Assembly line suggestions and recomendations

[TareqBUQ]

Hi all,
I am in the process of building an assembly line for wearable medical devices.
We used to outsource the assembly to some companies in china, so the process was as simple as generating some files in the CAD software, and inspecting/testing the boards when they arrive, but earlier this year we decided to buy the equipment and do it ourselves, because we need to CE certify some of our products.
The idea was that I would travel to China to see the machines first hand, but the Coronavirus outbreak happened and here we are, and it doesn't seem that travelling would be an option any time before the end of the year, so I had to rely on information/reviews that are available online here and there, and after weeks of research I have so many questions in my mind, and I hope people on this forum who have some experience would help.
Our production volume is quite low(Around 50 boards/day), and our budget is quite limited as well.

Solder paste and solder paste printing:
How useful/essential are solder paste mixers?
Are those machines designed just to make your life easier, or do they offer any difference in solder quality?
I have watched some videos online that show you how uniform the solder balls are after being mixed in the mixer but does that have any practical difference?

Solder paste printing:
Our production volume is quite low and our boards are small, so 50 boards would typically fit on 4 panels each 20*20CM, so we decided to go with a manual stencil printer, but I have some concerns, we very rarely use anything smaller than 0.5mm pitch or 0402 passives, but if we had to use 0.4mm pitch or 0201 passives, would we be able to do it on manual printers?
As I mentioned before our production volume is low, so speed is not a big deal, and automatic printers are out of question with my kind of budget, and I didn't have any feeling that semi-automatic printers that don't have vision(That I can afford) add any value other than ease of allignment and speed.

Pnp machine:
After a lot of research and correspondence with Chinese manufacturers, I have narrowed my candidates to 1 of these machines:
1-KAYO A4
2-SMT550 (From several manufacturers)
The 550 has 50 feeders and the KAYO has 46, but has a bigger PCB area, otherwise the machines seem pretty similar.
I have read glenenglish's reveiw of the KAYO A4, and he seems quite happy with it.
The 550 comes at $1000 less, and they offer free shipping by sea as well.
KAYO's customer service on Alibaba seemed very responsive and helpful and willing to answer any questions about their machine, YX,Glichn, and solin, not so much.( Those 3 sell the SMT550 with different brands and model numbers).
Also, do thses machines handle 0402 reliably, and could any of the two by any chance handle 0201?
What kind of support should I expect after buying the machines, do they supply some videos/articles/manuals/tutorials to get you going with the machine?

Reflow oven:
I am considering one of two:
1-T-960 IR 5 zones(Sold and rebranded by many manufacturers)
2-KAYO RF-330 3 zones convection
Did anyone have any good/bad experience with either, or can anyone recommend any good reflow oven that is less than $2000

Sorry for the long post!
Any help would be appretiated.

[Mangozac]

I'm currently in the process of setting up the same - just waiting for my machines to arrive. My conclusions are:

Solder paste: several assemblers I've spoken with simply mix the solder paste by hand after bringing it up to room temperature. I'm sure the mixing machines are good but for starting out on a budget it's unnecessary (we're not getting one).

Printing: I have picked up a local, used, fully automatic inline printer. My original plan was just to use the semi-automatic like you discuss but after some discussion with others was convinced that for our throughput we would want a fully automatic unit before long. If you don't need a high throughput then semi-automatic is just fine. For less than 0.5mm/0402 you might want something better (i.e. semi-automatic with cameras) just to make the alignment easier.

Pick and Place: I've pulled the trigger on a Kayo 6 head 1706. I assume you read my post after I went to China to see the Kayo machines in person? The A4L should be good BUT you need to look at your nozzle requirements. None of the Kayo machines have automatic nozzle changers, so if you need more than 4 different nozzle types you will be in trouble. Go through your BOM and assign a nozzle to each component (use this guide: https://avipre.com/products/smt&tht/juki//Juki%20-%20Nozzle%20Catalogue-Rev-C3.pdf), then work out how many different types you need for a job. Also note that the machine placement speed slows down significantly if you only have one chip-component size nozzle fitted. Note that Kayo don't specify their A4L or 1706 down to 0201.

Another complexity with the heads is that although the machine has 20mm Z axis stroke, the maximum component height is limited to about 13mm. BUT for anything larger than 6mm a different nozzle holder needs to be fitted, which is apparently not suitable for the shorter components. As you can see, it's all a bit of a juggle.

