Electronics assembly pick and place machine (Multitronics 2000LX)

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

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

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

Leads: John Jardine & Mike Hermann

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

Goals:

Status:

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.

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