Electronics assembly pick and place machine (Multitronics 2000LX)

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This article is about a tool that is no longer at Protospace. Further information can be found below.

• Type: Pick & Place
• Make/Model: Multitronics 2000LX
• Serial Number: ??
• Original Owner: Solarbotics
• Removed by: Protospace
• Removal Reason: nobody ever used it
• Loan Status: Donated to Protospace
• Arrival Date: Pre 2013
• Removal Date: 2014-07-23
• Replacements: None. Probably never will be any; this machine's lack of use inspired a moratorium on pick and place machines at Protospace.
• Location: Main Bay
• Functional Status: Working
• Usage Permissions: Open to Members & Friends
• Certification: Training required
• Wiki-ID: [[{{{id}}}]]

Specs

• Computer is 486DX2, 4MB RAM, 512MB IDE(?) harddrive.

Notes

• Picks SMT electronic components off of rails and places them on circuitboards automatically.
• Used when populating medium to large quantities of identical circuits
• Boots & Moves and was working when donated, but is complicated and has not yet been used by Protospace.
• Is somewhat tedious to program, best for large production runs
• Is old, probably not accurate for smallest modern form factor surface mount components

History

• 04Mar2013 - Jeremie, Mark, Colin, Dan D, Danny repair broken air intake, Compressor_(White) was repaired and works well. Circuithacker has built a compressor for it. Air drier installed. Replaced CRT with large LCD. Diagnosed & labelled all feeders.
• ??Apr2013 - Robb donated larger security TV to replace miniature CRT.
• 15Aug2013 - John Jardine & Mike Hermann sponsored the device. See Sponsorship Project Status

Sponsorship Project Status

Leads: John Jardine & Mike Hermann

Pitch: Made to members on 20Aug2013 during irregular Tuesday meeting. No objections.

Goals:

1. Have an operational Pick and Place by 19Nov2013
2. Have at least one project ready to be fab'd by the machine

Status:

1. Not started. Expected completion on/before 19Nov2013
2. Work In Progress, Expected completion on/before Sept 10

Sponsorship Project weekly updates

• 20Aug2013 - 90 Days of oxygen requested, no objections from membership. This time is to be used to define what needs to occur to get the machine up and running, ready for use and to make those repairs/enhancements.
• 20Aug2013 - Goal(2):John Jardine is actively working on board as a project for the Pick and Place. Design should complete this week (by Friday 23AUG2013) with PCBs and parts being ordered immediately. These will be left at PS during his extended absence waiting for the Pick and Place to become operational.
• 23Jul2014 - Pick and Place has been sold. Removed this project from "Ongoing Projects" category.

Repair Notes

• Drops components from 1cm away. Unsure if by purpose or fault. Not tested with solder pasted components, loose components bounce off target.
• Requires extra nozzles for different parts types
• Requires drive backup
• Might require new DIN-style keyboard