Kayo do have manuals and videos for the machines. They're basic though so we'll see how useful they are once we get them installed and start learning to operate them.

Reflow oven: I've ordered a Kayo RF-630. 6-zones with top and bottom heaters. I presume you don't need to do RoHS? For your volume you could consider a drawer type batch reflow oven to start with, something similar to the T-962C?

Compressed air: you're going to need a compressed air source with filters and a dryer. Not an enormous requirement though - I would guess less than 100L/min (at 100PSI) for the A4L and semi-auto printer. Look around for a used Festo membrane dryer.

[Reckless]

I concur with Mango's suggestions.  Personally I don't like any chinese equipment BUT because your volumes are very low it might work.  Semi automatic stencils are considered a joke by the equipment dealers I have dealt with.  I had one but ending up getting a fully automatic one from the junkyard and resurrecting it.  I have heard really bad things about the T962 oven.  I had a T960C but never used it.

0402 usually are pretty hard on most older pick and place machines I have dealt with even though they were rated for it.  Somehow I rank chinese machines underneath older Jukis/Universal.  If you have the funds and think you are going to grow I recommend purchasing an older Yamaha/phillips/assembleon.  It may be harder to program but reliability will be much better. 

You don't need a solder paste mixer.  It is done by hand normally. 

[TareqBUQ]

Well, for the printer after a lot of thinking we will go with a manual printer and see how things go, the semi-automatic ones don't change a lot, and automatic ones are not an option in my kind of budget.
I've checked my BOMs already, and I think 4 heads machine would be sufficient for 90% of our jobs.
And after checking the CE requirments for my application I think RoHS is a must, maybe with a 3 zones oven it would be marginal, but with 5 zones I guess we will be fine?
I've checked KAYO's catalog, and they sell the RF530 with 5 zones for not that much of a price difference.
Drawer type ovens, and pretty much any IR oven with no air flow, even the T-960 would have inferior performance, especially in high density boards, so I'm trying to stay away from those.
I live in the Middle-East and there is almost no market what so ever for SMT used equipment.
Personally I would trust an older brand name machine, and I received numerous quotes for used machine (Juki, Yamaha, Samsung, FUJI... you name it), and for affordable prices, but without some testing and playing around with machine it is not a viable option, and with the current circumstances it is near impossible to travel anywhere, and check out some used machines.

[Mangozac]

I think from what you describe the manual printer will probably be a suitable start. You can always upgrade at a later time when you need to.

For RoHS 5 zones will work but you will probably have to run it slowly. Fortunately you don't need a high throughput so it will not be a problem for you 👍

[48X24X48X]

The SMT550 supports electric feeders (some Yamaha compatible electric feeders) that draws power from a row of power socket under the feeder bank but all these companies that sell them will not ship with this option unless you ask for it. They are add-on for a small amount of dollars. These allow you to do down to 0201 components. The Kayo A4 needs an external PC to operate while SMT550 has one built-in.

[Mangozac]

The Kayo A4 needs an external PC to operate while SMT550 has one built-in.

That's incorrect. The A4L is completely standalone machine with a built in PC.

Sorry, my mistake. I just realised the OP has been referring to the benchtops size A4, not the larger A4L.

[48X24X48X]

Not what I was told by their sales representative after I pointed out in one of their A4 video, there's a PC sitting besides it. Hence, I asked Jack Ma (that is his name!!!) the sales representative.

[Mangozac]

Ahh my apologies I've somehow jumped to the assumption of the larger A4L machine.

[48X24X48X]

Ahh my apologies I've somehow jumped to the assumption of the larger A4L machine.

Small issue. No worries. 

[TareqBUQ]

I've checked with KAYO, and they sent me what I guess is the same video, and they told me it has an external PC, however they supply it with the machine.It's not a PC you need to buy.

Also, I've read an older post of yours where you said you bought an SMT550, so how is it going for you? would you recommend this machine?

[TareqBUQ]

Does anyone know if there is any practical difference between reflow ovens which are computer controlled and the ones that have a built in PID controller?
Does the computer software usually give any more options/felxibility/feedback?

[SMTech]

Does anyone know if there is any practical difference between reflow ovens which are computer controlled and the ones that have a built in PID controller?
Does the computer software usually give any more options/felxibility/feedback?

