Messages

I changed the belts on my second machine as a matter of course,
it didn't affect the calibration and I'm sure it improved the accuracy.
it gets quite warm under there and the belts go hard and brittle..
they won't snap but loose strands can interfere with the opto switches that are used in the arm position sensors.
If that happens, it could well be a head crash and a broken tool.
they are so cheap, I'd change them anyway..

Chris

Printing the adapter for the samsung nozzles worked perfectly

and they can also be fittted to broken originals ( if you remember my post )

http://electricstuff.co.uk/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=leh44avg1h2tri0foq72ohnbo6&topic=348.msg1933#msg1933

I've been using one as my smallest nozzle for the last 20000 components or so.

Chris

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163820904533

It s not a "decent" meter, but you did say for a second meter..

For shear value for money, accuracy out of the box and functions, the little victor VC921 meters are hard to beat
they come with various brands on them for excample
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZOTEK-VC921-Mini-Portable-Digital-Autoranging-Multimeter-Pocket-Multimeter-XU/283405452168
the chip in them seems to be as good as any 3 1/2 digit meter.
Autoranging, capacitance to 200 uF, frequency to 10 Mhz, REL and Hold,

they are only CAT II and don't read current but for the same price as a decent meter, you can get half a dozen.

I have about 4 and they all read well within their stated accuracy, and they fit in your pocket !

Trev,
the tool pickup position is critical as any error there can cause the odd step to be lost
It was also a contributory factor to me losing z axisposition early on... a badly worn rack and it caused the machine to jump a tooth.

have a look at the method I used to set the positions using a couple of steel balls, it actually works !


    Mike's Forums »
    Versatronics RV series Pick & Place machines »
    RV Hardware »
    setting tool positions


Chris

Replacing that wire fixed the immediate and frequent problem, but I still get an occasional "arm board not detected" followed by "z axis switch not found"

Its a bit random, sometimes after just a few hundred componenets, sometimes placing several thousand before it crops up again.
Even though a reboot is needed, at least the software keeps track of placed components so that it picks up exactly where it left off.
It just gets a bit frustrating at the end of a long day when it decides to throw a wobbly a couple of board short of the end of a run.

Since there was a definite hardware fault with the broken cable I was wondering if there might be other conductors that have started to break down due to the constant twisting..

I don't own one, but I've just ordered a low ohm meter and plan to test every cable that runs through the arm for possible issues,
I will use both an analogue meter while moving the arm, and the low ohm meter.
Any that are suspect will be replaced with new .

will report back If I find anything,

Chris

Thats one bit I've never had problems with, once the bias is set, it sticks...
I run both small batches of a few dozen, and larger runs of 150 boards at a time
I use auto fiducial and sometimes have to manually move the head when a boards fiducials are ouside the limit..
but I never noticed a problem.
using the later windows 98 with USB support with the latest version of the software as far as I know

Chris

Looking at it from a different perspective,

the vacuum is too high to reasonably check with a water gauge,
but you could check the output pressure with a simple tyre pressure gauge

0.15 bar should register on most,

just need to make an adapter for the pump outlet to the gauge, maybe an old tyre valve and a bit of tube ?

-150 mbar continuous is not much of a vacuum.

the vacuum pump on my vac former pulls -950 all day (leaks excepted)

There are plenty of cheap pumps on eBay with specs ranging up to -750mbar

I'd spend the £8 or so and see if a cheap one will work.

I carried an RV4s up a loft ladder, one arm holding the weight and one hanging onto the steps.. ( I wouldn't reccomend it though !)
the cabinet was a different issue,
Mine had to be dismantled to fit through the door !

Spiyda, have you tried to run the grid calibration with the fiducial camera and if so how did it work out?

to be honest, I can't remember...  if I did, I will have mentioned it in the thread somewhere

That looks pretty much like what I ended up with...

regarding the camera, you are welcome to use the board camera setup I built that aligns with the nozzle spigot.

The calibration routine calls for the camera to be rotated 180 degrees about half way through the calibration process and this I think is to compensate for any errors in alignment with the spigot.. 

the circular illuminator around the camera lens certainly seemed to work just fine, the software recognised the dots over the whole screen area and the illumination will be a lot more even than buln spotlights !

The only Thing I was missing was an accurate screen...   

On my twin toroidal power supply, I had some problems with supply to the house dropping below the legal voltage
Once it dropped below 200V, which was unacceptable and caused all sorts of issues.
so I fitted one of these APC Line-R 1200VA Automatic Voltage Regulator - LE1200I
It solved that problem instantly
Since then western power faitted a voltage monitor and within a few weeks of seeing the readings, dug the road up and fed our place from the other end of the line and voltages are all within spec so I guess that bit of kit is redundant.

roger,

If its noisy,
that sounds to me like one of the 5 phases is down.... rather than anything upstream, of the driver module.
once you've heard one, its an unmistakable sound...

it could be a bad connection ( easy enough to check)
a phase gone open circuit in the motor
a driver board.

I would check first by disconnecting the motor connector and checking the resitances of the phases.
I don't know what they should be, but luckily like me you can access a motor that is known to be working to compare meter readings.
If the motor is good,

Obviously check continuity betewen the connector to the motor and the connections in the control box.

then try swapping in a know good driver board

Others might know better ways to check...

Chris

Those RS  144-8029  SSDs are supposed to handle wear levelling internally to some extent (from the datasheet)
How well is anyone's guess..       I might give it a go just to see..  I'll still have the data stashed away on the original disc, the cloud and my NAS in case it
Its described as a "InnoDisk 1ME IDE DOM 44 Pins 16 GB Industrial SSD Drive "