Quick Facts of Adapter

Introduction

Adapter is an integrated component used for communication in Mech-Center. It employs gRPC communication with Mech-Vision and Mech-Viz via Basic API interfaces, and enables communication with external devices over common industrial protocols, such as TCP/IP Socket, HTTP, and Mitsubishi PLC MC Protocol.

../../../../_images/mech_interface_architecure.png

Please refer to Application Scenarios for application scenarios of Adapter.

Functions

With Adapter, you can:

  • Control Mech-Vision and Mech-Viz

Category

Function

Mech-Vision

Start Mech-Vision project and get vision target(s)

Configure Step parameters in Mech-Vision

Read Step parameters in Mech-Vision

Switch Mech-Vision Recipe

Mech-Viz

Start Mech-Viz

Stop Mech-Viz

Configure Step parameters in Mech-Viz

Read Step parameters in Mech-Viz

Set serial number of the gripper

Set the operation speed of the robot

Set parameters of collision detection

Obtain the running status of Mech-Viz

Others

Please refer to Adapter Programming Guide

  • Enable non-vision functions such as user interface customization, database creation, file reading and writing, and communication with the Web system.

    You will need to program in Python to enable these functions on external services.

Development

For TCP/IP Socket communication, Mech-Center provides an Adapter Generator, which helps beginners to generate an Adapter program rapidly and then build an Adapter project. Please refer to Adapter Generator Guide for detailed information.

You can program based on the generated Adapter program.

If you would like to program Adapter from scratch, please refer to Adapter Programming Guide and Adapter Programming Examples for detailed instructions.

Deployment

After programming the Adapter, you can deploy the program in the project.

  1. Open Mech-Center, and click Deployment Settings on the toolbar.

  2. In the Deployment Settings window, select Mech-Interface; select the Use Mech-Interface checkbox and select Adapter as the Interface Service Type.

    ../../../../_images/adapter01.png

  3. Click … next to the Adapter project directory to select the Adapter program.

  4. Set the Host Address according to the on-site situations. The port must be consistent with the peer port.

  • If the peer device works as the server, the Host Address should be set as the IP address of the peer device.

  • If the peer device works as the client, the Host Address should be set to 0.0.0.0.

  1. Click Save and then restart Mech-Center.

  2. Click Start Interface on the toolbar to enable Adapter service.

When the Start Interface button turns to Stop Interface and the Adapter program is displayed in the Service Status panel, the Adapter service is enabled successfully, as shown below.

../../../../_images/adapter02.png

After reading this section, you can generate your first Adapter program according to Adapter Generator Guide.