Communication Runtime
– Merge modules for including
Robot Communication Runtime in your own installer
ABBRobAPI.msm
ABBRobAPICommon.msm
ABBRobInstallAPI.msm
ABBRobInstallAPICommon.msm
Documentation
Reference Manual PC SDK
– Documentation of class libraries with method signatures in C#. Available online at developercenter.robotstudio.com and as Html Help and PDF in the installation folder.
Application Manual PC SDK
– Available online at developercenter.robotstudio.com and as Html Help and PDF in the installation folder.
Code samples
– Available online at developercenter.robotstudio.com
.
Installed documentation can be accessed from the Windows Start Menu Programs\ABB
Industrial IT\Robotics IT\PC SDK 5.60.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 5
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
2
What’s New in 5.60?
Overview
This section contains information about the new features of PC SDK 5.60.
2.1 Support for 64-bit Windows Operating systems
You can now develop 64-bit applications with PC SDK.
For developers of RobotStudio Add-Ins it means that it is possible to create Add-Ins using PC SDK for the 64-bit edition of RobotStudio.
2.2 Distribution via Developer Center
PC SDK can be downloaded from Robotics Developer Center: developercenter.robotstudio.com
.
PC SDK is no longer distributed as a part of RobotStudio.
2.3 Simplified project creation
The number of .NET assemblies of PC SDK that you need to reference has been reduced from five to one.
When you create a new Visual Studio project you only need to add a reference to
ABB.Robotics.Controller.PC.dll.
2.4 Simplified application deployment
The Robot Communication Runtime redistributable component is now available as a set of merge modules for inclusion in your own application installer. You can now create an application that contains both your own assemblies and all dependencies in one single package.
The merge modules are located under
\PC SDK\
Redistributable\Robot Communication
Runtime
2.5 Retrieve large RAPID variables
It is now possible to retrieve the value of large size RAPID variables, for example arrays of RECORDs, using the property RapidData.Value. Previously there was a limitation of
1024 bytes.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 6
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
3
Late-breaking information
3.1 Overview
This section contains late-breaking information that will be included in the appropriate documents in the subsequent releases.
Nothing in this release.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 7
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
4
Problems Corrected
Overview
This section describes the problems solved in PC SDK 5.60.
4.1 Solved Product Defect Documents (PDD) in PC SDK 5.60
ID Title
PDD2365 PCSDK - error when running netscan twice single threaded
PDD2320 PCSDK - Memory leak when subscribing to signals
PDD9170 Make it possible to retrieve RAPID data larger than 1024 bytes
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 8
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
5
Known Limitations
Overview
This section describes known limitations in PC SDK.
Maximum number of connected Robot Communication Runtime clients
The following table describes how many client applications can connect to an IRC5 controller using Robot Communication Runtime over its different network ports.
Network port Max number of connected clients
LAN
SERVICE
GTPU
3
1
1
On a single PC, all applications using Robot Communication Runtime, like PC SDK applications and RobotStudio, shares one single connection to the controller.
The RobotStudio Online apps consumes one separate connection each as long as they are visible on the screen. When they become suspended they automatically disconnects from the controller.
In Windows 8.1 it is possible to have two apps docked besides each other which means the apps can consume up to two connections per PC.
Example:
A PC with Windows 8 running the following apps and applications consumes three connections. The apps are both visible and docked side by side.
PC SDK application A (1 shared connection via Robot Communication
Runtime)
PC SDK application B (1 shared connection via Robot Communication
Runtime)
RobotStudio (1 shared connection via Robot Communication Runtime)
RobotStudio Online Adjust (1 connection when it is visible)
RobotStudio Online Tune (1 connection when it is visible)
Total: 1+1+1=3 connections
Maximum number of logged in users
The maximum number of logged in users to the controller is 50.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 9
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
Maximum number of connected FTP clients
The maximum number of concurrent connected FTP clients is 4.
PC SDK UIInstructionEvent / RAPID UIListView
UIListViewEventArgs.ListItems may return the wrong number of list items if - if you are using characters like double quote (“) and brackets ([ ]) in the RAPID array of list item strings, the
Avoid using double quote (“) and brackets ([ ]).
FlexPendant may lock up when PC SDK application release and immediately request mastership
In manual mode, when a PC SDK application releases master and immediately requests master again, the FlexPendant is locked up when the user presses the prompt to grant write access to the PC SDK application. In automatic mode there is no problem.
IPC Messaging - PC SDK always sends 444 bytes of data
When sending a message with
IpcQueue.Send()
, the size of the message sent over the network will be 444 bytes, regardless of the amount of data passed to
Send()
. Data must therefore be null terminated.
IPC Messaging requires MTA thread
IpcQueue.Send()
must be called from an MTA thread. Create a separate sender thread and use the method
Thread.SetApartmentState()
to set the apartment state to MTA before starting it.
IsLocal on the class RapidData, returns true for shared data
The property IsLocal on the class RapidData, returns true for shared data, even though such data is visible from all modules.
The declarations of default zonedata and speeddata has been moved from module
BASE.SYS in each task, and are now installed as shared data.
If an application used to create a RapidData object representing for example
"v1000", the IsLocal property returned false in RobotWare 5.12, but will return true in RobotWare 5.13."
