It's real swiss concrete. getting it of the truck and off the pallet we needed to hire some one with a forklift.
The box it came in now makes a great playhouse for my daughters
It's funny that you need 1000kg to place a 01005 resistor.
The installation was quick. After the connection and calibration we got our first board made the same day. I played around with the software before. The new software is great and it uses a touch screen. Thats why i got the machine, the touch screen. i have a ipad so....
Programming a board on a p&p machine is simple. There are a few steps.
- adjust or make your own component packages. this differs between machines. Our previous machine used laser alignment for most components and bottom vision for fine pitch. the new machine only uses bottom vision, but a faster one. for bottom vision you might end up with different light profiles for different packages.
- next make a library of the components that you have. a component is a combination of
- package
- value
- supply type (tape/stick/tray)
- then you make an adjustment file. this file tells the software how to read you cad's program pick and place file. (pick and place file is normally a list of component values/xy coordinates/rotation and package. next you might need to match the cad's library to to machines library. for example the rotation of the cad software library might be offset by 90 degrees or the cad/package values might have a different name.
ones you have this that it is as simple as selecting a cad's pick and place file and the adjustment file. set the board size and select what fiducials to use. this normally takes 5 miniutes.
if you use a subconcrator to manufacture you stuff than he needs to make the adjustment file for each custommer and load/program the machine every time. this is why it is expencive for small runs.
This is the reason we jump in to the smd production for our own. we run batches ranging from 100 boards down to 6 or even a single prototype. we have many board with placement options that can be selected at the last moment.