The answer is it might, probably depends on the Oven. Otherwise there are other advantages that can come from PC control that are just inherent to what that platform offers, so no real limit to how many oven profiles you can store, maybe continuous logging of everything the operator changes and when. However even that means using some fairly old fashioned thinking about what an an embedded system can do given that these days many such systems are quite happy to talk to a decent GUI and a nice fat SDcard. I wouldn't go out of your way to choose a PC one for your use case.

On the truly commercial ovens the PC control software has a ridiculous number of options either in its main control program or configured during setup. On our Heller we can run the included KIC software to measure the profile achieved on a board and then that software can even make suggestions based on those measurements, feed them back into the control software automatically to help hone in o na  prfile that is as close to smack in the middle of all the requirements our specific paste wants. On a low end oven you could still do that with a seperate profiler but without all the automagical bits, plus the prfolfiler with those features would cost as much as the oven .

[Mangozac]

Does anyone know if there is any practical difference between reflow ovens which are computer controlled and the ones that have a built in PID controller?
Does the computer software usually give any more options/felxibility/feedback?

To get started we've gone with the type with the individual PID controller for each top and bottom zone. The primary benefit of the computer is the ease of adjusting, saving and recalling profiles.

[SMTech]

Does anyone know if there is any practical difference between reflow ovens which are computer controlled and the ones that have a built in PID controller?
Does the computer software usually give any more options/felxibility/feedback?

To get started we've gone with the type with the individual PID controller for each top and bottom zone. The primary benefit of the computer is the ease of adjusting, saving and recalling profiles.

Our starter oven was an 4-zone IR oven with OMRON PIDs for each vertical zone, we basically left it setup on a standard profile that worked for all the boards we were making at the time. Because IR has some inherent weaknesses with tall or dense parts anyhow there was little point trying to makeup or switch between multiple profiles anyway, you might change the belt speed to accommodate different masses of board a little but arrays of switches, elecs or inductors were basically a nono so one profile was basically fine. Later we got a 5zone version of the same version with PC control, at the same time we got a few more thicker more challenging PCBs and being able to quickly change profiles was a help as was the really basic built in thermocouple logging support. If you divide up the typical requested profile for a solder paste, 5 zones is about the point where you start being able get pretty close to a decent ramp soak spike profile with the right amount of time in each stage, the more you have the more you can tweak to handle more complex designs. 3/4 zones still works but you're more likely to ramp to peak, how much that matters will depend on what you are soldering and how long it takes your oven to get you out of ~150C up to ~245C and out again.

On our modern Heller just about everything works fine on a single profile, the prime exception is a large board that has both heavy inductors and surface mount transformers on it. SM inductors are very dense and can be quite challenging to reflow anyway, but the transformers want to stay quite cool so you have to balance the two. Becuase its big and expensive its also not really feasible to profile such a board by strapping thermocouples to it so you have to work backwards from what you know or the software suggests.

[JPlocher]

I got XY's SMT550 in the larger standalone configuration (rather than the 'desktop' version), with the computer built in, delivered mid Feb, right in the midst of the shutdowns...

Be aware that the PC runs what appears to be a pirated version of Chinese WinXP, a very old Office suite and a bunch of preinstalled Chinese apps (Tencent, QQ...)  Don't even consider putting it on the network without some serious delousing.

The "electric feed" added $200 to the price, but I when complained that they were advertising it with the electric feeders for the original price, they "threw it in"; unfortunately, this ate up their profit/wiggle room and complicated other negotiations....

You need electric feeders to do 0201, as the mechanical slop and jostling forces in the pneumatic ones are said to cause component alignment and feed issues.

The Kayo (which was my other choice) required a camera change at the factory to do 0201, and <due to some language confusion> might have precluded normal operation - I didn't quite understand the nuances...

I've had middling difficulties with the shipped software on the XY, but there are workarounds and alternatives - the machine HW is fast and reliable.  I've found that getting support is much easier when the issue is recorded in a video than in English email - so I've done a number of YouTube videos of my experiences, operations and issues - see https://www.youtube.com/user/johnplocher/videos or search for "SPCoast SMT550"...

  -John

[TareqBUQ]

Does anyone know if there is any practical difference between reflow ovens which are computer controlled and the ones that have a built in PID controller?
Does the computer software usually give any more options/felxibility/feedback?

To get started we've gone with the type with the individual PID controller for each top and bottom zone. The primary benefit of the computer is the ease of adjusting, saving and recalling profiles.

