Trying to track down SONY robot programming manual

[HHaase]

I stumbled on a good deal for a local machine, a Sony 'Cast-U' gantry robot with an Apollo Seiko solder controller.   Everything seems to be working just fine, but I don't have any documentation on the SONY side of things.

Any chance you guys may have worked with one of these in the past, or know where I can find programming instructions?

Worst case is I'll convert it to MACH3 at some point,   but I've got more important places to spend the money if I can put that off for a while.

-Hans

[nsrmagazin]

Where did you stumble on it? The seller should have the documentation.

[HHaase]

Seller had no documentation, I did ask.
Sony shut down their industrial robot division over a decade ago,  so can't go that route either.

[nsrmagazin]

Seller had no documentation, I did ask.
Sony shut down their industrial robot division over a decade ago,  so can't go that route either.

Even if its 10 years ago, they still might have some support for it. Such things are expensive and should be with a long term support. You can ask them, however its not certain that they will want to help you.

Your other option is experience, if I were you I'd look up "robot programming forum" in google.com(NOT bing.com).

[HHaase]

Sony shut down their whole Manufacturing Systems Division about 15 years ago,  and the distributors I spoke with also said there is no source for support.
All I've found so far is a couple youtube videos.   

Not a huge deal though.   I may just get a Mach3 controller and convert it to a newer system anyway.   All the hardware is just fine, and everything works, just a matter of how to program.

[nsrmagazin]

The programming is done in "Assembler" or "C".

Here is a good link:
https://www.robot-forum.com/robotforum/

[HHaase]

It actually uses a teaching pendant, but there are a few critical steps that aren't clear in how they operate.
The biggest ones are how to save a program into one of the memory locations.

I'll check that forum out, see if somebody there has used them in the past.