LitePlacer + T962 oven

[Pineapple Dan]

Is this a viable setup for small production runs? (<100 units) or perhaps is there a better way to spend one's money. Ive never used either of these machines and am wondering if they'll only cause me grief and if I'm not better off going for something more expensive

[Matt Coates]

How many units and how often are we talking? Regarding the oven, I would go for the larger T962A at a minimum. You will certainly have to make some mods to the oven, it's not useable in its original state - have a Google, it's well documented what you need to do. Regarding component placement, unless each board has tons of parts at this quantity id just go for a pair of tweezers. You can easily do 100 small boards in a weekend, and when compared against the cost of a PNP and all the setup time, cost of reels ect, it's hard to argue it's worth it for small runs. Feel free to PM me details, if it's a small design id consider quoting on a small production run using the above methods.

[doppelgrau]

I bought a used LitePlacer and converted it to my needs.
It now runs OpenPNP, has HeapFeeder, StripFeeder, BlindsFeeder and LoosePartFeeder. Good for me as an hobbyist or prototypes, for larger production runs, that setup would be no fun. (Can find some information on my homepage, most in german and only reachable using IPv6: https://www.formann.de/)
But adding "real" feeders would change that.

To sum it up I'd say, it depends on your expectations and requirements. The mechanical basis should be ok up 0402/0.5mm pitch, but it is not a "turnkey-solution" and I would suggest taking a look at OpenPNP as the software. (And if you do not get a used LitePlacer cheap, building your own, there are better heads available)
Regarding the oven: I build myself one based on the https://www.whizoo.com/controleo3, with heaters on both sides.
But nowadays I'd think about a "fryer type" galden machine, mixing very large and small parts with a infrared oven is not always so simple...

[phil from seattle]

But nowadays I'd think about a "fryer type" galden machine, mixing very large and small parts with a infrared oven is not always so simple...

Sorry for being OT but a quick search for variations on fryer, hot air, reflow, galden did not turn up anything.  I get the general idea and think it has merit - IR is murder on connectors.  Any links to actual projects?

[doppelgrau]

In a german forum (https://www.mikrocontroller.net/) I'd seen some projects. From very basic setup (induction "kitchen" heater and a high pot like the ones used for asparagus or spaghetti) up to some with a microcontroller and some water cooled copper windings to prevent galden escaping and cooling down the pcb faster.
But as far as I remember none of these really good documented, only few fotos and "works well" messages.

Temped to build something myself, but on the other hand, so many projects and a more or less working oven ...

[KE5FX]

But nowadays I'd think about a "fryer type" galden machine, mixing very large and small parts with a infrared oven is not always so simple...

Sorry for being OT but a quick search for variations on fryer, hot air, reflow, galden did not turn up anything.  I get the general idea and think it has merit - IR is murder on connectors.  Any links to actual projects?

Marco Reps has a nice demo here, circa 10:20:

[phil from seattle]

Thanks, the part about hydrofluoric acid got my attention...