Several of the components oriented hackers among us will most likely have been next along with the story of [Stephen Hawes] and the Lumen decide-and-location challenge but sort of waiting around a little bit for the project to experienced some a lot more in advance of perhaps using the plunge and purchasing a kit. A person cause for this may be that even though the fundamental device style is there and doing work, the tape feeders did need to have a truthful little bit of work, and a lack of usable feeders does not make a wonderful PnP device. [Stephen] has been working on a newer style that addresses some of the identified shortcomings, and has begun documenting his progress (video, embedded down below) alongside the way.
Long gone is the PCB-primarily based ‘case’, reverting back to a 3D printable affair and a a great deal scaled-down PCB. Immediately after flip-flopping a bit in between diverse geared DC motors, [Stephen] settled again on the initial, more compact unit, which immediately after a wee spot of hacking, was certain to accept an optical encoder stripped from a further device, and this proved that it was indeed extra than up to the tape-progression duty. The reason for this alter was actual physical dimension — the initial motor resulted in an assembly 38mm extensive — this confined the quantity for feeders on the entrance rail to barely eleven models. This is not seriously more than enough, but with the narrower assembly, the width is lowered to 15.5mm permitting 27 feeders to snuggle with each other on the rail, and that need to make the equipment substantially additional usable.
A further location of issue was the cover tape peeler. It is significant that as the tape developments, for each individual finding
Just one closing region for worry was that the mounting strategy of the feeder device onto the front rail (which seems like a length of 2020 extrusion) was a little bit wobbly, permitting motion in a few instructions, and that is not fantastic for repeatable buying, even with the great OpenPNP eyesight process dialling it in as ideal it can. The redesigned enclosure is shaped to the rail profile, letting it to fit tighter and is retained beneath stress with a replaceable 3D printed flexure. A fast ‘snap’ and it now locks in put under rigidity and the wobble is record.
We have clearly protected the LumenPnP just lately, and here, a very little before and we’re not likely to conclude the tale just but. The device is now starting up to glimpse a great deal extra practical for those people of us who do a lot of PCB assembly operates in modest amount, and we’ll absolutely sure be watching development closely in the coming months!
Many thanks to [Abe] for the tip!
