It's a function of a dedicated AOI and we need the cameras from different angles to calculate 3D information for solder points.
Yes, I totally get that. You need different angles to build a 3D point cloud. Normally 18° angle difference is enough to create a depth perspective.
We need multiple cameras to increase the speed too.
I agree that 3 cameras are quicker than taking 3 pictures with one camera.
But to many hobby customers - myself included - a slow AOI would be a valuable tool and certainly better than no AOI.
The simple top camera can only check if a part is on position but we want to know if it's soldered well too.
This is the interesting question that I wanted to check.
Do you need different cameras to get different viewing angles?
On my VP-2500DP machine the top camera is about 50mm above the PCB surface.
To create 18° angle coverage you need a center distance of 50mm*tan(9°) = 7,9mm.
That is a 15,8mm wide view for full circular 18° angle difference.
If you just use the corners it's sqrt(7,9²/2) = 5,6mm.
That is a 11,2mm wide view for corner to corner 18° angle difference.
Large angles will increase the depth resolution of the point cloud, but maybe it's good enough to use for AOI.
How wide & tall is the view area from the top camera on the VP-2500DP?