KUKA Cable reel fault stops the robot

Hello,

as said in the title. We have multiple robot cells to which the SmartPad cable reel is slighlty bad.

We don't use the SmartPads much, that is why it was not a hard pressing issue to replace the reels. However, they are indeed faulty.

What happens is the following:
When the reel is stationary, everything works fine. When I move the cable in or out, SmartPad connection drops for a tiny amount of time which causes an emergency stop. Up until this point, nothing surprising happens.

I thought that I'm smart and decided to try to press the detach SmartPad button above the screen before using the cable reel, so that IF the connection would drop, then the entire cell would not go into ESTOP.

This idea did not work. My quiestion is: how, why? I was well within the 30 second mark of being able to detach the SmartPad and still, the ESTOP did happen.
(Mostly KR C4 controllers with KSS 8.5+. )

Quote from SkyeFire

Because the Disconnect button does not actually disconnect the SmartPad -- it allows you to disconnect. Once. And the reconnect is automatic. So if your connection is "stuttering", the KRC might see multiple disconnect/reconnect events in a fraction of a second. And the second disconnect would not be covered by having pressed the button.

Also, if the connection is "stuttering", even with the Disconnect option armed, the KRC might well translate a rapid make/break in the connection as a potential safety error. Also, since all safety signals are dual-channel, if your wiring issue breaks one wire pair of the E-Stop and not the other, that's a safety single-channel fault, which is treated as a full E-Stop. Remember, Safety systems are designed to be extremely paranoid.

To make this work, you would need to hit the button, physically disconnect the SP from the KRC, then use the reel, before reconnecting.

That, I was hoping, would not be the issue. I hoped that the reconnect would take more time than running a few meters with the pad in hand

Unfortunately, disconnecting phisically each time would be a hassle as the controllers are above the cells on a podium, or closed up entirely.

Quote from panic mode

loose connection, damaged cable, damaged reel...

stretch cable fully out and wiggle connectors and every inch of cable to try to locate bad spot

I am quite sure that the reel's slider connection is the faulty thing - the rotor part "bumps" up and down on the damaged stationary part. However, that is not my responsibility to finally change the damn reels, only to program the robots.

Thank you for both of you.