Liteplacer PnP Machine Notes

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We bought a liteplacer kit from http://www.liteplacer.com/

Here are some observations and minor improvements we cam up with here and there:

1 Eagle Component Export ULPs

To export component locations/orientation, etc from Eagle to liteplacer we modified the existing ULP a bit to also support the bottom PCB components: File:Liteplacer eagle ulp.zip

2 Bottom Vision Settings

Liteplacer originally used thin needles to pick up parts which bend quite easily. The software is designed to measure this bend offset and automatically correct it. The liteplacer kit switched to using Samsung nozzles this summer which almost completely solves the offset issue. The software is still able to calibrate the nozzle tip offset for even more accurate placements though (fractions of a millimeter) but the documentation is a bit sparse. So we help change that :)

The first issue to solve is the cameras autobrightness behaviour is always too bright: the nozzle is black, the nozzle shade is black, the camera turns up brightness too far.

We solved this issue by placing white sticky labels onto the table covering the bottom vision cameras view partly (of course you leave the center area free for the nozzle). The white area in the cameras view gets it to tune down brightness so it can actually see the nozzle properly:

Bottom-camera-tape.jpg

Nozzle-calibration-01.jpg

Vision parameters for the smallest nozzle with 0.225mm hole radius:

Nozzle-calibration-04.jpg

3 Grounding the machine

The official liteplacer assembly guide does not go into much detail when it comes to ESD and grounding the liteplacer machine parts: http://www.liteplacer.com/select-a-table/ There are sliding parts moving on rubber wheels so ESD needs to be dealt with.

We came up with a way of connecting together and grounding all metal parts of the liteplacer with 4mm cable eyelets.

When selecting which screws to use the eyelets with consider that aluminum is only conductive if the screw cuts directly into the metal. First we considered drilling additional holes and cutting threads but ended up finding existing screws in all required locations. Please note that you normally choose green/yellow cables for grounding but our favorite hardware store had only brown ones at the time of purchasing these.

Grounding01.jpg

Grounding02.jpg

Grounding03.jpg

Grounding04.jpg