SmallSMT PNP adventure, learning and documenting

[mrpackethead]

Revenue, are you going to be distributing these machines in the USA?

[revenue_controls]

I haven't forgot about you guys... I have been playing with the machine, loading feeders and learning the software. It's all starting to make sense.

[revenue_controls]

is it possible to upload videos to the forum or do I have to link it to youtube?

[Ice-Tea]

Link to YT.

[revenue_controls]

my son just came home from college for the summer and he figured out the machine in 10 minutes!

[IconicPCB]

Revenue,

What PC are You using ?

[revenue_controls]

Revenue,

What PC are You using ?

Just an average windows 7 machine.

I now have 95% of the software figured out. Next step is to load all of the feeders and get them calibrated.
I will post a video later today.   

[revenue_controls]

Check out the walk around video...
https://youtu.be/nh9W4Trp_8w

[IconicPCB]

Thanks revenue,

I am expecting my machine to arrive sometime in first week of June. A  VP-2800HP-CL64-4R minus the conveyor system with a bunch of pushfeeders and a mix of CL feeders.
We decided on this machine due to the number of available feeders.
The 4R head was selected in order to improve on optical fly by characteristics of the in line design of the head.
I had spoken to Michael about the PC ( hence my question ) with the view to minimising vision processing time.Michael's advice an i5 core machine.

Presently most of my machines are older generation.I have a collection of sun work stations i use to run linuxCNC to control the milling machine and laser exposure machines.
Presently investigating ryzen5 and intel core5 machines.

I am following Your exploits with considerable interest; thank You.

[SMTech]

I find it fairly unlikely these machines use software that is heavily optimized to use multiple cores&threads and its worth bearing in mind that p&p machines have been running vision at speed for quite some time. Admittedly Cognex or the dedicated teams serving some of the established players might be highly skilled in writing optimised code but I would doubt there is actually any advantage in picking CPUs with extra cores, but extra Hz/IPC certainly certainly wouldn't hurt. You can get some bargain 2nd user machines but big name desktop PCs often run funny motherboards & power supplies or have power limits that mean the CPU you pay for can never or barely run at its rated speed. I'd be tempted to find  something like a z400/420 for a system designed to be rocksolid.

Our 2012 Essemtec runs on an i3 with 2GB of RAM and the vision system of that reads processes 4 devices at once from a single camera quick enough you can't really see it pause at the camera.
Our decidedly less clever 2002 Versatronics ran on a 733Mhz P3, you could sort of see it pause but its vision routines were interesting at best and the camera FOV so narrow it used multiple fields of view for quite a few things.

[IconicPCB]

A link to my local second hand dealer...


http://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/Refurbished-Desktops-s/1818.htm

[SWR]

I'm using my laptop to run my VP-2500DP and it runs very smooth.
It's an Acer Aspire with a Core i7-7700HQ and a GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card.
I think it's what they call a budget gaming machine (< $1000).

[revenue_controls]

Thanks revenue,

I am expecting my machine to arrive sometime in first week of June. A  VP-2800HP-CL64-4R minus the conveyor system with a bunch of pushfeeders and a mix of CL feeders.
We decided on this machine due to the number of available feeders.
The 4R head was selected in order to improve on optical fly by characteristics of the in line design of the head.
I had spoken to Michael about the PC ( hence my question ) with the view to minimising vision processing time.Michael's advice an i5 core machine.

Presently most of my machines are older generation.I have a collection of sun work stations i use to run linuxCNC to control the milling machine and laser exposure machines.
Presently investigating ryzen5 and intel core5 machines.

I am following Your exploits with considerable interest; thank You.

Looks like you went all out on the machine

my PC is an i7 2700k CPU @ 3.8GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 450 SE video card

Cameras look real time to me.

[Kjelt]

Check out the walk around video...   