Our starter oven was an 4-zone IR oven with OMRON PIDs for each vertical zone, we basically left it setup on a standard profile that worked for all the boards we were making at the time. Because IR has some inherent weaknesses with tall or dense parts anyhow there was little point trying to makeup or switch between multiple profiles anyway, you might change the belt speed to accommodate different masses of board a little but arrays of switches, elecs or inductors were basically a nono so one profile was basically fine. Later we got a 5zone version of the same version with PC control, at the same time we got a few more thicker more challenging PCBs and being able to quickly change profiles was a help as was the really basic built in thermocouple logging support. If you divide up the typical requested profile for a solder paste, 5 zones is about the point where you start being able get pretty close to a decent ramp soak spike profile with the right amount of time in each stage, the more you have the more you can tweak to handle more complex designs. 3/4 zones still works but you're more likely to ramp to peak, how much that matters will depend on what you are soldering and how long it takes your oven to get you out of ~150C up to ~245C and out again.

On our modern Heller just about everything works fine on a single profile, the prime exception is a large board that has both heavy inductors and surface mount transformers on it. SM inductors are very dense and can be quite challenging to reflow anyway, but the transformers want to stay quite cool so you have to balance the two. Becuase its big and expensive its also not really feasible to profile such a board by strapping thermocouples to it so you have to work backwards from what you know or the software suggests.

Some manufacturers say their reflow ovens are 4 heating zones, however, in the description they state 4 lower and 4 upper heating zones (photos show 8 adjustment screens so each zone is controlled independently), and some of them would claim 8 heating zones for the same oven.
My question is: are these ovens considered to have 8 heating zones? or are the upper and lower zones alligned, so it is effictively 4 heating zones, but the lower ones are just to heat the board from the bottom for better efficiency, because I'm confused.

[TareqBUQ]

I got XY's SMT550 in the larger standalone configuration (rather than the 'desktop' version), with the computer built in, delivered mid Feb, right in the midst of the shutdowns...

Be aware that the PC runs what appears to be a pirated version of Chinese WinXP, a very old Office suite and a bunch of preinstalled Chinese apps (Tencent, QQ...)  Don't even consider putting it on the network without some serious delousing.

The "electric feed" added $200 to the price, but I when complained that they were advertising it with the electric feeders for the original price, they "threw it in"; unfortunately, this ate up their profit/wiggle room and complicated other negotiations....

You need electric feeders to do 0201, as the mechanical slop and jostling forces in the pneumatic ones are said to cause component alignment and feed issues.

The Kayo (which was my other choice) required a camera change at the factory to do 0201, and <due to some language confusion> might have precluded normal operation - I didn't quite understand the nuances...

I've had middling difficulties with the shipped software on the XY, but there are workarounds and alternatives - the machine HW is fast and reliable.  I've found that getting support is much easier when the issue is recorded in a video than in English email - so I've done a number of YouTube videos of my experiences, operations and issues - see https://www.youtube.com/user/johnplocher/videos or search for "SPCoast SMT550"...

  -John

They got me confused as well with electric feed, in their description on Alibaba they say the machine can do 0201, but when asked they told me it is an option for an extra increase in price.
But the question is : is it worth the extra chrage? can it really do 0201 reliably? with you having to manually enter the picking x-y coordinates for the feeder and pick height, and with no active feedback from the nozzle head and no protocols to deal with mis-picks and drops, I don't think it is fair to call the machine 0201 capable.
What do you think?
I watched your videos a while back when I started this journey, and frankly, I didn't like what I saw, bottom line is it looks like their software just doesn't work! Even with fundamental things it seems to be clunky.
To be fair, I asked KAYO and they sent me their instruction manual, and a set of videos, which do not show much better performance from the software, marginally better at best.
By the way have you tried using OpenPnp or any other alternative software on the machine?
Also, when asked, YX claimed that their machine is CE certified, but didn't supply any documents, and the other company that makes the SMT550, Beijing Glichn (they advertise it as GP400), they send me a certificate, which didn't look legit, and I couldn't find the notified body mentioned on the certificate on the EU's website.
So did you receive any CE documents with the machine, or have any idea about that?
Regarding the language barrier, it seems like a common theme when dealing with chinese manufacturers, I find myself asking the same question 3 times, with different wordings, just to clear the confusion, and get a defenitive and clear answer, and English isn't even my first language!

