smd pick 'n place jig

[nemestra]

Originally posted by rfbrw



Not for $50 earth dollars. The fundamentals remain the same irrespective of the target market. The bed holding the pcb or the placement arm still has to be move with the same degree of accuracy. The control logic, the actuators and sensors will be no different from a commercial variant. You couldn't get the metalwork for $50.

This may not require control logic, actuators or sensors. I've used manual pick and place machines similar to

http://www.smt.uk.com/pages/smt/HPS350.html

in the past. The one I used had a circular rotating tray with small wedge bins to hold each type of component. A standalone vacuum pump was connected to a syringe mounted in the x-y movable head and a z-axis switch triggered vacuum pump.

Simple but very effective. I'm sure it could be built by someone for much less than the retail price. Aluminium extrusions are available from several UK suppliers. Add some plastic wheels etc. and you're done. But not possible at $50 unless you already have a lot of bits already sitting around.

James

[Stocker]

hey I have one of those vacuum pens on my desk right now! works great.

The term you may want to try is vacuum ejector. You give it air, it gives you a little vacuum, to pick up parts with robots this is a common device. Much simpler to distribute air than vacuum in a factory.

[johnthedoctor]

If nothing else, I've learned that vacuum pick up tools are available for the hobby market.

Perhaps I should have asked what could we get made for $50? With a group buy we'd be sharing the set up costs. Placement of the pcb can be done manually, so can taking the component out of its packaging. It's the problem of keeping it in place while needing 2 hands to solder I want to solve.

[AndrewT]

Hi,
Don't have a sketch but I'll try to describe a simple tool.

A piece of board 6mm to 10mm thick to lay your PCB on top of.

The underside of the board has a narrow groove sawn in it, about 1mm to 2mm deep.

A hard steel wire 200mm long by about 0.6mm to 1mm diam, bent into a long hair pin shape about 4mm wider (between the legs) than the board thickness. This steel needs to be quite springy not soft. We are going to use it to "grip" the smd component.

One end (about 2mm) of the hairpin is bent over at 90 degrees.

Adjust the hairpin width so that the straight leg lies in the groove and the bent end rests (presses firmly) on top of the board.

Lift the bent end upwards and slide your pcb under and place your component in place directly below the bent end. Gently let the bent end descend to hold the component in place.

Now solder.

This not original, I found a sketch on a web site many years ago, so cannot give credit to the inventor.