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SXSW: Imagine a Practical, Low-Cost Circuit Board Assembly System (Video)
SXSW Create is one of a handful of sub-shows at SXSW which don't require an expensive badge — it's maker-oriented and small, and a few blocks from the slicker parts of the convention. (The local ATX Hackerspace was there showing off robots and giving out soldering lessons and blinkies, without a single corporate pitch.) Under the same tent, I met with Jeff McAlvay, co-creator of Board Forge, which Jeff hopes will make small-run circuit board creation as easy and accessible as small-scale 3-D printing has become in the last few years. ("Think MakerBot for electronics.") The prototype hardware McAlvay had on hand looks -- in fact, is a 3-D printer, albeit one lower-slung than the ones that make plastic doo-dads. That's because the Board Forge's specialized task of assembling circuit boards requires only limited vertical movement. It's using the open-source OpenCV computer vision software and a tiny camera mounted on a movable head to accomplish the specialized task of selecting and placing components onto the boards. The tiny electronic components are lined up in strips on one side of the device, where that smart head can grab them for placement. The brains of the operation include an Arduino-family processor for basic controls, and a Raspberry Pi for the higher-level functions like computer vision. The projected cost for one of these machines — about $2000 — should put instant-gratification machine-aided circuit creation in reach of schools and serious hobbyists, but there's plenty of work before it's set for sale to the public; look for a Kickstarter project in the next few months.
Imagine a News for Nerds site that doesn't have a new SXSW story every other hour....
Ultimately, the machine will etch traces, apply solder paste, place components, cook, and test. Version 1.0 places components.
shit damn, I forgot the quotes and the snippy annoying RTFA comment.
A $2K device that does solder paste and Pick-and-Place is what we need. You can have circuit boards made easily and cheaply from a number of places. It's been a loooong time since I thought it was worth the time and hassle of playing in the soup myself. I don't see the point of trying to make PCBs at home any more. Toaster oven or hot plate soldering works great for suface mount. The two killers are 1) applying solder paste, and 2) pick and place. So, a cheap reliable stencil is one option for older. A friend of mine has a Mikini 1610L CNC mill, and we did a hack to add a manual solder paste syringe (one of the compressed-air driven hand-held units) as a tool head. Our first attempt got some nearly usable boards, but it would require tuning and another rev to get the right amount of paste and make it all work. Other people have done hobbyist grade Pick-n-place. Combining the two operations, adding the webcam for precise part orientation, and hitting $2K would be a game changer.
So, inkjet a wax and asphaultum solution through a heated nozzel, touch gently with a few passes from a hot air blower, then dunk the whole thing in the etching bath.
Wait a preprogrammed amount of time, fish it out, then plunk it in hot soapy water, agitate, then hang up to dry.
(News for nerds: beeswax and asphaultum have been used as a deep etching mask for centuries, and is used to mask iron cutlery blades for acid etched artwork. Filtered mixtures of the stuff would lend themselves very well to existing 3d print systems, as it is both cheap, and reusable, with a low melting point. Copper etches much faster than iron, and the depth of etching is far shallower. The most expensive product involved would be the acid etchant itself, and let's face it, a strong solution of CLR will work just fine here, as would dollarstore knockoff HCl based toilet cleansing gel, and those are both pretty damned cheap.)
Actually a pick and place machine is precisely addressing the bottleneck if you need to make small runs. Sure, for a 1-off board it doesn't matter much. But if you want to make a run of 50 boards, you can get the bare PCBs made very cheaply, but assembling the boards is another matter altogether. (I have actually found a company that will assemble 50 boards for a reasonable price, but it would still be a lot better - even if it wasn't any cheaper - to have the assembly done genuinely "in house", not to mention a much faster turnaround time).
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Those machines are also eyewateringly expensive. This machine is actually pretty damn cheap even if all it does is pick and place.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
There's been an explosion of tools for creation coming out at low prices, and every time someone says "it's for schools!" like the only things that's keeping students from an engineering curriculum is the cost of the hardware.
