I noticed a few people mentioned the SmallSMT machine. They are a evolving rebrand of a machine made by Yushengtech in China. In any case, Yushengtech / HotHotSMT / SmallSMT are the same company / people.
A new individual has come on board, his name is Michael, and he is a very intelligent individual. However the machine maker he works with are not so reputable.
I bought the Yushengtech branded machine via HotHotSMT and got a decent mechanical machine. It definately needed some mechanical / software calibration, but after a few hours, I got things moving pretty accurately. When I had questions regarding setup, I was asked to contact Michael at SmallSMT for support.
The software / controller for the machine was to be a version of OurSMT (
www.oursmt.com). Yushengtech / HotHotSMT promised free software updates both in their advertising and sales process.
Now for the problems....
First problem was nozzles. I ordered and paid for three full sets of nozzles for the machine. When I received the machine, only one set was included. I emailed the sales person (Sunny) and told her that the nozzles were missing. I was promptly told that they would not send me the nozzles unless I ordered other spare parts and paid the shipping. It wasn't about the cost of the nozzles or the shipping. It is the principle that they sold them to me, forgot to send them, and then wouldn't admit fault, and send me the nozzles and eat the shipping.
Then the real problems started. The camera switching board would not switch camera channels. The machine uses two composite video cameras for top and bottom vision. The board uses a couple of relays to switch the video feed to the USB video capture card connected to the PC. Once again, the manufacturer would not send a new video switching card unless I sent the old one back, and paid shipping for both the return and the new pieces. Anyhow, I disconnected the board and removed it from the machine. It was a combination of through hole and smd components. Everything was hand soldered using an iron, flux everywhere, and the solder joints were three times the height of the smd components themselves. Turns out there were some (2) cold joints on the board, and they melted the side of one of the relays with the iron. I ended up fixing myself with a new relay, and some fresh solder work. But in any case, bad customer service.
Next came the software. Under ideal lighting conditions, I could get the fidicual recognition to work 50% of the time. 805 resistor and cap bottom vision worked about 90% of the time, but other components were hit or miss. I hoped that a software update would fix some of the problems as the version supplied with the machine was a few revisions old from what was advertised by the software maker.
This is when shit hit the fan. The software update feature always indicated the software was current. So I contacted the sales rep (Sunny) and she did not return my emails regarding software. So I contacted the software manufacturer. After a instant message conversation with the sales person at OurSMT, I was clearly told that they would not update any software supplied by Yushengtech, but was not told why. After about an hour of asking questions, I was finally told that Yushengtech bought a single copy of the software, hacked / copied the protection dongle and shipped pirated versions to clients. The only way I would get updates was if I bought a new copy of the software for $800USD.
In any case, I would not buy from them. I complained to Michael, and he knew of the software issues. He did offer a big discount if I purchased a new upgraded machine with their new in-house software. This was appreciated, however, the new machine was more than the machine I allready paid for, even with the discount. I did not trust the manufacturer anymore at this point, so I declined.
I am 90% complete at converting the machine to OpenPNP.org software. I am losing bottom vision for the time being, as it is in development at the moment, but everything else works better than before, and at least if there is an issue / bug, I can edit the code. Also, the lead developer of openPNP (Jason) is fantastic.
Anyhow, that is my $0.02 worth regarding this specific PNP. Take from it what you will.
I do have high hopes for the Neoden. I really wish they made the software better. At the moment, it looks pretty basic, and honestly, they should not release a machine with half baked software. But if they can get the bugs out, I hope they do well, because the mechanical product itself looks really good.