Close

Does this project spark your interest?

Become a member to follow this project and don't miss any updates

0%
0%

Pick and Place Machine

ProtoVoltaics Pick and Place Machine Project

ProtoVoltaics
Following
Liked Like
Similar projects worth following
22.7k views
23 comments
240 followers
likes
View Gallery
As a company we needed a PnP machine to make our products faster. Most of the PnP machines we found online were expensive, inaccurate, loud, and incomplete. It didn't take us long to decide this was going to be our next project.

The goal is to make a fully automated machine with fully automated feeders that are easily replaced anywhere in the stack. Also, the Pick and Place will use CV for accurate placement.

The goal here is to have a machine the requires no babysitting. We want to hit run job, and continue working on other tasks. The video below will show current progress on the unit.

Our latest test video is above. This is the official release video for our pick and place project. You can see everything here that we do. Auto tool changing, multi-board placement, feeders, trays, cut tape, computer vision, software/UI, and more. It doesn't end here either. This is a product we will be using ourselves we have a vested interest in updating it, and keeping it as awesome as possible.


As you can see in the video the machine goes to the part, aligns over top, and picks. Then, aligns again for placement. This gives us very accurate placement of small parts, and low pitch parts. In the video you can kind of see our feeder working. All parts are picked from the same feeder position. The feeder feeds the part into the well, and peels the clear plastic back all automatically.

The unit currently places at about 800 components per hour, has automatic tool changing for different sized parts, has breakthrough computer vision, and robust automatic feeders. Also, the software is very easy to use.

There is still work to be done, so continue to check in, and see the progress of the machine :D

Here is a demo of the UI.

As you can see we have two camera views. From each camera we select an area of interest, and from that area we use the CV to make sure that any offset is corrected. Also, you can import any PCB layout to the "Job Details" area. In our case we used KiCad.

  • 1 × ProtoVoltaics Pick and Place machine add-on for X-Carve
  • 1 × X-Carve
  • 1 × Computer
  • 1 × Monitor
  • 1 × ProtoVoltaics PnP Software
  • 1 × ProtoVoltaics Open Sourse Feeders 1-36 feeders can be used for 500mm PnP unit
  • 3 × USB Camera

  • HAD.com

    ProtoVoltaics • 10/01/2015 at 14:30 • 0 comments

    Brian Benchoff has wrote a small article about our project on HAD.com go check it out!

    http://hackaday.com/2015/09/28/hackaday-prize-semifinalist-cnc-becomes-pick-and-place/

  • Improvements

    ProtoVoltaics • 09/30/2015 at 17:39 • 0 comments

    We are back to work! We have a lot of people interested one of which requires us to prove our worth, and we always like a good challenge! To meet the expectations of the customer we have to add several new features. These new features will include the ability to place double sided boards and to have a "vibrafeed" for parts that come in tube trays.

    We are working on getting this done ASAP! We are also making improvements to the error detection. We will now be able to tell very quickly if we had a part pick up failure.

    Lastly, we are making changes to some areas of our computer vision. When all of this is done we will be able to reduce set up times drastically. Setting up these machines has always been the biggest headache, and we think we have the solution for it.

    Stay tuned as the updates roll through!

  • Back from the Faire!

    ProtoVoltaics • 09/29/2015 at 14:10 • 0 comments

    We had a great time at the World Maker Faire! NYC was so much fun. We met a lot of great people and great makers. One thing that we ran into is that there are a lot of people who want the machine, but aren't able to back KickStarters. We've been reached out to by several academic institutions, small businesses, and large companies that want our PnP, but are not allowed to fund a KickStarter campaign.

    Because we have had so much interest in our machine we will be selling it as a product weather or not the KickStarter gets funded.

    If you have interest in the machine and are unable to pledge toward the KS campaign we ask that you please email us at ryan.riegel@protovoltaics.com

    Thanks!

View all 45 project logs

Enjoy this project?

Share      

Discussions

Oskar Weigl wrote 05/05/2016 at 20:30 • point

Hey! I'm working on a project to develop a really cheap brush-less servo motor controller, that should allow the use of cheap brush-less motors that heavily out-perform steppers. This may be useful if you want speed and/or avoid step-skipping. Check it out ;D

https://hackaday.io/project/11583-odrive-high-performance-motor-control

  Are you sure? yes | no

bruce mellen wrote 08/19/2015 at 01:14 • point

We've been looking for an affordable desktop pnp machine,
just found your project, viewed the videos, and have a couple thoughts.

1) Are you making use of the multiple fiducials on the PCB shown
and/or looking at the target pads to finalize alignment?

2) Your tape feeders are pretty complicated if you want to
fully automate placement of a non-trivial board.  One would have to buy many and each does not
look cheap to make.  Have you, instead,
thought of a simpler single mechanism feeder, such as that used on the CHMT48V,
even though it would slow placement a bit? 
Yes, there is a trade-off between price and speed, but I expect many of
us can't afford more than a few of the feeders prototyped – which is contrary
to your goal of walking away and letting it run.

3) Are you aiming to accurately place things like .4mm pitch
UFDFNs? 0402 and SOD-923? 144LQFP (20x20mm)? 
SMT caps and inductors? Different tape widths?


I look forward to following your progress….

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 08/19/2015 at 13:01 • point

Hello Bruce, Thanks for the comment.

We are only using the fiducials to find where the PCB is in the PnP. We are using our CV to see the target pads to finalize alignment. 

