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Feel free to ask - use the SW/HW sections. Your questions and the answers will be useful to others!
You will find the first few jobs frustrating to set up, but it gets easier once you get the hang of things.
A big pain is making sure the orientation of parts in your library matches the 'natural' orientation of the machine (0 degrees is with index towards you in RHS feeders), and the rotate directions are the same (e.g. PCAD2006 rotations in P&P report are antioclockwise).
This is a particular pain for previous jobs that have old library defs - I've now got into the habit of changing libarary parts as I go for new designs, and combined with my export utility, the most tedious part is now threading tapes into feeders.
Hint - get some 4mm wide double-sided sticky tape from ebay!

That's interesting - I've not yet got around to looking at the feeder protocol ( I was consideriing making a little iinline box to allow manual indexing and translating indexes to doubles etc.)  - have you confiirmed that the OTF/no-camera issue is definitely due to this?

The too-close-to-feeder one is pretty obviously a time issue.

Any particular reason for doing a whole new board instead of just redoing the firmware for the existing one?
Why use an onboard converter instead of something like a MAX232?

True - Eurocircuits charge by area, but you cannot buy stencils alone, only with PCBs

Not true - you can do stencil-only orders, the link only appears once you log in so it may not be immediately obvious. No stated limit on pads. They are more expensive than PCB-Pool when you are below the 1k pad limit

However, their stencils are not very flat, when PCB-pool's ones are much better.

not had a problem with the two I've had from them so far.

Another possibility is to get a one-off PCB from PCB-pool PCB service and take the free stencil. Get the PCB with the most basic spec (no masks, no silk etc) and it can be pretty cheap. I did this with an LED board that was then panelised and had a total of about 2000 apertures in the stencil.... and it was free!

Must look at that route next time!

Incidentally, I just found MultiPCB who also do a stencil service which looks pretty cheap : 
300mmx200mm incl. 1000 pads: €47,50
300mmx200mm incl. 2000 pads: €60,19
300mmx300mm incl. 2000 pads: €68,06
300mmx300mm incl. 2000 pads: €68,06
600mmx300mm incl. 2500 pads: €85,13
600mmx600mm incl. 2500 pads: €90,44
3-4WD standard, 2WD+80%, 1WD+120%

Pity about the 1000 pad limit though.
Especially as it can be quite hard to automatically count the pads in a gerber file....
ISTR last time I looked that it gets quite expensive for more pads & Eurocircuits worked out cheaper

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Versatronics-RV4s-Pick-and-Place-/160478908846?pt=UK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes&hash=item255d49d1ae

not my listing - just spotted it.

Certainly sounds like the Z axis slippiing - as it happens so infrequently it seems unlikely to be a dodgy motor or  a mechanical problem - wiring or connections seem most likely to fail due to flexing and vibration over a long period.

On the basis of likelihood and ease of repair, I'd be inclined to check or just replace the connectors on the vertical axis stepper. At least try repeatedly running the head up & down while pulliing & flexing the wiring wherever you can get at it. Check it all the way from the motor, right back to the control box, and then back  to the PC.   

I'm told that some older units with toridal transformers instead of switchmode PSUs can have occasional problems, especially at low line voltages.

Passive and matrix trays are a PITA to set  up as you have to copy the part to each location in the feeder (someone correct me if I've missed something..!).
A tray-full of a few hundred 4x4mm QFNs is a major undertaking.....
I've hacked up a utility to automate the copying of a part across all lanes of a feeder. Only briefly tested so far so use with caution!
Instructions are shown onscreen.

Executable only This is all you need if you already have VB6 support files (e.g. from a previous setup of a VB6 application)

Full setup package. This includes all the VB6 overhead stuff.

VB6 source files

Observation on feeder files :
RVB Setup creates a .DBG file associated with each .fdr feeder file. I think this is just debug information, and appears to be an expansion of the information in the FDR file, plus the feeder type data in the sys\rvfeed.sys file.
sys\rvfeed.sys contains the feeder type definitions, including pitch etc.

A while ago I knocked up a utility to create a TFR file from the pick & place report from PCAD2006.
It sets up all the part locations and rotations, and generates ref points automatically.
Once parts are in the CDF, it allows you to go straight from the PCAD2006 pick/place report to a TFR file ready to load into RV Setup.

Issues :
Can be slow with larger designs when running networked. This is because for each part, it searches the CDF for a match which is inefficent over a network. At some point I'll update this to make a local copy of the CDF to speed things up.

I've not yet investigated exactly how much of the stuff in the TFR file is actually necessary. I just copied what RV Gerber did. For example I don't know if its actually necessary to copy all the CDF data in to the TFR file. 

