Well, it is all coming together, VERY slowly. I bought a Quad QSA-30A pick and place machine, made by Samsung.
It is about a 2000 vintage, I had some misgivings on getting such an old machine. But, my Philips CSM84 that I started with is now 25 years old and solid as a rock. I have only had one electronic problem the entire time I've had it (13 years) which was a conveyor sensor that went flaky and then died.
So, I thought I should have similar luck with the Quad. The machine has been hacked over by monkeys, and I'm giving our simian cousins a bad rap there. The feeder power supplies have been blown out and replaced twice, leaving the old supplies in place and wired around, now using a combination of used PC power supplies. One of the placement heads was replaced with one from a similar machine, but the rotation motor was not compatible. In working on that, somebody took the ball spline out and lost about 30 balls! I had to mike the balls and order some more and try to reload the spline -- VERY tricky and tedious. I ordered a motor from China and put it in, and now that works. Now, the fiducial camera had partially failed, it will not sync to the external sync supplied by the vision system. it worked 3 weeks ago. The main interface board between the VME computer and PC went bad a week after I got it, and I spent a week trying to diagnose, and then finally ordered a replacement from Korea. That never came, so I had to order another. That came quickly and the machine comes "ready" again, so I can continue fixing stuff.
Oh, yeah, I got the machine for $500 plus buyer's premium, I was the only bidder. After very careful inspection of the auction pictures, I bought what appeared to be the newest and most complete machine they had. I can't imagine what shape the others were in!
Jon