The largest amount of feedback we received was from those who had feeders similar to the CHMT48V, and their complaint was that it was too hard to swap reels out. If they ran out of parts in a reel from the middle of the stack it was a lot of work to replace. Our solution was to make a completely modular system. Just pull the individual feeder unit up and out of the stack and replace reels. The units we have are actually pretty cheap for us to make. We have access to a 4000W laser cutter which we use to cut the frame and gears. I believe the largest cost of the unit is the pancake motor. 

We are aiming to be able to place as many different parts as possible. We haven't tried many types of parts yet. On our current test board we are placing 0603's, 0805 caps, and .65mm pitch parts. We are working on some simple solutions for different tape sizes.

It might be cool to add a "parts placed" list to the details. It will be a while before we get to that though. Still a lot to work on!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Glenn wrote 08/17/2015 at 16:10 • point

Hi Folks how about another update?  Projected Kickstarter date - don't want to miss this one?

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 08/17/2015 at 16:42 • point

Hi, yeah we've got a little behind again. Our goal is to have the KickStarter up during the first week of September. We have a large list of Maker Faires we will be attending soon, so we have been working on getting the machine as awesome as possible before we hit the road. We had planned on starting the kickstarter, and then adding all these small features later, but now it seems everything happening at once. We think this will be beneficial having the kickstarter open while we are at all the Faires. Thanks for the comment we love to hear from the community, I will do a quick update just for you :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Glenn wrote 08/17/2015 at 20:31 • point

Thanks for the update. I am currently sourcing a project for assembly that will produce the funds to enable the purchase of my own PnP machine. So looking forward to hearing more about your machine.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 08/17/2015 at 22:09 • point

Awesome! Hope we can be the solution you are looking for!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Glenn wrote 08/23/2015 at 17:51 • point

is there a list somewhere we can get on so we get notifed when the kickstarter is about to go live?

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 08/23/2015 at 18:55 • point

I will make a post here for sure. We have a mailing list as well if you would like to join that you can send me a private message with your email.

  Are you sure? yes | no

monnoliv wrote 07/23/2015 at 09:12 • point

Very nice project! CV was lacking on all those cheap P&P machines. I saw also that you can change pick head automatically, nice feature. Hope the feeders are not mechanically too complicated. Keep us in touch here for your kickstater campain.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 07/23/2015 at 11:52 • point

Thanks! I will try to post updates as much as possible. Is there any concern you'd have with the feeders being to complicated? Right now they are gear operated, and they look a lot more complicated than they really are. Always looking for advice on how to make them better.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jack Laidlaw wrote 07/13/2015 at 20:46 • point

Cool project, How much has build cost been so far (only if you want to disclose)?

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 07/13/2015 at 21:21 • point

The majority of the project cost has been man hours to build and program. At the moment we are discussing a sale price for the unit. We may publish a BOM in the future.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jack Laidlaw wrote 07/13/2015 at 21:35 • point

Cheers I look forward to seeing the finished product

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 07/13/2015 at 21:54 • point

We are so close. We had a lot of delays in June, but we should be finished with our first units this week!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Viva Penguinos wrote 06/18/2015 at 14:42 • point

Hi, What software do you use to create your GUI?

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 06/18/2015 at 18:36 • point

Viva Penguinos, we are using QT for the GUI.

  Are you sure? yes | no

npupp wrote 04/10/2015 at 14:36 • point

Very nice! Looking forward to the UI video and future updates *watches liek a hawk*

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 04/10/2015 at 15:48 • point

It's been a heck of a day here already. I will get that video up right after lunch, so maybe like an hour. Thanks for the support!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Thinkerer wrote 04/10/2015 at 11:32 • point

Nicely done - if you find that you're getting vacuum pump failures from too many start/stop cycles you could go to a constant-on w/solenoid & muffled bleed port arrangement.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 04/10/2015 at 11:43 • point

Thanks for the tip! We haven't run it enough at this point to have any problems with the vacuum. We will for sure try to break it in the future. If it doesn't hold up we will try something like this out, and honestly the pump itself isn't all that loud.

  Are you sure? yes | no

hebel23 wrote 04/09/2015 at 18:03 • point

Nice project! Excited to see the next steps...

  Are you sure? yes | no

ProtoVoltaics wrote 04/09/2015 at 19:49 • point

Glad to see interest so soon after posting! We will be posting a video of the UI soon. Boards for the next version of our tape feeder are in, and we will be putting the finishing touches on that. The feeders are listed as a different project on here if you'd like to check them out. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Similar Projects

15.3k 39 274 155
Yes, it is what you think it is! Supplyframe & Hackaday are opening an awesome space in Pasadena, CA!
Project Owner Contributor

Supplyframe Design Lab

by Sophi Kravitz

12.8k 2 614 64
LitePlacer is a Pick and Place machine optimized for prototype assembly. It has optical calibration with two cameras: www.liteplacer.com
Project Owner Contributor

LitePlacer - a low cost Pick and Place machine

by Juha Kuusama

2.8k 0 65 11
We are trying to make cost viable feeders for OpenPnP Machines.
Project Owner Contributor

Automatic Pick and Place Feeders

by ProtoVoltaics

Yes, delete it Cancel

Report project as inappropriate

You are about to report the project "Pick and Place Machine", please tell us the reason.

Send message

Your application has been submitted.

Remove Contributor

Are you sure you want to remove yourself as a contributor for this project?

Project owner will be notified upon removal.