I have a problem that started a few weeks ago and has gone from once in a week to several times a day, the robot locks up and displays a message “Gripper1 must be connected to run this program” this is happening in the middle of a set not the same spot, the gripper seems to be functioning properly but this is creating significant disruptions in production. Any thoughts would be helpful.
If you’re not getting any response here, you should contact Robotiq or the distributor of the gripper. 
Sounds like an issue with the gripper and not the robot.
sounds like a wire is about to break so it looses connection to the robot intermittandly
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Yes we thought that was the likely root cause so we replaced the cable from the robot to the gripper. the problem remained. we are looking at the possibility of a connection problem at one of the joints.
If you suspect a bad connection in the robot arm, it will have to be inside the tool mounting flange.
All the tool signals are generated inside the flange. It’s only 48V, GND and two bus wires that run through the robot arm.
So you could try to replace the tool mounting flange. I think you would have seen other errors though, if the fault was here. I still believe the gripper to be the culprit.
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is the gripper connected through the 8 pin connector on the flange ? then it can be every joint .
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@jsiegenfeldta What do you base that statement on? Because I strongly disagree, as I explained in my earlier message.
last i checked the electrical connections in the joints are transferred through a disk and a pick up . we had problems in a elbow joint
with bad connections
All joints are hardwired to the next one. The UR3(e) has a slip ring connector on the last joint (wrist 3 - tool mounting flange), which allows it to rotate indefintiely. But that’s the only joint and the only robot model with a slip ring disc.
I highly doubt a bad connection in a joint on the bus wires will show as a gripper losing connection, since there will be issues with the communication to said joint. I believe that should show before it shows issues at the gripper.
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ok my bad you are probably right . i have trust issues with joints
The joints are all connected in series with individual power/com wires on each joint. A com error could be a result of a pinched or loose com in any of the joints. It could also be the tool bracket itself as those can also cause com errors quite frequently. The slip ring in wrist 3 can also cause these types of errors.
@memc This is a UR5e, so there’s no slip ring.
I am pretty confident that a bad communication wire in a joint would lead to a robot error with lost communication packages, before it shows issues with the gripper in a URCap.
Would you not agree with this?
I’d still say either the electronics in the gripper or the tool mounting bracket being at fault.
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