Programming Pick Place Operations

This page is not up to date?

Pick Place machine requires control software which can be programmed per PCB / PCB array.  We will accomplish this by:

  • Into a MS Excel spreadsheet workbook
    • Put all our (usually) fixed x y z offsets
      • Worksheet 'Heads' Head name & offsets (X, Y from camera, Z for Place operation)
      • Worksheet 'Feeders' Feeder name & offsets (X, Y from feeder origin, Z individually for each head pick operation, also increments between sequential parts for each feeder
    • Each PCB Pick Place table (exported from our PCB CAD application) will be added as its own worksheet
      • Each PCB Pick Place table has additional columns added some including appropriate VLOOKUPs to the head and feeder offsets (head and feeder per each component as entered below)
      • Each PCB Pick Place table is manually edited per component to identify the feeder for the SMT components
      • Each PCB Pick Place table is manually edited per component to correct the feeder for the SMT components (Ie some non polarised components are 180 and some are 0 make all 0 or 180)
      • Each PCB Pick Place table is manually edited per component to identify the sequence & head to be used for pick place that component
      • All offsets are calculated as columns alongside each component (as opposed to generated directly by the VB macro below) as this makes trouble shooting of incorrect calculations much easier
    • Populate the PCB array for each PCB
      • Worksheet 'PCB Array' has an entry per PCB defining the number of individual PCBS to be pick placed in teh currrent run.
  • A VB Macro is run over the PCB worksheet to generate Mach 3 compatible G-Code for doing tha actual job.
    • Includes a pause after each completed rotation ready for the PCB's to be manually rotated to the next rotation.