EEVblog #684 - Ness SMT Maufacturing & Assembly Factory Tour

[EEVblog]

The founder and CEO of Ness Corporation Naz Circosta takes us on a personal tour of the companies impressive worlds class surface mount and through hole manufacturing facility where they produce hundreds of different Ness security and automation products.
It's no every day the CEO of a major company has the technical knowledge to take you on such a tour of their own production facilities!
He shows the Yamaha SMD/SMT pick and place machines, solder stencil paste machine, flying probe testers, optical vision inspection equipment, custom test jigs, and plastic ultrasonic welding machines. And also talks about buying a $1M Objet 3D printer, and the advantages of genuine high quality Fresnel lenses vs cheap generic ones in PIR sensor performance.

[EEVblog]

Does anyone else think this video is "nearly unwatchable" because of frame drops?

[dr.diesel]

Does anyone else think this video is "nearly unwatchable" because of frame drops?

I much enjoyed the video, had absolutely no issue while viewing.

[Towger]

Give us a chance to watch it first!

Edit: Fine here, problem must be at your end ;-)

[Bored@Work]

Does anyone else think this video is "nearly unwatchable" because of frame drops?

It is hard to watch whenever you move the camera. As if the auto focus can't keep up, everything gets blurry.

[EEVblog]

It is hard to watch whenever you move the camera. As if the auto focus can't keep up, everything gets blurry.

That is how cameras on automatic mode work in indoors light environments. I've been through this discussion before and don't wish to repeat it again.
If it's just motion blur during pans people are complaining about, then that's a non-issue.

[zapta]

It worth keeping. You can add a short text in the beginning recognizing the quality issues so people will know it's not your normal video quality.

[RobertoLG]

the video isn't too bad, it's always nice to see that the guy knows what's he talking about, cool machines

[SL4P]

As impressive as Ness' facility is - I learned a few years  go that SMT assembly is well and truly alive and kicking in Aus.

When developing some boards for manufacture - I found more than five (Melb local) providers for custom, small-volume runs without looking too hard at all.

I'd guess there are probably 20-50 well-equipped - publicly accessible - sub-contract SMT lines in Australia, with maybe 5-10 in this high-end space.
--- Impressive, and I can watch them run all day!

[Bored@Work]

It is hard to watch whenever you move the camera. As if the auto focus can't keep up, everything gets blurry.

That is how cameras on automatic mode work in indoors light environments. I've been through this discussion before and don't wish to repeat it again.
If it's just motion blur during pans people are complaining about, then that's a non-issue.

Certainly your decision if you don't care. I stopped watching at around 10 minutes into the video. Starting from 8:20 you were moving the camera around like crazy, waving it over the machine, so it could hardly focus at all. After almost two minutes of on and off blur I decided I had enough.

[David_AVD]

Very informative video. 

I didn't find the video quality to be an issue.

[EEVblog]

It worth keeping. You can add a short text in the beginning recognizing the quality issues so people will know it's not your normal video quality.

It is my normal video quality, in fact it's better than my normal video quality because I shot it at 28Mbps 50p, I normally for 17Mbps 25p.
It is different and has motion blur because it is hand held and shot indoors and has lots of panning.
Most of my lab videos have little or no video panning.

[EEVblog]

Certainly your decision if you don't care. I stopped watching at around 10 minutes into the video. Starting from 8:20 you were moving the camera around like crazy, waving it over the machine, so it could hardly focus at all. After almost two minutes of on and off blur I decided I had enough.

Fine, your call.
I do care, but in these sorts of ad-hock walk-around environments it is better to have the camera on auto and "get what you get".
I'm not going to set up the tripod for every shot, pan slowly and carefully, switch video modes, replay to check footage etc all the time while the CEO waits around. That's not cool.
If 1% of people don't want to watch it because of motion blur, so be it.

[eV1Te]

It is hard to watch whenever you move the camera. As if the auto focus can't keep up, everything gets blurry.

That is how cameras on automatic mode work in indoors light environments. I've been through this discussion before and don't wish to repeat it again.
If it's just motion blur during pans people are complaining about, then that's a non-issue.

Certainly your decision if you don't care. I stopped watching at around 10 minutes into the video. Starting from 8:20 you were moving the camera around like crazy, waving it over the machine, so it could hardly focus at all. After almost two minutes of on and off blur I decided I had enough.

That is interesting, I have the completely opposite opinion, I guess we all have different opinions how video should be shot. For me, videos where the shutter time is short feel jerky and stuttery (like a fast slide show), whereas motion-blur makes movements more fluent and smooth (fools the eye to think that there is real motion). I assumed this was the reason modern computer games have special shaders to mimic motion-blur as seen in a camera.

