10$ DIY pick & place tool!!

[zapta]

After long years of development and refinement I completed my design of a DIY pick & place machine. It has several advantages over other P&P machines such as:

1. Main parts are 3D printable. Total cost of the minor parts ~$10.
2. Provides positive air pressure 'puff' for definite part release. No more parts sticking to the needle.
3. Ultra stable. No last minute shake due to finger release action.
4. Ergonomic hand piece with very accurate control.
5. Compact and portable. Can be carried by a single person for off site jobs.
6. Stand alone. Does not require shop pressurized air supply.
7. About 6 liters of vacuum capacity per part picking. Not like those whiny pen vacuum tools that don't work.
8. 110V and 220V, 50/60Hz compatible.  FCC approved.
9. Personalized colors (collect them all!).
10. No nonsense OSH license. All mechanical and electrical source files included. Sharing and attribution not required.

I tested it today populating a ARM PRO MINI board (push buttons, USB connector, QFN MCU and 0402 resistors ) and it worked very well. I don't have a camera with me but will try to post a picture tomorrow.

[free_electron]

Maximum board size ?
How many feedstations ?
Stick / tube fibrafeeds ?
Reelfeeders ?
Tray or matrix loaders ?
Upward/downward camera ?
Pin detection ?

Where can i buy one ?

[Falcon69]

I think He is talking about a manual pick and place tool, like a vacuum pen, yet, not a crappy cheap china made one with a little balloon inside for the vacuum.

[free_electron]

Quote : After long years of development and refinement I completed my design of a DIY pick & place machine. It has several advantagesl

Machine.  Human body parts dont count. A seesaw or teeter totter is not a machine either.

Machine means. Shove in boards and parts and push button. Anything else is a quack !

Fcc approved. Fcc doesnt label humans....

[Yago]

Quote : After long years of development and refinement I completed my design of a DIY pick & place machine. It has several advantagesl

Machine.  Human body parts dont count. A seesaw or teeter totter is not a machine either.

Machine means. Shove in boards and parts and push button. Anything else is a quack !

Fcc approved. Fcc doesnt label humans....

Or has Zapta passed some emissions tests?

[zapta]

Below is a picture of the tool with an ARM PRO MINI board that was completely populated with it (including the QFN MCU, push buttons, USB connector and 0402 components). 

Initially I designed the handle for my pump + valve + pedal picker. It shape was inspired by a popular solder iron hand models and it works much better (that is, accurate) than the syringe barrel I used so far. The mouth piece was inspired by Mike's technical report at https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/100-smd-project-with-domestic-iron-reflow/msg25558/#msg25558 and the cone thing in the middle is a universal fuel filter from a local Kragens store, just in case.

Source files and 3D models are here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:607270 .

[zapta]

Maximum board size ?

Unlimited.

How many feedstations ?

Unlimited.

Stick / tube fibrafeeds ?
Reelfeeders ?
Tray or matrix loaders ?

Yes, yes, yes, both.

Upward/downward camera ?

Stereo camera on gimbal.

Pin detection ?

Of course.

Where can i buy one ?

The sub systems can be bought from sculpteo.com and ebay. Final assembly is trivial.

The down side of this tool is the low throughput and the high labor cost, both are not an issue for most hobbyists.

Apropos manual labor, check the The Birth of The Transistor series on youtube (posted here a few days ago). Rows and rows of Japanese 'transistor girls' hand soldering early germanium transistors in production lines with yields as low as 0.3%.  We are spoiled brats.

[free_electron]

So it's essentially a pacifier for grown up electronics hobbyists ...

[robrenz]

Very nicely executed! 

[sleemanj]

Jesus, that thing invokes my gag reflex just looking at it, like keeping chewing gum too long until you involuntarily eject it. 

[zapta]

So it's essentially a pacifier for grown up electronics hobbyists ...

Exactly. I was thinking of adding some flavor to it. Any idea how?

[george graves]

PLA biomedical/FDA approved because ....

Not all PLA is foodsafe.  And I sure only crazy expensive stuff is "biomedical approved", if any.

[free_electron]

So it's essentially a pacifier for grown up electronics hobbyists ...

