https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1849283018/makerarm-the-first-robotic-arm-that-makes-anything?ref=category_featured pretty cool
pick & place... but it seems to be missing an R axis.
You could include rotate with the vacuum head attatchment as there's no load to speak of.
Seems potentially useful for some things but useable pick & place is stretching things somewhat.
'Jack of all trades, master of none' springs to mind.
Accuracy & load figures seem rather optimistic. - 1 thou repeatability with 1 kilo payload.
Yeah I doubt SMT pick and place would be its strong point, but some of the other uses looked interesting.
Before I purchased my RV1S, I was considering building a machine myself as XY frames are quite cheap, however the only thing that stopped me was the general complexity of automatic feeders. That alone seemed like a too big of a time investment not considering the software alone. Yeah it should be possible to do pick and place from passive feeders, but looking after them would be too much of a pain. Effectively buying a used proper pick and place machine seemed to be the best investment I've ever made so far.
Makerarm seems like a nice toy. At least they have reasonable shipping estimates. Looks like a toy that is supposed to do everything, but the question remains if it's going to do at least one thing properly :-)
Quote from: arvydas on November 20, 2015, 11:45:16 AM
however the only thing that stopped me was the general complexity of automatic feeders.
Which would be why when buying a new system you'll be spending 50% or more of your budget on Feeders and why all the cheap nasty solutions coming out of China have rubbish feeding solutions. Not that there's much excuse for some of the feeder prices typically found in the market. A twin 8mm "gun feeder" as used on so many designs seems to be £1500-2k and the banked feeder lanes such as those found on MyData, Europlacer and Essemtec 'CLM' still work out over £500/lane, not that they make it easy for you to establish their true cost seperate from an entire system.