{"id":2882,"date":"2019-04-06T14:41:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T21:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalnigel.com\/wordpress\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2019-06-07T15:04:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T22:04:21","slug":"liteplacer-pick-and-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalnigel.com\/wordpress\/?p=2882","title":{"rendered":"LitePlacer Pick and Place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I end up doing a number of PCB designs for various projects. Most are small one offs that aren’t a huge problem to assemble by hand, but there are instances where I have multiple to build, or large boards with hundreds of components. In these cases it can take a number of hours of tedious, exacting, labor to place all the parts. Especially in the case of needing multiple, I found myself putting off the work and letting those projects languish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of that, I decided to purchase an open source prototyping pick and place machine, specifically the LitePlacer<\/a>. This machine comes as a kit, and after assembly and calibration, can place components on boards automatically. It’s not as fast as a professional production pick and place machine, but it also doesn’t cost a million dollars and I can set it up and let it run while I work on other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found the kit instructions quite good, and quickly had the mechanical build completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Next was the electrical build which included wiring up all the motors, switches, and other bits to the control board. Then would be calibration and testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n