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  1. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Muzzer View Post
    The basic professional P&P machines position the placement head above the pads on the board, using the info from the manufacturing files. That's one of the most useful functions you need here. The next stage is presenting the correct component for placement, either by operating a carousel and/or compartmented tray or tape and reel dispenser and moving the head there. Then the ability to pick up and orientate the part, using a sucker and a (manually) rotating head. Even if you have loose parts in a tray and have to turn them the right way up, this can be a big bonus.

    If you can get those elements covered, you have a pretty useful system. It will help you to select the right component and place it in the right location in the right orientation. Determining the correct component and its required position from the manufacturing files would likely be one of your main challenges.

    Incidentally, I have a rather nice (professional) solder mask printing frame I want to sell on (don't recall the correct description). I keep planning to get it on ebay but it never seems to happen. If you are interested, I could send some pics.
    Hi Muzzer

    Yes you are correct and I should also be able to rotate part placement. So long as the parts are always the same way around and the XY of the PCB relative to the parts or the bed is known then the rotation information in the position file will allow that to be automated but again with manual confirmation I can have a button that rotates parts 90 degrees if the are wrong before placement confirmation because as they are all passives with no polarity that is very quick to correct for and of course I could just do +90, -90 and 180.

    Yes by all means send me some pictures of your "stencil printer". I have just bought an SD-240 for frameless stencils that makes life easier although the 175*90 PCB was a struggle and did not come out so well. I am always trying to get my cheapskate employer to buy me more gear so maybe they will be interested and hopefully it's compatible with what I have. I am currently working at home which makes assembling boards a lot easier as I have my own equipment which is more than they have and more importantly my lab is a large bedroom not a shaky shipping container (I have already binned an item worth £300 just because someone walked across the floor and everything shook so badly that the culmination of a difficult attempt to solder a missing part to board that was very difficult to get up to temperature ended in failure and i could not be arsed to have another go or risk damaging it anyway with a second reheating attempt).

  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Muzzer View Post
    Incidentally, I have a rather nice (professional) solder mask printing frame I want to sell on (don't recall the correct description). I keep planning to get it on ebay but it never seems to happen. If you are interested, I could send some pics.
    Not a Blundell unit, by any chance?

    I was in dialogue with someone in you neck of the woods a couple of months back about (me) getting rid of a reflow oven (then I talked myself out of it)... not you by any chance?

  3. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Doddy View Post
    Not a Blundell unit, by any chance?

    I was in dialogue with someone in you neck of the woods a couple of months back about (me) getting rid of a reflow oven (then I talked myself out of it)... not you by any chance?
    My SD-240 was from Blundell yes although they are made in the Netherlands and shipped through Blundell, people sell the same unit under different names. No it was not me you were talking to about the oven, I'm sorted there for now.

  4. #24
    If you've not seen it already - google smoothieware and pick and place. You're not alone.

  5. #25
    Oh I know there are loads of attempts out there which is why I am wary of not falling into the same trap of trying to develop a solution that competes with £15k entry level machines that cost that much due to the development and then spend my life developing the machine and not my work. This is why I want to get as much off the shelf stuff as possible and just do the work that ties the bits together which will teach me software I need to learn anyway. Also for just one or a few boards it is probably not worth setting all the feeders up and once you try to do that you have made a limitation for yourself in that you won't fit all the parts so still have to keep stopping and reloading. This is why I would load one part at a time, take the head to the first and tell it to start from there in this direction and that the parts are at this pitch and avoid trying to be too clever.

    The other problem I have with these open source projects is that they rise and fall and you have to be able to keep up with them and know what they are on about and if you don't your out of the gang. I tire of being told that if I don't like the way their open source project does something then go and write a fix, open source seems to mean that only the nerds that can design one from scratch anyway can make it work, I design PCB's I don't want to become a co developer on a project that sort of does what I want but not quite but just fails in the end. I am literally looking to solve my limitations which are:

    1) not bending over a table
    2) not having to wear magnifiers
    3) not wasting time finding parts on the board myself when a machine can be told as the data is already available but the coordinates are not that useful to a human
    4) not waste time trying to get parts out of carriers and picked up the right way around
    5) be able to make precise parts placements that I can't by hand even if that takes longer but saves the build.

  6. #26
    Wasn't me - I only have the screen printer. Mine's a German SEF brand. Professional stuff, originally at professional prices(!). Needs an appreciative home. Uses std frame and stencil sizes. You can get the stencil made at most PCB houses.

    I posted an ad in the For Sale area so I don't clog up this thread. Sorry, have to dash now, so rather brief post / ad. BTW, I'm near Blackpool.

  7. #27
    Does anyone have any information on the GRBL controllers/motor drivers? I see the machines on Amazon have the manual controller but there are lots on ebay without the manual controller ("joystick") bust still the same motor driver with the socket for one. All have USB connectors.

  8. #28
    My recommendation.

    For little money, get polabs pokeys ethernet, and machx.

    For trivial money, get screws that are tight with small rise.
    You can easily get 0.01 mm or better repeatability for not much money, around 300€.

    My own 120k€+ machines run machx, and I was 2011-2012 the country sales manager for Haas, and sold 6M€+ of cnc hw to industrial customers.
    Pokeys is the best cheap option.
    Cslabs -IP-S is the best there is, I use it on my lathe, but it´s quite expensive. 2000€ all-in.

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