Pick and place software?

[vonnieda]

Hi H.O,

Probably best to continue this discussion on the OpenPnP mailing list for faster / better responses, but I can get the ball rolling here.

Most people using the Smoothie are using a dual nozzle head design with a cam for actuation, like this: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openpnp/openpnp-openbuilds/develop/Images/head_closeup.jpg

The driver that is designed for that type of head, and also for Smoothie is the "OpenBuildsDriver". It's called that because it was written specifically for this machine: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp-openbuilds/tree/1.0

It's not quite clear to me how you actuate your Z axes. Looks like a ball screw moves the whole sled down and then maybe each nozzle can slide up on it's own when it contacts something? In any case, if your Z is just a single axis we'll have to modify the driver a bit for you. I'm happy to do that, since this will be useful for many people - to have a single linear Z axis based Smoothie driver. I'll copy the OpenBuilds driver and just remove the chunks that are specific to the non-linear Z that I use.

I saw you mention something about a head re-design, so if you can comment a bit about what you want your machine to look like for it's running version I can help decide what driver would be best.

Jason

[H.O]

Thanks Jason,
The head you see in the photos in this thread is being replaced with something very similar to the cam driven one but I'm using a belt to which the two nozzles are attached, as one nozzle goes down the other goes up. I was inspired by the SmallSMT machine but I've seen it used elsewhere as well - and I think I saw it being discussed on the openPNP Google Group as well.

If the dual nozzle cam driven version works with the OpenBuildsDriver I'm sure the belt driven one will as well.

You're probably correct in that it'll be better to continue the discussion on the openPNP mailing list. Haven't signed up yet but will do.

Thanks again for your work and your help. I'm feeling better now :-)

/Henrik.

[vonnieda]

Hi Henrik,

The only change that will need to be made to the driver will be to handle the Z axis linearly instead of with the curve based math that is used now. Since the cam is rotating it's introducing a non-linear curve to the Z action and the driver handles that. With yours it will just be a simple linear movement. Not a big deal, it's about a 10 line change that I am happy to make for you. It's on my TODO list for this weekend.

Jason