Hi. New on here and out of touch with UR stuff. A UR5 with CB2 control has failed and is to be upgraded to a new CB3e unit. Will existing CB2 programs/scripts run on the CB3e? Is there any documentation of what needs to be done to get existing stuff to work?
If this goes ahead, I will be back here A LOT!!
Cheers
Brendan
Hello Brendan,
You first have to clarify, if you’re upgrading to a UR3e or CB3 robot. 
They’re two different types of robots.
It should be possible to get a CB2 program to run on a CB3 robot, but you’ll have make minor changes here and there (primarily to the Installation).
I think it’ll be a bit more difficult to load a CB2 program on an e-series robot, though.
There’s also a matter of the I/O wiring. The major difference going from CB2 to newer types is the safety wiring. If you have external machinery/equipment wired to the robot’s safety I/O, you will have to make some changes.
CB2 uses an NC/NO circuit, whereas the newer types use NC/NC.
There might be a few things that need tweaking, but it should be possible to somehow get it to work. We have some very old programs in out UR-internal test suite, and we test that they still load on our most recent software. We try to be compatible with old programs as much as we can. Perhaps you want to share your program, and then someone with an e-series robot can try to load it for you?
Hi efn. Thanks for the reply. We would be changing from a UR5/CB2 to a UR5e. What I haven’t worked out yet is whether the UR5 (not e) is still produced?? So, I’ve been trying to find info relative to the UR5e.
I’m also trying to get URsim running on a VM, but Linux/Ubuntu is just a nightmare. If I can get that working, then I can do some offline tests. I think the safety wiring will be easy enough to deal with. It’s the weeks of reprogramming that frighten me. I’ll have to try and work out what I wrote 8 years ago.
I’ll be back…
Hello mry,
Thanks for that. As I mentioned in my other reply, I am trying to get URsim running, so I can a) remind myself what the old program did, and b) see what errors occur. The program has quite a bit of interfacing over Ethernet, so I also need to get that in place as a test.
Cheers
Brendan
CB3 is still being sold, even though it’s not advertised on UR’s website. You should be able to buy one from your local distributor.
Regarding the VM; did you find the VM image on UR’s download page? This is a complete Linux image with PolyScope installed, and it should be “load and play”.
It can be found here:
Hi,
I would use the latest version of CB3 URsim and open the CB2 program, see how it looks, attempt to save it as a new version. Presuming that goes ok (you might need to use an older version of CB3 polyscope such as 3.5 or something like that first). Once you have it saved under version 3.X then you should be able to open it under e-series version 5.X (I would just jump to the latest). There is a guide on converting CB3 to e-series programs. The necessity of using this just depends on how much strange stuff was done under CB2 polyscope.
Universal Robots - CB3 to e-Series programs transferring quick guide
Hey there,
for your info, most of this change will be fine. I actually last week swapped a CB2 for a e series and only a few UR cap things didn’t work anymore.
Good luck
Did you swap directly? Or did you do it in stages, like, cb2 to cb3 then to e-series?
I physically swapped a CB2 for an eSeries. There is no software fix. Plenty of hardware changes between them
Did you change the controlbox also? I dont understand fully how the change went. Can you elaborate more in detail, please? It would be really helpful for me. I need to change a CB2 to E-series.
Yes everything was replaced, Robot and controlbox.
The programs were transfered via USB and copied into the new robot, wapoints and such and some program nodes did need some updating and adjusting.
It’s basically like installing a new robot from nothing, but you have the tools and sorounding sensors and info ready. The tool flange is unchanged, so whatever tool you are using will fit the new robot.