Looks great for that money, quite impressed.
Only thing except for the loose cabling (they could be placed in cableducts) that looks what can be improved are the placer heads.
That looks a bit plastick toyish. If they can do CNC aluminium they could have made that a bit more robust.
Like these for instance: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/tear-down-of-an-assembleonphilips-pp-head/msg1287990/#msg1287990

Do they have top down camera in the head or do they have linear encoders mouted or solely rely on the steppermotor encoders ?

If it works, it works ofcourse 

[revenue_controls]

Check out the walk around video...   

Looks great for that money, quite impressed.
Only thing except for the loose cabling (they could be placed in cableducts) that looks what can be improved are the placer heads.
That looks a bit plastick toyish. If they can do CNC aluminium they could have made that a bit more robust.
Like these for instance: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/tear-down-of-an-assembleonphilips-pp-head/msg1287990/#msg1287990

Do they have top down camera in the head or do they have linear encoders mouted or solely rely on the steppermotor encoders ?

If it works, it works ofcourse 

To be fair, you are comparing it with a $100,000. machine...

There is a camera in the head and 2 on the bed. Additionally there are linear encoders built into the x and y screw servos.

[Smallsmt]

Check out the walk around video...   

Looks great for that money, quite impressed.
Only thing except for the loose cabling (they could be placed in cableducts) that looks what can be improved are the placer heads.
That looks a bit plastick toyish. If they can do CNC aluminium they could have made that a bit more robust.
Like these for instance: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/tear-down-of-an-assembleonphilips-pp-head/msg1287990/#msg1287990

Do they have top down camera in the head or do they have linear encoders mouted or solely rely on the steppermotor encoders ?

If it works, it works ofcourse 

Our heads made from aluminium plus linear guide lines from steel.
We use AC Servo motors on X and Y axis using rotary encoder on the ball screw shaft!

Sure we have one top camera and 2 bottom cameras.

[IconicPCB]

I expect You will find the nozzles are metal not plastic.

I do not think plastic nozzles could be expected to perform at 0402 level of miniaturisation.
'
Nozzles are of Samsung provenance.

[revenue_controls]

first placements!

[Kjelt]

When you get the chance I like to see a close up of that reel feedforward mechanism in action to the right 

[IconicPCB]

You mean push feeder?

Just as a point of interest the push feeder can be programed to drive the tape in multiples of a  4mm push for larger pitch components.

On the other hand the pick up nozzle can be programed to pick up components from two adjacent spots 2mm apart on the push feeder so that 2mm pitch components can be handled.This means single push allows two 2mm pitch components to be fed.

 

[revenue_controls]

When you get the chance I like to see a close up of that reel feedforward mechanism in action to the right 

I'll get you that soon.

Push feeders done. And with paper and plastic tapes. we'll see how the plastic tapes do???
currently working with the tube feeder (vibration).

[revenue_controls]

Sorry for the delay in information and updates, but i am currently busy with other projects. I will continue with the PNP machine next week. I still plan to do an in-depth review and hopefully video tutorials.

[revenue_controls]

After using the machine for a few weeks now, and getting everything dialed in, I think I have a much better understanding of its abilities. There was much to learn and I have learned a lot! I have made some mistakes and have asked some stupid questions. Michael has been very patient with me. But the machine is working great and is very accurate and fast. I believe the machine will be a great asset to my business.

At first the "Vision Placer" software seemed very complex, but now it all makes sense. I am completely comfortable with it now and can configure new parts easily.

I am supersized by the versatility of the machines configuration options when it comes to feeder types; cl, push, tray, tube and cut tape.

There is much to tell you about, but for now check out the latest video.... more to come ....

[IconicPCB]

Good to have Your point of view.
Our feeders are due to arrive by end of this week and the machine shortly after.

And then the fun starts... with a ...why...??

[revenue_controls]

Good to have Your point of view.
Our feeders are due to arrive by end of this week and the machine shortly after.

And then the fun starts... with a ...why...??

In the USA saying "why" means you are very happy with a result...

no.. it's obvious "the lights not on"...

feel free to contact me with any questions.