[MR]

Electronic Feeders are very easy to control. There are some variations of CL-Feeders out there even some with pressure detection which fit into existing (non electronic) designs, all they need is a stable 24V power supply, and the pitch can be set up via button menu.
I've seen quite a few with STM8 chipsets and 2 stepper motor drivers, easy to reprogram as well.

[Reckless]

Does anyone know if there is any practical difference between reflow ovens which are computer controlled and the ones that have a built in PID controller?
Does the computer software usually give any more options/felxibility/feedback?

To get started we've gone with the type with the individual PID controller for each top and bottom zone. The primary benefit of the computer is the ease of adjusting, saving and recalling profiles.

Our starter oven was an 4-zone IR oven with OMRON PIDs for each vertical zone, we basically left it setup on a standard profile that worked for all the boards we were making at the time. Because IR has some inherent weaknesses with tall or dense parts anyhow there was little point trying to makeup or switch between multiple profiles anyway, you might change the belt speed to accommodate different masses of board a little but arrays of switches, elecs or inductors were basically a nono so one profile was basically fine. Later we got a 5zone version of the same version with PC control, at the same time we got a few more thicker more challenging PCBs and being able to quickly change profiles was a help as was the really basic built in thermocouple logging support. If you divide up the typical requested profile for a solder paste, 5 zones is about the point where you start being able get pretty close to a decent ramp soak spike profile with the right amount of time in each stage, the more you have the more you can tweak to handle more complex designs. 3/4 zones still works but you're more likely to ramp to peak, how much that matters will depend on what you are soldering and how long it takes your oven to get you out of ~150C up to ~245C and out again.

On our modern Heller just about everything works fine on a single profile, the prime exception is a large board that has both heavy inductors and surface mount transformers on it. SM inductors are very dense and can be quite challenging to reflow anyway, but the transformers want to stay quite cool so you have to balance the two. Becuase its big and expensive its also not really feasible to profile such a board by strapping thermocouples to it so you have to work backwards from what you know or the software suggests.

Some manufacturers say their reflow ovens are 4 heating zones, however, in the description they state 4 lower and 4 upper heating zones (photos show 8 adjustment screens so each zone is controlled independently), and some of them would claim 8 heating zones for the same oven.
My question is: are these ovens considered to have 8 heating zones? or are the upper and lower zones alligned, so it is effictively 4 heating zones, but the lower ones are just to heat the board from the bottom for better efficiency, because I'm confused.

We would consider that 4 zones.  Turning off bottom zones comes in handy for double sided reflow.  Ive been warned to stay away from IR ovens because of uneven heat distribution. 

[TareqBUQ]

Electronic Feeders are very easy to control. There are some variations of CL-Feeders out there even some with pressure detection which fit into existing (non electronic) designs, all they need is a stable 24V power supply, and the pitch can be set up via button menu.
I've seen quite a few with STM8 chipsets and 2 stepper motor drivers, easy to reprogram as well.

What I'm saying is, for a machine to be 0201 capable, I think there is more than having the ability to use electric feeders, and the SMT550 seems to lack in several areas to be considered 0201 capable in my opinion.

[TareqBUQ]

Does anyone know if there is any practical difference between reflow ovens which are computer controlled and the ones that have a built in PID controller?
Does the computer software usually give any more options/felxibility/feedback?

To get started we've gone with the type with the individual PID controller for each top and bottom zone. The primary benefit of the computer is the ease of adjusting, saving and recalling profiles.

Our starter oven was an 4-zone IR oven with OMRON PIDs for each vertical zone, we basically left it setup on a standard profile that worked for all the boards we were making at the time. Because IR has some inherent weaknesses with tall or dense parts anyhow there was little point trying to makeup or switch between multiple profiles anyway, you might change the belt speed to accommodate different masses of board a little but arrays of switches, elecs or inductors were basically a nono so one profile was basically fine. Later we got a 5zone version of the same version with PC control, at the same time we got a few more thicker more challenging PCBs and being able to quickly change profiles was a help as was the really basic built in thermocouple logging support. If you divide up the typical requested profile for a solder paste, 5 zones is about the point where you start being able get pretty close to a decent ramp soak spike profile with the right amount of time in each stage, the more you have the more you can tweak to handle more complex designs. 3/4 zones still works but you're more likely to ramp to peak, how much that matters will depend on what you are soldering and how long it takes your oven to get you out of ~150C up to ~245C and out again.

