CNC solder paster dispenser - how do I approach this.

[HankMcSpank]

Ok, thanks I'll go have a read.

The video I was referring to earlier was this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdqVt..._order&list=UL

[JAZZCNC]

The brain approch would work perfect for this because you won't need to do anything inside the G-code, It will just monitor the Z axis and activate/deactivate the pin at the correct height.

While watching I could hear an air solenoid firing then read that he use's a pnuematic dispenser connected to a 555 timer and 3 way valve to control over dispense. The Brain and Mach could be made to act as the timer but how would you control over dispense.?

[HankMcSpank]

The brain approch would work perfect for this because you won't need to do anything inside the G-code, It will just monitor the Z axis and activate/deactivate the pin at the correct height.

While watching I could hear an air solenoid firing then read that he use's a pnuematic dispenser connected to a 555 timer and 3 way valve to control over dispense. The Brain and Mach could be made to act as the timer but how would you control over dispense.?

My pneumatic dispenser can either be set to auto (in which case the length of 'dispense' time is controlled by a pot on the dispenser - triggered by a footswitch - or a relay under g-code control), or manual in which case it is controlled by how long the footswitch is held down. (or again a relay uinder g-code control). In other words the amount of dispense could be set by the dispenser itself or else by how long the g-code paused between on & offs.


Where it gets a little wearying is that for example, a SOT23-3 pad doesn't need anywhere near as much paste as a PLCC2 LED per pad. Therefore it'd need a bit of sorting pads into different 'dispense' runs.

If I had enough grasp of coding geometry then I could have an eagle ulp do this pad sizing decision for me....but I haven't so manual it is for now!