Large components on tape

[phonoplug]

Wow thanks for all the replies. Managed to get the feeder to multiply the feed commands by 3 in the feeder firmware and it worked fine first day. Second day it didn't work again and I changed nothing! I suspect the PC is sending out a wrong index command going by the symptoms, but my next step will be to 'sniff' out the data sent out from the PC to see what its sending.

Fortunately I've got that run of boards complete now so when I get a bit of time next week I'll investiagate more.

Thanks for all the info on the dll version. Any chance you guys could possibly find out the exact dll version embedded in it? You should be able to right click on the file and there should be a 'version' tab or something similar. I'll see what mine is. I hope its really something simple like that! Its been frustrating the hell out of me!

[davidc]

Phono.. email me.. ill let you have all the versions i have

[Mike]

Mine is 1774K 22/12/99, from the original install package I got from Davidc but I just noticed the 268K version and a later RV Gerber outside the package.

[Aub]

Hi Phonoplug, How did you go about changing the Feeders Firmware? where can this be done? Any help much Appreciated.

[phonoplug]

Ah the firmware I changed was for the replacement feeder control board I've done.

Don't have the source code for the original boards. Have dis-assembled the code in the EEPROM, but there's quite a lot and its written for an 8031 which is somewhat dated now to say the least!

I use my own boards in all the larger lane feeders I use now. I set the number of indexes to 1 in RVplace, and use the spare dip switches on the feeder to select the appropriate number of multiple indexed needed. It does them all in one go so is a lot quicker overall, reducing placement time for boards with a lot of larger parts. For example the board I was building yesterday has 42 off 6x6 electrolytic caps on it, each 3 index. Probably saves a few minutes a board. Also means recovering from mis-picks is much quicker (not re-trying one index at a time).

I can supply new feeder control boards with multi-index firmware to suit the feeder its going into.

Google "versatronics rv spares" and the pdf at the top shows all the spare parts I supply.