The default paths are nailed into the source, but can be changed at run-time, and assume a networked drive P:

Minimal comments I'm afraid but might be useful as a basis to others wanting to streamline their setup process.

Files :

Full setup package. Includes VB6 support DLLs etc. Once installed once, updates just need the .exe replacing

VB6 source project and executable Executable will run if you already have VB6 support DLLs installed

Sample PCAD2006 Pick/Place input file

Older type feeders from RV1 (?and RV placer?) need a mod to work with the RV1s and RV4s.
The older feeders need a +/-12V supply for their RS232 driver. A small DC/DC converter to supply This can either be added to the main RV control box to supply all feeders, or to individual feeders. The former option needs a converter capable of supplying enough current to run as many old type feedes as are likely to be connected - I've not measured the current draw, but 20mA per feeder should be fine based on the sn75188 datasheet.

To mod a single feeder :
Get a small +5 to +/-12V DC/DC converter. Original feeders use a Traco unit but I used a cheaper Recom RD-0512D from Rapid.
Connect wires for the 0V and +5V feed to the converter - 0v to pin 4 of the SN75188, +5v from the + side of the nearby capacitor.

Cut the red and black wires between the control board and the rear connectors, and connect the board ends to the +12 and -12 outpust of the conevrter respectively. If using an isolated converter like the Recom, remember to link the 0V to the input and output pins of the converter.
For the Recom, the connections are :

Pin 1 : +5V from control board
Pin 2 : 0V from control board
Pin 4 : -12V : black wire
Pin 5 : 0V
Pin 6 : +12V : red wire

To add a converter to the control box You'll need to find a suitable supply to feed the converter - I've not looked into this but there is bound to be a +5 or +12V supply in there somewhere - just pick a converter with the right input voltage. You will need to get some crimp pins for the connector - RS and Farnell do these connectors.
Pin 3 is -12V, and pin 6 is +12V.

When preparing jobs offline one a different PC, it makes life easier if both the setup PC and the one running the machine have access to teh same file structure, in particular the CDF library. It also avoids the need to seperately backup the files on the placer machine if it's using a network drive that's already part of a backup regime. I use a drive mapped to a folder on a NAS box to do this.
The default install sets some internal paths to drive C regardless of the drive the software is actually installed on.

In order to use a drive other than C, Once the RV software in installed, you need to edit the five .cfg files in the install directory to reflect the new paths.

Once this is done it seems to be quite happy running off a network drive, although you should avoid having software running on multiple machines at the same time to avoid any file access contention issues.

For anyone who hasn't seen an RV running, here's a short vid

Anyone who'se set up an RV will know that using the mouse to move the head around when setting up is a major PITA as you have to keep looking at the screen instead of the head.

I had a play with a cheap USB PC gamepad (About a fiver on Ebay) , and a utility called AutoHotkey to make this process somewhat quicker by assigning pad buttons to the movement arrow and speed buttons.



I've only tried this under Win98SE - As I recall win95 doesn't really do USB properly...
Make sure the joystick/pad you get has at least all the buttons shown above.
Download and install Auto Hotkey
Install joystick driver (mine came with a CD - I installed this before plugging the pad in, but it may be that Windows already has generic drivers for it so may be worth trying without the CD first).
Check that the joystick works using The "Gaming controllers" bit of Windows' Control panel  You may need to install DirectX to get this working.
Once you have confirmed its working, download and run This AutoHotkey (.ahk) script file. (Right-click and do "save as..")
When you've confirmed it works, copy the script file into your Programs/start group to make it run automatically at startup

Whenever the RV Place 'move' dialog is displayed, the joypad buttons will now do everything you need to set up a position without taking your eyes off the machine!

Here is a list of UK based new & used SMT equipment dealers in no particular order. Please add any others. Start a new thread for other countries.

http://www.shawline.co.uk/
http://blundell.co.uk/
http://vsmt.co.uk/preowned.html
http://www.epsolutionsltd.co.uk/
http://www.candsautomation.com/
http://www.grovesales.co.uk
http://www.abtech-europe.com/
http://www.alternativesmt.com/
http://altusgroup.biz/
http://www.enhancetechnical.co.uk/
http://www.premtekuk.com/
http://etek-europe.com/used-equipment.html

This toaster oven from CPC works pretty well - nice big window to see what's happenning, good for boards up to 200x160mm.
Has elements top & bottom.
Ideally use with a variac or triac controller but manual on/off control to adjust temp is doable with care.

Some suppliers of stencils :
smtstencil (UK) Ultra low-cost polyester stencils for prototypes and small runs. Excellent service.
Eurocircuits (Europe) Cheapest  I've found so far for stainless stencils. Beware they ignore lines in gerbers, so must use pads for stencil frame fixings etc.!
Sparks Laser (UK) reasonably priced stencils for full-sized printers