Hi Cathy,
Please find below the 'list' Elmood referred to in response to your post last week.
As he pointed out, only the first 2 items are mentioned in YOUR list - it seems none of the others are noted anywhere.
Given Neoden's forecast of approx just 1 item/task per month, it becomes a serious concern that it may take a very long time to address these issues. Note that this list is also NOT comprehensive but, without reasonable feedback and response times, its value is open to question.
Cathy, can you please provide us with the confidence we're all seeking; that Neoden is serious about delivering a solid, bug-free product and responds in a timely manner to its Users' concerns?
Thanks - Peter
1. Vibration feeders can't be started in a job
If you forget to turn on the vibration motor in the manual screen the job will run and then fail to load tube parts. It should be a job option: "use vibration feeder"
2. Pick test turns pump on and can't turn it off
It should either put the part back in the feeder or throw it away in the trash box properly. The "Pick test" button should be a toggle button instead of a latching type.3. Impossible to force a ‘single part only’ for machine vision and placementIf there are multiple parts in the chip list that use different nozzles the machine will load each nozzle before imaging / placing. In the case of large parts it might be desirable to only pick up one part and then place it to minimize the chance of it falling off or imaging incorrectly. This is not possible unless the chiplist is organized carefully to prevent multiple nozzles from being used sequentially. There should be a "block" command to insert into the chiplist to place all parts currently on the head and then start over with empty nozzles.
4. Imaging does not work correctly using Large Component vision settingThere is no documentation as to how big a "Large Component" is. (and Neoden didn't tell me either) It takes multiple images and stitches them together somehow, but if there are other nozzles in use (see above) it gets the incorrect centre / rotation for the part.
5. Parts outside placement area are not detected until part-way through a jobIf you start a job and a chip must be placed outside the mechanical limits of the machine, this is not flagged until the part is placed. It should be simple to scan the chiplist at start of a job and warn of parts that might be outside the area. This is mostly a job setup problem where the board was not advanced into the machine enough before the PCB position was set.
6. Recommended nozzle sizes from Neoden seem wrongFor QFP and larger ICs the larger nozzles have trouble getting enough suction. Better results were found with the next smaller nozzle size than what is recommended. The small (XN07) nozzles work well for 0805, 0603, SOT23, etc. tiny parts. There is an even smaller nozzle option (XN03) that is not included in the standard package.
7. Feeder ID settings are frustratingIt appears (not confirmed) that there is probably an I2c bus controlling the "feed box" components of the feeders. They must be uniquely assigned... extra feeders purchased come with ID 50 so they can be reassigned... but you can only plug in one at time. It would be better if the hardware port determined the ID, since the "peel box" is addressed this way. Seems like a bad hack that should have been a bit better thought out. Not a huge deal if you plan to leave your system set up in a default configuration.
8. Button “to curr p”The button "to curr p" (cannot be completely read on the button text) on the file edit screen is used to recalculate all of the part locations and rotation based on the PCB mark settings. When doing this, the rotation of each part is calculated incorrectly, it seems to keep adding additional rotation each time the "to curr p" button is pressed.
Dear all,
Good day!
I'm Cathy, International Service Support Coordinator of NeoDen Tech., I'd like to thank you all for your kind attention and sincere suggestion regarding our NeoDen 4 Pick and Place machine.
We understand all the concerns of the machine users and our Team is continuously on the job, at this point, we would like to inform all our esteemed and prospective customers that , we are hereby putting a data related to our software development stages from the date of release of the first batch of machines from our factory ,Hope from the attached snapshot, one can understand that the way which we are addressing the issues.
We are committed to update each and every machine on the field with the latest update free of cost. We request our existing users of NeoDen 4 machines to be in touch with us for the new release update to get updated on your machine.