Exactly. I was thinking of adding some flavor to it. Any idea how?

Soak it in a good bourbon ? Goes well with the soldering iron smoke ...

[Yago]

Haha, looks like it should come with lube supplied!

[Mr.B]

No, I think free_electron is closer to the mark...
Deluxe model should come with a bottle of bourbon.
Deluxe model only USD50...

[zapta]

I will try to answer one by one...

.. is PLA biomedical/FDA approved

Nothing medical, food or drug here, just a tool.

i'm afraid saliva will be all over the place, the pcb the cheek etc.

No saliva on the PCB here, remember, you such in, not out. Also, the fuel filter is very fine and I doubt any saliva will pass it (it's thicker than fuel).

the tubing looks short i dont want my head keep following where my hand goes.

When you deal with 0402, the tip cannot be too far from your eyes anyway but feel free to use any tube length you like.

certainly not good for asthma.

The needle is narrower than the airways of any asthma patient so the asthma is not the bottle neck in this design.

smoker like me that will usually go caugh caugh... partly joking partly serious.

Smoking is so 20th century. All the cool kids vape. Some even harness the power of Arduino

...partly joking partly serious.

The posting was silly but the tool is very real. I used it with a variety of parts from USB connectors to 0402 resistors and it very accurate. Definitely more effective than those passive vacuum pens like this one http://www.all-spec.com/products/V8901TENE.html

[zapta]

Very nicely executed! 

Thanks. The design is based on your notion of minimizing the 'capacitance' (in another pick and place thread). The hand piece has only a small air passage with a larger chamber only for the optional release hole and so is the short tube.

[george graves]

Oh my - your replies.  I assume your joking.  If so - hats off for a good trooling!  (including HAD)

If you're for real....you need to stop what your doing and go into marketing.  Really cheesy marketing.

[JoeO]

It is linked on Hackaday:

http://hackaday.com/2014/12/31/3d-printed-smd-tool/

[zapta]

Oh my - your replies.  I assume your joking.  If so - hats off for a good trooling!  (including HAD)

If you're for real....you need to stop what your doing and go into marketing.  Really cheesy marketing.

Some tongue in cheek in the description but the tool itself is real and works great (I am a hobbyist, doing small boards at home, down to 0402).

If you use a pump, just print the hand piece. Very ergonomic and accurate. Some may recognize the soldering tool that inspired it.

[Yago]

Cheers for the giggles Zapta

I should imagine something like this comes into it's own once a hobbyist gets past making one or two boards at a time.

[zapta]

Cheers for the giggles Zapta

I should imagine something like this comes into it's own once a hobbyist gets past making one or two boards at a time.

This tool is scaleable. if you make more boards at a time just 3D print more of it.  ;-)

[W8LV]

I made the mistake of buying that Monster vacuum pump via EBay, made in The Peoples Republic of Oomgatsa.... Boy, it REALLY Sucks! I had to enlarge the side pipe hole, and actually place the compressor on a separate table, since when switched on, it vibrates the entire table,  defeating its very purpose....EVERYTHING on the table starts moving, like one of those old tabletop vibrating  football games.... Caveat Emptor.

[zapta]

The vacuum pump of this design is typically very quiet in general. If there are wheezings, oiling it with a little bit of Ventolin fixes it.

For electric pump I have had good experience with the one below. It's adjustable which is useful especially if you use a release hole (instead of a real valve) because you can adjust the residual force. Handle diameter is too small IMO and is not ESD safe (not sure how important this is). I am using it with a pedal and a 12VDC solenoid valve from ebay but I heard reports of people using a pedal to turn the pump on/off directly (simpler and hopefully good response time, I need to try it). Haven't seen hobbyist contraptions with positive pressure release.

Pedal: http://amzn.com/B005GRCKM8  (SPDT switch).

Pump:
 

[zapta]

I am proud to announce that our R&D team recently completed the design of tape feeders for this pick and place machine. After aggressive cost reduction we managed to get the cost of 5 feeders just below $10 total when ordered from shapreways.  You can see this open source design in this interactive 3D viewer:

https://github.com/zapta/misc/blob/master/prototyping/smd_feeders/smd_feader_5x8mm.stl