But in the end I think  we are much to picky, the only reason we normally do not notice these problems on TV or in movies, is because Hollywood and TV use cuts with several cameras instead of panning just because panning always looks like crap. But this is of course something that is out of the question for an interview on the move like this, especially if you do not have a camera crew. (Dave's normal videos have fixed camera in his lab, hence the lack of blur or stutter)

Another big benefit of using long shutter time is the reduced noise since the sensor gets much more light.


In my opinion, Dave's videos are definitely in the top 10% of all video bloggers on YouTube quality wise. 

[EEVblog]

In my opinion, Dave's videos are definitely in the top 10% of all video bloggers on YouTube quality wise. 

Thanks, I do my best in the given time and circumstances.
Video quality can always be better, but ultimately it always comes down to the available light.
There is only so much light you can practically have in a workable indoors environment like my lab. And when you are on site like this in an indoors environment, you have to make even more compromises that will always results in less than optimal footage (and sound).
Those who complain about it and think the solution is easy really have no clue about what is involved.

[eV1Te]

...I shot it at 28Mbps 50p, I normally for 17Mbps 25p.

You probably already know this, but web browsers are usually quite bad at displaying 50-60 fps HD videos, the frame drops someone mentioned might be due to a browser with many other tabs opened at the same time or not using HTML5 since flash is notoriously slow.

Also YouTube does not support more than 30p using less than 1080p, (your video was converted to 25p when viewed in 720p)

I found myself that 30p or 60p is quite optimal for YouTube, because then all standard quality options get the highest possible frame rate. To bad 30p is an American standard (NTSC) and I generally do not like to conform to their use of numbers/units. 

[jancumps]

r.e.s.p.e.c.t.  for the CEO. An amazing episode 

[eV1Te]

In my opinion, Dave's videos are definitely in the top 10% of all video bloggers on YouTube quality wise. 

Thanks, I do my best in the given time and circumstances.
...
Those who complain about it and think the solution is easy really have no clue about what is involved.

I agree, but I still make the same mistake sometimes, however every now and then I do a video on my own and I get reminded how tricky it can be without optimal conditions.

Thank you for a very interesting tour around their plant, one of the best down-to-earth CEOs I have ever seen! 

[EEVblog]

Also YouTube does not support more than 30p using less than 1080p, (your video was converted to 25p when viewed in 720p)

The video was uploaded in 25p.
I will render and upload a 50p version for those bitching, and they will see that motion blur will still exist.

I found myself that 30p or 60p is quite optimal for YouTube, because then all standard quality options get the highest possible frame rate. To bad 30p is an American standard (NTSC) and I generally do not like to conform to their use of numbers/units. 

Most of my cameras are PAL, hence 50p or 50p. Only my Sony NEX is 60p.
I shot this video in 50p. All of my lab footage is shot in 25p.

[janoc]

Thanks for the video, Dave, it was really interesting to see all that gear.

The video quality is pretty good. People complaining about motion blur in hand-held shots trying to catch the moving machine, the person interviewed and whatever else may be around? In one person, talking, single camera? Seriously? Let's get real, shall we?

[george graves]

Interesting stuff - especially if you've never seen it before.

[justanothercanuck]

@34:55 Windows XP with MSE installed, but disabled.  Tsk Tsk. 

[ovnr]

Very nice video - the CEO actually knows his stuff, amazing.


On video quality: The motion blur was really distracting. I don't have any experience with pro camcorders, but can you force the ISO to a high-ish level forcing the camera to use a shorter exposure time? It should (... assuming it's not being overly difficult) still do auto-exposure and everything, and all you get is a bit more noise - it'd still work fine in low-light environments.


Also, no frame drops to speak of.

[Bob S]

Great job Dave, video quality is never a factor when the subject is interesting.

One thing I heard that surprised me was that no cleaning is needed. This goes against what I have learned and request for my boards. In particular I would think the PIRs might have problems due to the high gain and assumed low leakage requirements. Is "no Clean" really that good and acceptable these days?  Did I here this right or did I miss something?

[GEuser]

That was unreal dave , I could only watch half as I have to watch my data download , good on Ness ..

Those machines are unbelievable and don't forget someone has to make the machines ! Go Go Go Yamaha (Oooops were not on a motorcycle forum , Go Yammy anyway)

I saw that reel fall over near the start Ha Ha  , and the dude posting about motion blurring , please go out and get a life if that's all one can bitch about imo ...