Remote Screen Sharing on Smart Pendant

Introduction

The Remote Screen Sharing function allows a user to display the screen of the Smart Pendant on a PC. The Remote Screen Sharing function on the Smart Pendant is similar to Remote Pendant Operation Function of the Standard Pendant on YRC1000/YRC1000micro controller.

Overview

The Remote Screen Sharing function allows the screen of the Smart Pendant to be displayed on a PC for a demonstration or educational purposes. The Remote Screen Sharing function utilizes Ethernet communication to share the screen to a PC. The Remote Screen Sharing function uses a standard VNC (Virtual Network Computing) software to view the Smart Pendant screen on a PC. One popular VNC application software is VNC viewer by RealVNC. In this article, it will show the setup of the VNC viewer on a Windows PC.

The Remote Screen Sharing does not allow the user to remote access and control the Smart Pendant as in the Remote Pendant Operation Function on the Standard Pendant.

Setup

VNC Viewer by RealVNC Installation

First go to a web browser and search for “VNC viewer”.  One of the first options will be VNC viewer by RealVNC.

"VNC viewer" search on Google.

Select the version for the user’s operating system and then download the VNC viewer software.

Select the preferred language for installation.

Select “Next” to continue installation process.

Select “Next” to continue installation process.

Select “Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive” on RealVNC Viewer and Desktop Shortcut and then press “Next”.

Then press “Install” to begin the installation process.

Once the installation process is finish, press “Finish” and open the VNC viewer application.

Main screen of the VNC viewer application.

The VNC viewer application will ask the user to sign in or create an account. There’s also an option to continue without creating an account. The user is free to continue by creating an account and sign in for free or continue as a guest.

Ethernet Connection & Setup

Connect a RJ45 Cat 6 Ethernet cable from the PC to the YRC1000 or YRC1000micro controller. On the controller side, connect it to the LAN2 (CN106) port on YRC1000 or LAN port on YRC1000micro.

LAN2 (CN106) port on YRC1000 controller inside the controller cabinet.

LAN port on YRC1000micro controller.

Now on the PC side, the Ethernet port IP address needs to be set as static and be in the same network as the YRC1000/YRC1000micro controller IP address. This is done by navigating to the Control Panel → Network and Internet → Network and Sharing Center, on the PC. In the image below, it shows how to manually setup the IP address for the Ethernet port on the PC.

Setup how to manually enter the IP address on the Ethernet port of the PC.

When setting the IP address on the PC side, do not use the same IP address as of the YRC1000/YRC1000micro controller. Doing so will cause communication errors and the PC and the YRC10000/YRC1000micro controller will not be able to communicate properly. In this setup, the PC Ethernet IP address was set to 192.168.1.33, which is in the same network where the YRC1000/YRC1000micro controller is set. The IP address that is set on the YRC1000/YRC1000micro controller is 192.168.1.31.

If the user needs to change the IP address on the YRC1000/YRC1000micro controller, it can be done on the Smart Pendant. The user navigates to the Main Menu → System Settings → Controller. Then the user presses on the IP address box and can change the IP address and Subnet Mask. When the IP address or the Subnet Mask is changed, the YRC1000/YRC1000micro controller needs to reboot and the Smart Pendant will prompt the user to reset the controller. The user needs to be in Management Mode Security Level or higher to change the IP address or Subnet Mask.

After setting up the IP address on the PC and robot controller to the same network, the user can continue with the VNC Viewer application & Smart Pendant setup.

Remote Screen Sharing Setup

Now on the Smart Pendant, navigate to the Main Menu → System Settings → General. Under the Remote Screen Sharing (VNC) enter a VNC password and press the Toggle Switch to ON to enable the Remote Screen Sharing function. After the Remote Screen Sharing is enabled, it will tell us the IP address to connect to on the VNC viewer.

Remote Screen Sharing Enabled.

Now on the VNC Viewer application on the PC, navigate to top in the sub menu and click “File” → “New Connection”. Under the “VNC Server” enter the IP address shown on the Smart Pendant – Remote Screen Sharing (VNC). Under “Name”, the user can use whatever name is desired. In this setup, “Smart Pendant” is typed under the “Name” section. Now the use can press “OK” to finish the setup on the VNC Viewer connection.

Setup VNC Viewer application for the screen sharing of the Smart Pendant.

Then now in the “Address book” there’s a new device to connect to. This is shown below:

The Smart Pendant is setup up as a connection in the VNC Viewer.

Now double click on the “Smart Pendant” icon and the VNC Viewer will establish communication with the Smart Pendant which can be seen below:

The VNC Viewer is waiting permission to establish a connection from the Smart Pendant.

Then on the Smart Pendant a pop-up window will appear and ask the user to allow remote connection of the Smart Pendant. Press “Yes” to establish communication from the Smart Pendant to the VNC Viewer.

Dialog pops up on the Smart Pendant to give access to the VNC Viewer to establish a connection.

Then on the VNC Viewer on the PC, it will ask the user to continue to establish a connection, even if the connection is unencrypted. Press “Continue” to establish a connection. The user can also select “Don’t warn me about this again.”, to avoid this pop-up in the future.

Unencrypted Connection pop-up on the VNC Viewer application on the PC.

Now enter the password that was setup on the Smart Pendant – Remote Screen Sharing (VNC) setup. In this example, the password is “1111”. The click “OK”. 

The user enters the password to access the screen on the Smart Pendant.

Now the user can view the Smart Pendant on the PC using the VNC Viewer.

The Smart Pendant screen on the VNC Viewer.

Conclusion

This setup is how to view the screen of the Smart Pendant on a PC and be able to display it to a bigger monitor. In section 8.8 Remote Screen Sharing in the YRC1000/YRC1000micro INSTRUCTIONS FOR Smart Pendant (184775-1CD) manual shares about the Remote Screen Sharing function of the Smart Pendant, but it doesn’t show a procedure setup. For this reason, this article was created to show the user, step by step, how to setup the Remote Screen Sharing function on the Smart Pendant.

IP Address & Subnet Mask

The errors that a user may encounter is not setting up the correct static IP address on the PC or robot controller. The IP addresses may not be in the same network or have the same Subnet Mask. To be in the same network, the static IP address for both the PC and robot controller needs to be set between 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255. In this setup the IP address for the robot controller is 192.168.1.31 and for the PC it's 192.168.1.33.