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 10
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
6
Installation Information
6.1 Prerequisites
Before you install
You need administrator permissions on the computer that you are using.
Licensing
PC SDK can be used free of charge to develop applications. In order to allow applications to connect to a specific IRC5 controller, the RobotWare option "PC
Interface" is required on that controller.
PC operating system requirements
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 32-bit edition
Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 (recommended) 64-bit edition
Microsoft Windows 8.1 (recommended) 64-bit edition
Simulation environment
RobotStudio 5.60 is needed for building virtual controller systems and for debugging and testing in a virtual environment.
Development environment requirements
Microsoft Visual Studio 2012. Express edition or better.
RobotWare software requirements
In order for a PC SDK application to be able to communicate with an IRC5 controller, the RobotWare option PC Interface is required on the controller.
Note!
The PC Interface option is required even if the PC SDK application is connected to the controller over the Service Port.
6.2 Installing PC SDK 5.60
Installation instructions
PC SDK 5.60 will be installed side by side with any previous major version of PC SDK
5.xx, while minor versions within a release will update to the latest one.
The default installation path is C:\Program Files\ABB Industrial IT\Robotics IT\SDK\PC
SDK.
How to install PC SDK on a PC
1
2
Action
Browse to http://developercenter.robotstudio.com/ and select Robot Communication and then Download.
Download the file
PCSDK5.60.exe
to a folder on your computer.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 11
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
3
4
Double click
PCSDK5.60.exe
to extract the installation files.
Double click
setup.exe
in the extracted folder to start the installation procedure.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 12
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
7
Compatibility
Changed .NET assembly names
In PC SDK 5.60 the following assemblies have been removed:
ABB.PCSdk.Install.dll
ABB.Robotics.Adapters.IRC5.dll
ABB.Robotics.dll
The assembly ABB.Robotics.Controllers.dll has been renamed to
ABB.Robotics.Controllers.PC.dll.
All the public types and methods from those assemblies are now available in the single assembly ABB.Robotics.Controllers.PC.dll.
Migrating an existing project
In order to use PC SDK 5.60 from a Visual Studio project where you are currently using a previous version, follow those steps.
Action
1 Remove the following assembly references:
ABB.PCSdk.Install.dll
ABB.Robotics.Adapters.IRC5.dll
ABB.Robotics.dll
ABB.Robotics.Controllers.dll
2 Add a reference to the assembly ABB.Robotics.Controllers.PC.dll.
It is located under "C:\Program Files\ABB Industrial IT\Robotics IT\SDK\PCSDK 5.60 "
3 In project properties Application tab, target .NET 4.5.
4 Build the project.
.NET Framework 4.5
PC SDK 5.60 is dependent on .NET Framework 4.5 and it is not possible to develop applications targeting for example .NET 2.0 with PC SDK 5.60.
RobotStudio Add-In using PC SDK
An Add-In built with PC SDK 5.15.02 will run in RobotStudio 5.60 32-bit edition, since
5.15.02 versions of the PC SDK assemblies are part of the RobotStudio installation.
In order to develop Add-Ins running in the 64-bit edition of RobotStudio, PC SDK 5.60 must be used instead. Existing Add-In projects needs to be modifed and rebuilt.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 13
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
API
The APIs in PC SDK 5.60 are backwards compatible with the APIs in PC SDK
5.15.xx.
There are no breaking changes.
Robot Communication Runtime
PC SDK communicates with the robot controller using the Robot Communication
Runtime, which is designed to be backwards compatible with earlier versions of
RobotWare.
Note! Functionality introduced in later versions of RobotWare will not be available for a
PC SDK application that is connected to a controller with an older version of
RobotWare.
For example the Messaging functionality is only supported on RobotWare 5.10 and above. This means that a PC SDK application cannot use the Ipc class when communicating with a controller with RobotWare 5.09.
The code will compile, but an exception will be thrown at runtime. Application developers are responsible for handling this scenario in their applications. Please refer to the PC SDK Reference Documentation for details.
Note!
Compatibility between RobotWare minor revisions is guaranteed (PC SDK
5.15.01 will be compatible with PC SDK/RW 5.15.02 etc.).
Robot Communication Runtime on Windows XP
Microsoft has announced that its support for Windows XP will end April 8 2014.
PC SDK 5.60 does not support Windows XP. This includes Robot Communication
Runtime 5.60 which does not support Windows XP.
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 14
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
8
Application deployment
.NET Framework 4.5
Applications based on PC SDK 5.60 requires .NET 4.5 Framework to be installed on the target PC.
Robot Communication Runtime
Applications based on PC SDK requires Robot Communication Runtime to be installed on the target PC. The Robot Communication Runtime redistributable, can be found under
C:\Program Files\ABB Industrial IT\Robotics IT\SDK\PC
SDK\5.60\redistributable\RobotCommunicationRuntime
.
Redistributables for earlier versions of PC SDK can be found on http://developercenter.robotstudio.com
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 15
Release Notes
PC SDK 5.60
9
Technical Support
For technical support please turn to your local ABB office. http://www.abb.com/contacts
For help, advice and the latest updates please visit the User Forum. http://forums.robotstudio.com
© Copyright 2013 ABB All rights reserved 16
* Your assessment is very important for improving the work of artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Related manuals
advertisement