Primitive pick and place system I built from an old Graphtec XY Pen Plotter.
Vacuum pump is not as loud as the camera makes it sound.
Vacuum lifts the tip. Rotation is done by moving head along a spring suspended pressure plate on the left.
Vacuum is controlled by two automotive electrical solenoid operated air valve controlled by mosfets on the printer port.
Computer is running Linux and a perl script which coordinates everything. Plotter is controlled via RS232.
The perl script places the camera over the part after each placement for easy magnified inspection.
Perl script also keeps track of how many parts are in the tray (paper tape strips) and reads the DAUMST and ZEVAST stuff files to know what part to put where and what rotation to set it at.
System is not very accurate. The resolution of the plotter is only 250 dpi which is a surprisingly large step as compared to an 0603 part. I mean, it works but rounding error can contribute significantly to the part placement error. Then the parts are not centered in the paper tape but are in random positions, so that adds to the error. Then the Y carriage is a little loose and sloppy, which adds more error.
So you will notice that the parts don't end up exactly centered as they should be. However most of them pull in to position when the solder melts.Report Video
