MakerPnP - New pick and place machine software project.

[domini...@gmail.com]

Hi all!

Just wanted to quickly share links to my new pick and place machine software project, MakerPnP, which has long-term aims to improve productivity of makers.

You can watch the first live stream where I go into things in detail, and explains why I'm not contributing to OpenPnP, which I'm sure many people here might be wondering.

Project introduction video:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9yh92Ctqh8

Note, it's quite long, so you might want to make use of the YouTube playback speed settings, x1.25/x1.5 probably good.

Please subscribe to be notified of live-stream events so you can follow the development process.

* Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MakerPnP
* Source: https://github.com/MakerPnP
* Discord: https://discord.gg/ffwj5rKZuf
* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MakerPnP
* X/Twitter: https://x.com/MakerPicknPlace

I'd love to see anyone interested join us on the discord server, and feel free to ask questions on the live-stream.

I've already started cutting code, and it's being written in Rust.

Enjoy!

Dominic

[Heath Raftery]

That’s quite the mission. The more the merrier. All the best with it.

Workflow is indeed the part that unravels this enterprise. It’s both super important to the utility of a PnP, and very personal. So much so, that the process that suits a factory doesn’t necessarily translate well to the life of a benchtop system. I’ve enjoyed smaller efforts (eg. by Psychogenic Technologies) focussing just on that key step from EDA output to laying out the bed, in a way that suits the features of a benchtop PnP.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, and the community getting behind you.

Heath

PS. Yes to AOI on the same machine! This is a great example of where factory workflow is counter-productive for us benchtop warriors. Just put the panel back on the bed and hit go.

[Heath Raftery]

Dominic,

I’ve been wondering, have you evaluated the LitePlacer software?

https://liteplacer.com/user-interface-overview/

The LitePlacer PnP is compatible with OpenPnP but comes with its own software written by the creator. I think it’s excellent. It suffers from the predictable aesthetic style of a RAD WinForms development environment, with a bunch of tabs and a button for everything. But there’s a heck of a lot of fit for purpose thought into the workflow appropriate to this sort of machine. The result is well coupled to the machine, and very supportive of the typical calibration, tape layout, vision processing, job set and execution tasks you do each day.

What really lets it down for me is the poor vision processing. The architecture is good - a series of filters with configurable parameters, which can be defined for various purposes (nozzle tip runout correction, black tape identification, fiducial measurement, etc.). But the actual machine vision performance is poor, and likely something that a dedicated suite like OpenCV could trounce.

The author has recently announced he’s had to retire the project due to on-going health issues, so it would be a real pity if his contribution didn’t live on in this space. The source is available. I don’t think the code is a starting point for you, just an important chunk of work to include in your design thinking.

Regards,

Heath

On 6 Jul 2024, at 8:57 PM, Heath Raftery <hraf...@gmail.com> wrote:

That’s quite the mission. The more the merrier. All the best with it.

Workflow is indeed the part that unravels this enterprise. It’s both super important to the utility of a PnP, and very personal. So much so, that the process that suits a factory doesn’t necessarily translate well to the life of a benchtop system. I’ve enjoyed smaller efforts (eg. by Psychogenic Technologies) focussing just on that key step from EDA output to laying out the bed, in a way that suits the features of a benchtop PnP.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Heath

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[Heath Raftery]

Dominic,

I’ve been wondering, have you evaluated the LitePlacer software?

https://liteplacer.com/user-interface-overview/

The LitePlacer PnP is compatible with OpenPnP but comes with its own software written by the creator. I think it’s excellent. It suffers from the predictable aesthetic style of a RAD WinForms development environment, with a bunch of tabs and a button for everything. But there’s a heck of a lot of fit for purpose thought into the workflow appropriate to this sort of machine. The result is well coupled to the machine, and very supportive of the typical calibration, tape layout, vision processing, job set and execution tasks you do each day.

What really lets it down for me is the poor vision processing. The architecture is good - a series of filters with configurable parameters, which can be defined for various purposes (nozzle tip runout correction, black tape identification, fiducial measurement, etc.). But the actual machine vision performance is poor, and likely something that a dedicated suite like OpenCV could trounce.

The author has recently announced he’s had to retire the project due to on-going health issues, so it would be a real pity if his contribution didn’t live on in this space. The source is available. I don’t think the code is a starting point for you, just an important chunk of work to include in your design thinking.

Regards,

Heath

[domini...@gmail.com]

Hi Heath,

I've not looked at the LitePlacer software, I'm sure there's some ideas and tips that can be gleaned from investigating it and using it as a point of reference, for both it's good and bad points.  I was aware that the project had been retired though.

Dominic