On our modern Heller just about everything works fine on a single profile, the prime exception is a large board that has both heavy inductors and surface mount transformers on it. SM inductors are very dense and can be quite challenging to reflow anyway, but the transformers want to stay quite cool so you have to balance the two. Becuase its big and expensive its also not really feasible to profile such a board by strapping thermocouples to it so you have to work backwards from what you know or the software suggests.

Some manufacturers say their reflow ovens are 4 heating zones, however, in the description they state 4 lower and 4 upper heating zones (photos show 8 adjustment screens so each zone is controlled independently), and some of them would claim 8 heating zones for the same oven.
My question is: are these ovens considered to have 8 heating zones? or are the upper and lower zones alligned, so it is effictively 4 heating zones, but the lower ones are just to heat the board from the bottom for better efficiency, because I'm confused.

We would consider that 4 zones.  Turning off bottom zones comes in handy for double sided reflow.  Ive been warned to stay away from IR ovens because of uneven heat distribution.

I agree with you, IR oven seem to have poor heat distribution due to the lack of air flow inside the oven, this would be a big problem with dense boards and tall components.
I'm leaning towards a 4 zones oven (4 upper, 4 lower) as a start and see how things go.

[SMTech]

IR worked pretty much fine with all your boring passives, Electrolytic caps up to about CaseF that aren't close to each other, D2PAKs etc. By contrast a matrix of surface mount 12mm tactile switches would not work despite not really having significant mass. So plenty of assemblies are totally fine but equally you do have to work within their limits. Pure IR oven are fairly rare these days but I think some low end ones will sneak it in somewhere, perhaps the underside or the preheat zones.

What didn't work / was challenging - chunky 12mm cube inductor packages, hefty ceramic substrate, 3mm PCBs. Very poorly laid out/thermally unbalanced tracking -tombstone galore. Very large QFPs e.g a 240pin MAXII would get shadowing under the pins. Given you solve issues like this by either slowing the conveyor or boosting a zone up, you then add risk of other parts getting too hot. White connectors certainly had a tendency to go a bit brown, possibly both flux staining and the plastic itself, didn't seem to affect function in our experience.

On our one at least the temperatures you set on the zones were the temp of the lamps and those numbers were way higher than the ones you would measure on a PCB travelling through, by contrast a PCB in our Heller basically just about reaches the zone set points as it leaves them.

[TareqBUQ]

IR worked pretty much fine with all your boring passives, Electrolytic caps up to about CaseF that aren't close to each other, D2PAKs etc. By contrast a matrix of surface mount 12mm tactile switches would not work despite not really having significant mass. So plenty of assemblies are totally fine but equally you do have to work within their limits. Pure IR oven are fairly rare these days but I think some low end ones will sneak it in somewhere, perhaps the underside or the preheat zones.

What didn't work / was challenging - chunky 12mm cube inductor packages, hefty ceramic substrate, 3mm PCBs. Very poorly laid out/thermally unbalanced tracking -tombstone galore. Very large QFPs e.g a 240pin MAXII would get shadowing under the pins. Given you solve issues like this by either slowing the conveyor or boosting a zone up, you then add risk of other parts getting too hot. White connectors certainly had a tendency to go a bit brown, possibly both flux staining and the plastic itself, didn't seem to affect function in our experience.

On our one at least the temperatures you set on the zones were the temp of the lamps and those numbers were way higher than the ones you would measure on a PCB travelling through, by contrast a PCB in our Heller basically just about reaches the zone set points as it leaves them.

Yeah, I mean, when I decided to go with chinese machines and on a budget, I didn't expect the fanciest production line ever, It certainly will take a while to figure out the profiles, speed of conveyer....etc.
I'm sure it will be an adventure to operate these kind of Chinese machines, I just hope it will be a good one, and we wouldn't regret it.

[JPlocher]

Like I said, I bought the electric "upgrade" and a few 8/2-8/4 electric feeders, but don't have any small stuff to try them out on...

The Hardware seems well built and reliable.  It should be able to do 0201, at least from a repeatability and control perspective.  I do wish they would use a higher res down-looking camera, though...

The provided software, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired.  Like the CharmHigh and Kayo programs, theirs is good enough for basic high volume workflows where you can spend engineering time to tune the feeders and components for a particular board style, and then simply churn out boards with the conveyer system.

My workflow isn't that one, and so I'm spending lots of time wishing things were easier - for example, why they can't automate the feeder/component calibration using their cameras.

I may get to the point where I get openPnP running on the monster, but I'm not there yet.

  -John