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We have 5 blue and 5 grey feeder blocks from our 2 x QPlacer machines which we have now upgraded to Siemens Siplace feeders. There's also a load of spare parts, PSU, belts, wheels, etc.etc.

They are at our office in Silverstone, but can be shipped.

We were thing £100 per unit, or we can do a bulk price if you want more.

Please let us know if anyone is interested.

We have managed to make Siplace S series feeders work with QPlacer - just needed a command translator from RV4 protocol to Siemens.
https://www.leobodnar.com/qplacer/Siplace%20feeders%20with%20QPlacer.mov
Leo

I had a good look into the software operation and hardware interaction.
The boxes are serving as a multiplex and translator for the commands set by the PC software to separate axis controllers.
Boxes have both motor drives and about 20 Philips micro controllers that serve as endpoint clients in a sort of custom control bus arrangement.
We'll be happy to take whatever is left of it.
Leo

Thanks a lot for the offer sixexe - we definitely want to get in touch and share the [non]working knowledge. Could you please emeail me at leo@leobodnar.com to establish direct line of contact?

We have a few things on the go:

• replacing nozzle tips with Juki 5xx series ones
• swapping the cameras for tiny SONYs
• integrating Siplace S series feeders

Our QPlace has nice mechanical construction with solid motion base but is let down by unreliable feeders, vision and software quirks

Leo

Here is what I have done for QPlacer nozzles. They are of some weird design (possibly prototypes) with metal body and plastic tip that quickly becomes dull — especially on Tool 1 since it is used for height measurements.

I took a Juki 502, removed central spring-loaded tip, shortened it and 3D-printed a shell that the tip slides into. This has become a replacement of the original QPlacer nozzle.

Leo

We had to do quite a few repair jobs, e.g. one side of the conveyor clamp mechanism was broken.
I have also redesigned the moving head PCB to get brighter lighting and tidy up the original desgn (that looks more like a prototype). Small component (right) camera illuminator is running so hot you can see smoke streaming from it when it's on for more than 10-20 seconds.

We have not assembled a single PCB with it yet. Still trying to comprehend how dozens of different correction and adjustment axes and machine parameters work together.

What we have found is that it's a no go area for anything metric. Step and repeat truncates your board step value to integer mm before converting to mils. So if your board is 20.4mm tall and you have 10 of them stacked up you will end up with 4mm component offset on the last board.

Leo

I have a lot of pictures but they are mostly of details while I was working on repairs or servicing local parts. Let me know what you are interested in.

I had a look at the code of the original feeder driver and I can see the commands in the form of 0x66 0x02 0x4y 0xkk,
where kk is a lane number plus 10 (i.e. 10 to 19) decimal.

It seems to have much longer delay before withdrawing the pin after tape advance.

Is this supposed to help not disturbing the tape until after pickup head took the component off?

Leo

Hokay... here goes.

Comms to the feeders is one way. PC talks to the first feeder its connected to, which then resends the data it received on to the next feeder. This isn't ideal as it adds a lag (albeit very small) and means that if that feeder is turned off or fails it then blocks data to the feeders down stream.

From my notes, baud rate is 9600, N-8-1.

To request an index, PC sends 0x66, 0x02, 0x4y, 0x0z.

Where y defines the feeder bank address: bank A = 1, B = 2...  ...H = 8.

And z defines the lane address as follows:
0 = Lane 0
1 = Lane 8
2 = Lane 7
3 = Lane 6
4 = Lane 4
5 = Lane 3
6 = Lane 2
7 = Lane 1
8 = Lane 9
9 = Lane 5

Can't explain the somewhat random relationship of lane addresses - like many things with the RV you just accept that's how it is!

Any data received by the feeder while its in the middle of actioning an index is ignored (very helpful) which means it can then get out of sync and end up discarding the next index command too. Ever clicked the index button too quickly when loading tapes and wondered why you have to click it 3 times for it to index? Thats why.

I don't know what RV4 head looks like but I have been looking at replacing QPlacer head PCB and the connectors were really poorly made. IDC crimp did not cut through the wire insulation in 3 out of 4 places. In fact it popped out while I was handling it.

The choice of using IDC connectors for high dynamics moving machinery is surprising.
Leo

Before rewiring I'd try changing all the connectors in the path to that motor - IMO a connector is a more likely issue than a wire.

Here are some training videos I have managed to convert from Genesis installation package.
They only cover BOM and Gerber import and matching components to Gerbers.
Sadly, further operations (PCB references, Step and repeat, Feeders assignment, PNP Setup, Placement, Inspection) are not covered in any help materials I could find.

Leo

Converting BOM
CAD file Programming
Loading Gerbers 1
Loading Gerbers 2
Tracks To Pads
Gerber Placement
CAD Placement
Creating Package Type

I am looking for any help, advice, dcumentation or hints on how to operate a QPlacer.

I have just reassembled a machine that we bought after it has developed an unknown fault. I have never seen it in operation and the owner can't give me much advice either. This is going to be quite an adventure.

From what I have learnt it uses the same or very similar feeders as RV series.
Software is called Genesis and runs on Windows XP. Its help system is only 20% finished - it only has help on importing BOMs and Gerbers but all the feedres allocation, machine setup and operation help chapters are empty.
Video capture is via PCI card PXC200AL-00.
Machine control is via a single RS232 link.
Many files in the Genesis package refer to QPlacer as "RV5".

Here are the links to Genesis v1.08 and PXC installation packages I have found on the PC it came with:
https://leobodnar.com/qplacer/Genesis-1.08.zip
https://leobodnar.com/qplacer/PXC.zip

Does anybody use it? Does anybody have any info on it?

Cheers
Leo