Index machine: an open source pick and place machine
github.com
github.com
The Liteplacer is unusual in that it doesn't use feeders. You just put the parts in little trays or tape down tapes of them, tell the software approximately where they are, and it locks on with its vision system and picks up the parts. This makes it useful for assembling prototypes.
Last site update in 2018, which isn't good.
One problem with the Liteplacer is that it comes as a kit, and you have to build a baseplate for it. They don't sell a baseplate with pre-drilled holes, which means getting precision alignment isn't easy. They should have had aluminum plates cut on a water jet to make a solid baseplate.
I have lots of parts that would take more time to setup in the feeder than it would take to do the board by hand.
A 1" MDF board should make a fine base, aluminum is nice but not necessary.
Looks like the software is still being updated: https://liteplacer.com/software-release-history-and-previous...
The owner seems to be active on the forum: https://liteplacer.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&p=10292&sid=...
Such a cool project, regardless of whether or not he sells any.
A related take on the same concept - probably a little cheaper and less hassle to put together: https://youtu.be/Kkc7uRNK-7g
It obviously doesn't bother everyone, and it's orthogonal to the really cool, interesting, hard, well-executed project. But I do wonder if it might be more popular/more viewed with.. just a little less personality!
People mostly just want the info. That said, this looks like a great piece of work.
Basically, no talking heads. That stuff should be text.
Ben Eater has it right, all content, voice over video.
It's not that I 'hate people' or whatever, depending on the content/style of the rest of it it can be fine: Clough42 for example is moving around a workshop doing physical things, so it seems quite natural when he turns to face the camera, or for the intros.
It helps that his production quality is insanely good too - for all the time spent talking about new expensive AV gear on EEVBlog, it's not great! Not because of the gear, but the refusal to do a re-take if it goes wrong - cc: sorry about the mic it gets better in a sec - editing mishaps like repetition of a shot or not removing one that was clearly intended to be, etc.
Can't complain though, I enjoy it all for free, and I'd recommend every channel I've mentioned.
I think the biggest breakthrough in making a smaller pick and place would be to stop copying the design of industrial machines. If you don’t need to populate full sized panels you don’t need a large x-y grid that needs to be rigid and support for reels of components both of which are costly.
Vision has come a long way in the past couple of decades and the reflow process is quite forgiving. I’m sure a robot arm (0.5mm accuracy over 30*30cm) and a decent vision system to find components on cut reels attached to the table would work.
I own a post-war era Index-25 automatic lathe and it's a marvel of mechanical engineering. They can make a modern general purpose CNC lathe look really slow by comparison. Here's some pictures[2] of a similar but younger machine that I found out there.
[0]: https://www.index-traub.com/en/company/about-us/100-years-in...
[1]: https://www.index-traub.com/en/
[2]: https://www.drehautomaten-pyka.de/Reparatur/reparatur.html
Hard part would be controlling gas flow and ignition.
I mean to say that a toaster and a blender are not that much closer to being a good starting platform than a 3D printer as a fraction of the total design of the machine. It’s superficial.
Then they hit the vision issues and the project stops cold.
And avoid hitting components already on the board, of course.
As others have said, it's the vision thing. You have to have live cameras that feed into a controller to do collision avoidance, verify board placement, part placement, and a whole host of other issues.
3d printers assume a flat empty plane, and build upwards in layers. They're not very stiff, nor very accurate.
And of course, you also have to get the components you're going to place off of a roll of parts, for many types of parts and multiple rolls.
(Please bear in mind this is all the details I learned while observing others attempt this at a makerspace, it's not an exhaustive list of all the fun you'll encounter)