Vacuum gripper not working

[chipmunk321]

I can turn on/off the vacuum gripper of my xarm5 from xarm studio. Its connected by the contact connector.

However, when trying to launch it with the API, it does not react:

ros2 launch xarm_api xarm5_driver.launch.py robot_ip:=192.168.1.212 add_vacuum_gripper:=true add_gripper:=false
[INFO] [launch]: All log files can be found below /root/.ros/log/2025-11-17-20-16-09-388603-rover0001-895
[INFO] [launch]: Default logging verbosity is set to INFO
[INFO] [xarm_driver_node-1]: process started with pid [898]
[xarm_driver_node-1] [INFO] [1763410569.572651084] [ufactory_driver]: namespace: /
[xarm_driver_node-1] [INFO] [1763410569.572831828] [ufactory_driver]: xarm_driver_node start
[xarm_driver_node-1] [INFO] [1763410569.573215556] [ufactory_driver]: robot_ip=192.168.1.212, report_type=normal, dof=5
[xarm_driver_node-1] [INFO] [1763410569.573275815] [ufactory_driver]: baud_checkset: 1, default_gripper_baud: 2000000
[xarm_driver_node-1] SDK_VERSION: 1.14.2
[xarm_driver_node-1] Tcp control connection successful
[xarm_driver_node-1] ROBOT_IP: 192.168.1.212, VERSION: v2.7.1, PROTOCOL: V1, DETAIL: 5,5,XF1305,DC1305,v2.7.1, TYPE1300: [1, 1]
[xarm_driver_node-1] Tcp Report Rich connection successful
[xarm_driver_node-1] report_data_size: 574, size_is_not_confirm: 0
[xarm_driver_node-1] change protocol identifier to 3
[xarm_driver_node-1] Tcp Report Norm connection successful
[xarm_driver_node-1] report_data_size: 145, size_is_not_confirm: 0
[xarm_driver_node-1] [INFO] [1763410569.903977847] [ufactory_driver]: [TCP STATUS] CONTROL: 1, REPORT: 1
[xarm_driver_node-1] [INFO] [1763410569.932479278] [ufactory_driver]: gripper_speed: 2000, gripper_max_pos: 850, gripper_frequency : 10, gripper_threshold: 3, gripper_threshold_times: 10
[xarm_driver_node-1] [INFO] [1763410569.949411547] [ufactory_driver]: bio_gripper_speed: 2000, bio_gripper_max_pos: 130, bio_gripper_min_pos: 50, bio_gripper_frequency : 10, bio_gripper_threshold: 3, bio_gripper_threshold_times: 10

ros2 service call /xarm/set_vacuum_gripper xarm_msgs/srv/VacuumGripperCtrl "{'on': true}" or with
ros2 service call /xarm/set_vacuum_gripper xarm_msgs/srv/VacuumGripperCtrl "{'on': true, 'hardware_version': 2}"

both return xarm_msgs.srv.VacuumGripperCtrl_Response(ret=0, message='')

Quick check: The list of parameters being passed to the actual C++ xarm_driver_node includes 'add_gripper' and 'add_bio_gripper', but it is missing 'add_vacuum_gripper'.

[penglongxiang]

Hi @chipmunk321, this might be caused by the old version of SDK bound by your local repository. Please try the following procedures:

1. run git pull to update the xarm_ros2 repo, and check if the xarm sdk sublmodule has been updated automatically.
2. if sdk is not updated, run git submodule sync, then git submodule update to make it happen.
   The SDK version should be updated to 1.15.0 or higher to support the new wireless vacuum gripper, your current version is 1.14.2 according to your provided output.

By the way, please make sure the given hardware_version is correct. If it has a wired plug, the version parameter should be given 1. If it uses contact pins for connection, version should be 2. Refer here.

[chipmunk321]

Thanks for the quick help! I updated the firmware, but first, I the service does not exist. But when I enable it from the yaml file, it works.

From my best of knowledge, the arg add_vacuum_gripper:=true given to the launch file should override even the yaml setting? But in here, its not handed over to the node as param, so never considered.