DIY SMT Pick and Place machine

Thread Starter

Kevil

Joined Jun 28, 2020
179
I'm thinking of making a DIY SMT Pick and Place machine for small home projects. What hardware and camera would you recommend for image processing. TinyML?

The goal is to make an XY-table with a camera and a vacuum pickup and place tool. The small SMT parts in the 0201 package will be placed in the corner of the XY table on a piece of anti-static plastic in numbered rectangles written in marker, which should allow the camera to pick up the correct part lying in any position but with the correct side up (and possibly recognize a Pin 1 on the part) and place it in the correct place on the PCB using the PnP file.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,708
Whoa! Have you checked the price of a commercial machine?
Pick and Place machine for small home projects? That's not going to happen.
How many boards do you plan on assembling?

I can do it by hand a lot quicker and cheaper.

Now, a DIY CNC machine would be a lot more useful and that I have done.
 

ag-123

Joined Apr 28, 2017
276
I hardly do SMT and still use a pincer, still struggling with soldering. I think I'd try solder paste and hot air, that seemed a lot easier but is pricy.
 

Jon Chandler

Joined Jun 12, 2008
1,029
Picking up loose parts is an ingenious idea – it eliminates the costly mechanical feeders. Setting up the parts for assembly would be a bit tedious.
 

kramzar

Joined Mar 7, 2022
35
It highly depends on what type of "projects" you will want to do and the quantity. But generaly pick and place machines are not something that is cheap or even worth it to DIY. The cheapest machines you will find are something like this, but these are usualy not very good and require a lot of work and have nvery few reels for components.
They are still very expensive for an individual.

Here is some better options if you need PCBs done:
for 1-10 PCBs: just solder yourself or pay/get someone to hand solder for you
for 1-1000 PCBs: generate a pick&place file and pay PCB manufecturers to do the assembly for you (JLCPCB is great for this). You will probably need to adapt your design to their limitations, but the assembly services are so cheap that it really doesnt make sense to bother yourself half the time, especialy if you have a lot of resisotrs/caps on your board.

for 1000-10k PCBs: find a local electronics assembly company that offers PCB assembly. These services are usualy quite a bit more expensive then the above options but still usualy far cheaper then to get your own pick&place setup.

Final, if you have serious volume production where you need a lot of a single PCB every year, you might consider geting a pick&place machine and the other relavant tools. This will usualy cost at least 5k+ $ or far higher.

so TLDR, pcik and place machines are not really worth it for hobby projects. just pay someone else to do the assembly.
 
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