The biggest obstacle is instructor support/training/professional devleopment/curriculum... basically everything except the hardware. So in the mean time you have university/foundation sponsored projects at indivudual schools that get everyone excited, all of which have absolutely no portability to any other context. So then we're back to individual people doing special things and you're lucky if your kid is at that school and screwed if they aren't.
But we get to feel good about "doing something for education", I guess...
There's already other people working on a pick-and-place machine. Granted the future goals of Board Forge are greater, but combining a multi-head CNC mill with a pick-and-place machine is not a new idea.
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I have actually found a company that will assemble 50 boards for a reasonable price
Which company is that? I've been looking for such a place and haven't found much, only places with ridiculous prices.
There's a company called "Batch PCB" that will do small quantities of PCBs for reasonable costs if you don't mind waiting a bit. They just put several designs together onto one PCB, send it off where they are getting a bulk rate, and then cut the boards apart when they are done, and send them out.
The hassle of running a machine like that is really not worth it.
But yes, very interesting and impressive nonetheless.
yeah i know you can etch your own boards (I do) but to have a little desktop "autobot" that can not only cut the copper to size, etch the circuit on it, then assemble the pieces would be a HUGE breakthrough for us hobbyist tinkerer's.
That's what I was getting at. A carousel tool cassette with fixed position head, an X,Y,Z table with 2 bath tubs on another x axis slide table, 2 reservoirs, one with solder paste and another with wax+asphaultum mask, and a simple means to drop and raise the table in and out of the tubs, and you have a winner.
Whole process:
you still manually saw/cut your prototype board to size, then lock it to the table.
The first NC program is loaded and started. The robot uses the camera to find the edges of the prototype board, sets the local axis system, and takes off.
The tool carousel rotates until the wax resist 3d print nozzel is locked in place, the nozzel heater activates, and the system primes the nozzel. It then draws the resist layer on the prototype board.
The table moves to the home position, and the resist layer nozzel is rotated out and replaced with a hot air blower. The table descends slightly, and warm air helps seat the resist layer down with a few passes over the workpiece by moving the table underneath the stationary head.
Table returns to home position and waits a programmed period of time for the softened resist to harden back up.
Lower table with etchant bins slides underneath the the worktable, worktable descends into the etchant bath. X,Y actuators on the work table move the board 1mm x,y,-x,-y in rapid succession to agitate in the etchant bath. This continues for several minutes.
Worktable raises up from etchant solution tank, lower table moves the rinse tank under the worktable. Worktable descends, and the agitation cycle resumes for the programmed period.
Table raises, and the hot air gun softens the resist again. (Also dries the board somewhat, but we want water on the board still, because it helps in the next step.) Table quickly homes, swaps to a teflon scraper tool, then scrapes off the resist layer. Table homes, returns to hot air gun, then heats the board up nice and toasty, vaporizing water and any left over wax resist off the board. Table homes then waits for it to cool down.
Hot air nozzel swapped out for solder paste nozzel. Table moves the workpiece under the nozzle as it deposits the paste layer.
Pick and place head swapped in. Pick and place uses a small vacuum pump and a tiny head to pick up and place components. Pick and place head has 360 rotation, but still fixed position. Table moves pieces to the head, and positions the workpiece under the head for placement. Head rotation allows the head to reorient picked up components to the proper orientation.
After pick and place operation, the workpiece is done as far as the robot is concerned. User carefully unloads the workpiece, and pops it in the toaster oven to flow the solder.
So, again, tool carousel with 5 swappable tools on a fixed position turret, an XYZ movement 2.5 axis table. Rotation on the pick and place head, and an X axis sled underneath with etching tubs on it. Components for the pick and place head are on an elevated portion of the worktable where they can be positioned under the head, but will always stay out of the etching and washing baths.this area has small wells to hold the components.
(Granted, buildng such a toy for under 1000$ is unlikely, but it is certainly doable for under 2500$.)