Electronics > Manufacturing & Assembly

Advice on a Desktop Pick and Place Machine under $2500

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prutser:

--- Quote from: vespaman on November 05, 2024, 08:07:58 pm ---Hi Mohala,

The learning curve is steep, but if you are into these things, good and useful in the end. production.
I'd say if you only need to do  a few prototypes, it is not worth it. ones you are looking have experienced.


--- End quote ---

@vespaman:
It seems you have some experience. I am currently also looking into something for hobby purpose. This is for occasional prototypes.

The main reason is not the amount of boards/parts, but the fact that parts are getting smaller. This makes it more time consuming and risky to place by hand.
Recently did a small PCB with some 0402 parts and 0.5mm pitch QFN. Hand PNP took me almost 4 hours (and you still have a risk accidentally moving the QFN or place it wrongly. If that happens, cleaning and stencil would have been  the only option).

I have currently no idea how difficult  openPNP is to setup (just downloaded it), but for my purpose I consider an "hybrid" approach. IC's, decoupling caps, 0402 and 0603 parts by PNP (If possible I mostly use 0805) and do the larger parts by hand (easy and no machine setup)

Any experience/advice on this ?

 

mikeselectricstuff:
Forget 0201's - this is as much about feeders as anything else- even multi $100k machines sometimes need special feeders for these.
Fine-pitch BGA is also very dependent on the paste print process - stepped stencils etc.

vespaman:
Hi @prutser

It is hard for me to say how hard it is to set it up, because it depends so much from where you are starting knowledge-wise.  I jumped into it, seeing a used Charmhigh 48VB not too far from where I live.
From the start, I knew I wanted to convert it to OpenPnP, so I did not even try the original FW (something I realized later, I should have, just to get to know how the machine was supposed to work).

I think it depends on your perspective and willingness to spend time to learn, because, yes, it is a lot to learn. Not just OpenPnP, but the whole process.
If you think this can be a hobby, then go for it. Why not? But don't expect to pick new populated boards out of your machine next month.  :)

0402 is no problem at all in my setup, this is my preferred component size, I absolutely avoid 0201 and smaller. Here's  a small clip https://youtube.com/shorts/ie137bqQuyg of the typical jobs I do.
The build-your-own kits are typically a little slower, since they don't have the mass, but that shouldn't be a problem.

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