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I know I was a little sceptical but whatever happened to that project?

http://www.shawline.co.uk/product.php?id_product=131

Listed here at £3k+feeders+vat , There seem to be a lot of IIC and IVC machines out there but I've never noticed anyone mention a 3 before. I think with standard software you program every step including tool changes, its brethren now have upgrade kits available to Windows XP and various new bits and bobs.

http://www.alternativesmt.com/equipment/APS-Novastar-L60-APS-Novastar.asp someways better some worse I would guess

Is there away to make/trick the machine remember an index value that does not match the one it magically comes up with? If I type in a custom one in the feeder lane it keeps resetting it at random. e.g Case C elec's are index 3 but it thinks 2 and R2512's which are index = 1 from every supplier except RS.

Bit of an odd find on the googlewebs http://batchgeo.com/map/55877366fceb92750592cd822b46e126 seems to be a map of people MyData has spoken to, wrt selling them a machine. Interesting to note the number of Versatronic's on there. Also nice to see lots of batch sizes <50. seems odd this data is visible to the world, not sure how up to date it is, I know I'm not in there and I have a recent MyData quote and I know one of the others who is on there has quite a new machine.

Here's an odd looking thing
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pick-and-Place-Machine-ECM-85-MK2-/330586500941?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4cf87daf4d

I'd be interested in hearing everyone's experience of good/bad points of the Versatronics feeders (all versions), perhaps what they would change/enhance? We have some of the early feeders (like the first posting's picture) we have used as mules for our prototype VRplacer.

Obviously there is one person on here who has heard every gripe and whine big or small regarding the feeders and their quirks, but given he now sells a new machine that of course addresses most or all of them and you are possibly developing a competing machine.....

The RV has been an awesome machine and done what we need of it for years, aside from a few quirks its pretty much what you expect of it. However if there is a part of it that can make me start swearing profusely when it starts being annoying, it's the feeders as solving issues when they start being awkward is time consuming and fiddly.

So the ones in Mikes picture:

Come in banks - a pain

Threading in tape - a time consuming pain (exacerbated by the fact they are in banks)

The tape doubles back on itself under the feeder meaning it can snag on other tapes (especially if plastic) in the same bank (or hit the deck on stop moving if it's short) and stop feeding through. If it's a plastic tape it might continue feeding but create a massive loop popping up out of the feeder in the pick position

The indexing pin pushes the tape rather than pulling it, creates an inconsistent pick height when coupled with the previously mentioned doubling back because at the pick point, its not under tension.

Its an indexing pin, not a gear, so it only engages in the index holes to move forwards, a heavy or slightly reluctant reel can then pull the tape back a tiny bit after the index.

Its an indexing pin, not a gear, so its only got hold of the tape by one hole, this makes plastic tapes vulnerable to ripping if the the tension if not perfect, they are spliced or perhaps not pristine thru' poor storage or shipping.

If the plastic tape rips, bends or is otherwise not perfect it will jam, then you can say goodbye to the parts between that rip and the pick position  because it will keep jamming until you cut that bit off.

Cover tape take off reels can't hold the cover tape for a full 5k component reel.

Cover tape take off reels always rotate a fixed angular rotation meaning the tension is not constant, nothing you can do about this the big boys have the clever alternatives patented.

The indexing is short and sharp with hard acceleration and deceleration, parts like sot23 in plastic tape are wont to leap around or out of the their pockets, it also doesn't help with the whole plastic tape rip problem

They are dumb feeders, intelligent feeders with suitable supporting software can do wonders for keeping track of what is fitted where, what got fitted to what, when it was changed how many were wasted and all sorts of things, this level of data logging is very important for high mix if you need good traceability especially for ISO or other approvals. Intelligent feeders also means you can move them with impunity, no addressing nonsense.

The reel holder bits only take 7" reels.

The reel holder bit has slots that are too narrow for the newer 7" reels made from thinner plastic that is then reinforced with a crimped edge, these jam solid.

When a reel gets near to empty, rather than turning it gets pulled off the reel holder and into the tensioning assembly and jams.

See Phono's posts on the things he fixed with a custom replacement control card.

If you look at pictures of other machines feeders they are mostly quite similar, often the brochures include pictures of how they work to brag about the issues they have fixed (from the 90's and before) that used to plague operators. (Who are now senior people buying new ones I guess).  How many of the things that bug me you could change on a machine like an RV is another question entirely, mounting system, arm reach, cost, influences from similar machines (A TWS Quadra for example), must all have conspired to make the feeders what they are. And when they are setup just right they are perfectly ok, it's just they can suddenly decide they are not any more.

Last week, during placement, the vaccum on our RV4 randomly stopped working a couple of times, (sometimes just for 5 piscks or so) a bit off a cooloff or pc reset seemed to bring it back to life and the prblem has not manifested itself again since (touch wood). I'm thinking a sticky relay or dodgy connection somewhere, but not quite sure where to look. Last time it failed it was a control card swapout, but in that case it had stopped permenantly.
Any Ideas?

Thanks.......

If it helps the following day, it did something else: picked, took its image and then stopped, did nothing for about a minuite and then put up a "wait not busy" error box, followed by another I neglected to read properly about the arm. Had to manually park the arm and restart

Greetings,
we just aquired one of these beasts, it's a 5 zone, IR oven in need of a little TLC. It has a control PC with software installed, but no master disks to install it on another machine. Given that the pc seems to date from about 1996 (Win95, 16mbRAM 540mb hdd) this seems a little risky to rely on, so master disks would be handy.
Does anyone have copies of this software or any other info on this oven?
We already have its non-PC controlled 4 zone baby brother (CR300) so we have some info but more is always handy.
I think Mr Mekko was upgrading these to some extent to work better with Pb-free too does anyone know about that?

Thanks

Everyday things used in Surface Mount, that I use or have done:

Splicing Tool, brass splicing shims, Covertape extenders, Tape tabs to tidy up started reels :KH Benz http://www.benzltd.com/ less important now Farnell and RS provide most things on production packaging if you wait another day.

Solder Paste : Multicore LF318, best pricing from RS surprisingly. Downside:500g pots, used to use 250g pots from Warton Metals.

3M Double Sided 50mm tape from wherever! Stick down cut tape to place with a manual P&P, or if you are so inclined programming said stuck tape into your RV4 as a custom matrix tray. Tricky part is getting the component tape down straight, and finding a sticky tape that is not too tacky (or plastic tapes with holes in each pocket will annoy you).