Electronics > Manufacturing & Assembly
Tronstol E1 experience
PCBprototyping:
It's at -32.5, like it was set from the factory.
lamabrew:
Update on Head 1 wobble/non parallel operation:
Took things apart over the weekend and turned out the 4 screws that hold the head #1 rail were loose. Tightened them up, reassembled, realigned the heads, and seems to all be OK now.
How they loosened up so quickly is a mystery.
Getting the motor out was a bit painful and getting it back in was even more painful as the 4 screws that hold it in are very difficult to access with the head on the machine and the bottom plate (3D scanner) in place. I was not inclined to try and take all of that apart to get the motor off. To get at the four rail screws you do need to remove the motor, though I did not need to remove the carriage bracket from the belt to get to the screws.
While everything was opened up I went at everything shiny with the black sharpie and added black heat shrink to the hex standoff to further kill the reflections.
TJ232:
Hi lamabrew,
Did you managed to fix the above issues?
Did they solved your feeders problem?
It looks like a decent destktop size/weight office machine and despite the higher price for it's class might be a good option if working as advertised.
Any other E1 users around?
Please feel free to share your personal experience.
Thanks,
TJ.
lamabrew:
--- Quote from: TJ232 on June 09, 2023, 10:38:28 am ---Did you managed to fix the above issues?
Did they solved your feeders problem?
It looks like a decent destktop size/weight office machine and despite the higher price for it's class might be a good option if working as advertised.
--- End quote ---
All of the issues I had have been resolved. Of course it would have been great not to have had these in first place. I see them as more a QC/QA failure than a fundamental problem with the design of the machine. Having dealt with similar "off shore" equipment suppliers I went in to this with the expectation that things would come up. That being said even the big $$$ machines have issues - at least based on conversations with a local CM.
The feed mechanism operates what I would call reasonably well. There's defintely time needed to futz with settings for certain parts to get reliable pickups but once set things stay stable. The more I use it the better I'm getting at guessing what/how to tweak.
There are defintely some things that I would call bugs in the software, and there's a number of things they could do to make the system easier to set up and run. None of them prevent me from assembling boards, though I'm only using this for small batchs (< 20), and mostly for prototypes. I think it probably would be fine for making 100s of not too complex boards at a time.
My designs are generally conservative with smallest parts being 0603s, though there's 0.5mm pitch QFNs. Placement accuracy seems good and I doubt 0402s would be an issue. It places 0201 well on the test board, but I have not actually built things with those. My gut feeling is that if I did have a problem I could slow things down to get better repeatability - for me absolute speed isn't a concern.
Loading the reels is a relatively slow process so if doing a high product mix that would be something to consider. The cost savings from not having to purchase the standard feeders is pretty big, and the reduction in CPH from having the pin feed is a total don't care for me. I am considering picking up another feeder bank so I can swap out a side at a time.
TJ232:
It's good to know that at least they provide support for such situations.
Did they change the broken parts?
It is working with 2 or 3 fiducials recognition?
How is repeatability? How many total boards did you made in one session
Regarding feeder banks, is it possible to change them on-the-fly or PNP machide need to be fully shutdown before change.
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