How to create popups on a Universal Robots teach pendant

thijs · September 2, 2026, 12:18am

Based on contributions by BoazvdV.

Use popups to show messages to the operator on the PolyScope run screen: a warning that stops the program until it’s acknowledged, or a status message that updates itself in the background. This guide covers both types and how to format them.

What you need

A Universal Robot (CB2, CB3, or e-Series) with PolyScope.
No extra hardware. Examples below were tested on e-Series 5.16, but both popup types work on all e-Series versions.

Which popup do I use

	Standard popup	Informational popup
Created with	`popup()` script function	Socket commands to the Dashboard Server
Styles	Info, Warning, Error	Free-form (HTML only)
Blocks the program	Optional (`blocking=True/False`)	No
User can dismiss it	Yes, with an on-screen button	Yes, with an on-screen button
Minimum version	CB2 1.8.16941, CB3 3.1.17779, e-Series: all Check: exact CB2/CB3 build numbers unverified	CB2 1.8.1694, CB3 3.1.17779, e-Series: all Check: exact CB2/CB3 build numbers unverified

A standard popup is the easiest option and is suited for user intervention: it can pause the program (blocking=True) until the operator presses Continue. Downsides: the operator could accidentally press “Stop program” instead, and no other on-screen buttons work while it’s open.
An informational popup never pauses or interrupts the program, so it’s better for status messages you want to keep updating (e.g. “kit level: 40%”). It can only be styled with HTML, and it also blocks other on-screen buttons while open.

Official references: Create a popup, Create informational popups in the run screen.

Steps

1. Create a standard popup

Add a popup() call anywhere in your URScript program:

popup("here I am", title="Popup #1", blocking=True)

Signature (from the UR Script Manual, 5.16):

popup(s, title='Popup', warning=False, error=False, blocking=False)

s: the message text.
title: the popup title.
warning / error: set one to True to change the popup’s style.
blocking: if True, the program pauses until the operator presses Continue.

The exact parameter list can differ slightly between software versions — check the Script Manual for your installed version if a parameter is rejected.

2. Create an informational popup

Informational popups aren’t a built-in function. You create and close them by sending raw commands to the controller’s own Dashboard Server (a local service on port 29999):

# open a connection to the Dashboard Server for popups
socket_open("127.0.0.1", 29999, "internal")
    # "127.0.0.1" = the Dashboard Server always runs on the controller itself
    #  29999      = Dashboard Server port
    # "internal"  = local name for this socket connection

# show a popup
socket_send_string("popup The text I want", "internal")
socket_send_byte(10, "internal")
    # the byte 10 is a newline, which the Dashboard Server needs to end the command

# close the popup
socket_send_string("close popup", "internal")
socket_send_byte(10, "internal")

If you show informational popups often, wrap this in a function that closes any existing popup first and formats the text as a heading:

def newmsg(text):
  # close the current popup, if any
  socket_send_string("close popup", "internal")
  socket_send_byte(10, "internal")

  # wrap the text in an <h1> tag and show it
  text = str_cat("popup <h1>", text)
  text = str_cat(text, "</h1>")
  socket_send_string(text, "internal")
  socket_send_byte(10, "internal")
end

Call socket_open() once at the start of your program before using newmsg().

3. Format the popup text with HTML

Both popup types support basic HTML: headings, bold/italic, line breaks, simple inline styles, and some emoji. Full HTML reference: w3schools.com/html.

To build a message from variables, use str_cat(). It only concatenates two values at a time, so chain calls to join more:

newmsg(str_cat(str_cat(
  "Replace tube <br><br> kit level = ", kit_percentage), "%")
)

Emoji reference (checked working in PolyScope)

These UTF-8 emoji codepoints were confirmed to render inside popup HTML:

U+1F600 · U+1F603 · U+1F604 · U+1F601 · U+1F605 · U+1F606 · U+1F602 · U+1F609 · U+1F60A · U+1F607 · U+1F60E · U+1F60D · U+1F618 · U+1F617 · U+263A · U+1F61A · U+1F619 · U+1F60B · U+1F61B · U+1F61C · U+1F61D · U+1F610 · U+1F611 · U+1F636 · U+1F60F · U+1F612 · U+1F62A · U+1F634 · U+1F60C · U+1F614 · U+1F637 · U+1F635 · U+1F615 · U+1F61F · U+2639 · U+1F62E · U+1F62F · U+1F632 · U+1F633 · U+1F626 · U+1F627 · U+1F628 · U+1F630 · U+1F625 · U+1F622 · U+1F62D · U+1F631 · U+1F616 · U+1F623 · U+1F61E · U+1F613 · U+1F629 · U+1F62B · U+1F621 · U+1F620 · U+1F608 · U+2620 · U+1F63A · U+1F638 · U+1F639 · U+1F63B · U+1F63C · U+1F63D · U+1F640 · U+1F63F · U+1F63E · U+2763 · U+2764 · U+270C · U+261D · U+270D · U+1F435 · U+1F431 · U+1F42E · U+1F42D · U+2618 · U+2615

Common mistakes

Forgetting blocking=True on a standard popup when you actually need the program to wait for the operator.
Reusing an informational popup’s socket connection without closing the old popup first — always send close popup before opening a new one, or use the newmsg() helper.
Not accounting for the fact that both popup types block the other on-screen buttons while open, so avoid stacking popups.