The Index Pick and Place Can Build Itself

[@microdesigns2000]

I really enjoyed this video. When I made my first CNC board in 1996, my little family was poor and I relied on free samples from National Semiconductor and there was no PCBWay, so I etched the boards myself. Now that I'm done tooting my own horn, I'll tell you the fun part. I constructed two boards, each with about 300 drill holes needed. Meaning, I needed to drill them myself. I put them into my milling machine and put up a printout of an excel table of hole locations and drilled them all. It took about three solid evenings of work. When I was done drilling the first board, an idea popped into my head. "what if I populate this board for XY axes and use it to help me drill the other board for Z-theta?" I raced down to the basement and soldered all the parts in. I programmed the microcontroller. After a few days, I was ready to hook it up to the motors on the mill. I laughed out loud like the guy in this video. I was alone in the garage when I yelled out loud. I saw my mill drawing a circle and that feeling of success in my gut made me cry out loud, "Its ALIVE!!!" I opened the door to the kitchen and yelled into the house, freaking out my wife. I'm sure the dog barked too. So I really enjoyed this video because I know that feeling of, "its working". I've built machinery for the last 25 years, and each time I have satisfaction, seeing my software and designs serving a purpose. All those machines are like my little mechanical children. But some of those children were harder to get working, some very challenging. I appreciate what I saw in this video! Nice work!

[@draco5991rep]

Congrats man, that is so awesome. I am sure this will make big waves in the maker community. Can't wait to see where this will lead.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

For paste application you want a blade the full width of the panel

[@DominicClifton]

For sure, 60% blade angle, good presure too. Put enough paste on the stencil so that the blade makes bead that rolls with the blade. The bead should be slightly shiny, as it rolls, this will tell you that the paste is mixed well.

[@Codeaholic1]

And that "tool" you're using is probably just called a putty knife.

[@mrvisual2482]

Also just a single pass and maybe reduce the paste cutouts a little

[@HenryLoenwind]

Or design and build your own paste-jet printer... ;)

[@stevewalston7089]

@@Codeaholic1 Right? Maybe he was having an on camera off day. If he really didn't know the name of it but yet was born with the internet in his lap, has a 3D printer, laser cutter, scope and who knows what else is kind of unthinkable to those of us who grew up without this stuff at his age. These millennials kill me sometimes, they don't know how good and easy that have it.

[@MarlinFirmware]

Congratulations! A real affordable open source pick-and-place machine is one of those Holy Grail projects that's been on many a wish-list for a long time. It's a really good looking build, and we can't wait to see more of what it can do, a breakdown of the BOM, and how it compares in cost and performance to machines with similar capabilities. It's going to be a real game-changer for a lot of makers and maker spaces.

[@nickmunro1256]

Congratulations. I've been watching since the beginning and can't tell you how excited I was watching this. You have every reason to be a little emotional, pride is justified given the countless hours you've put into this project. Kudos.

[@OddlyIncredible]

It's an absolutely amazing feeling when you bring a project to completion, and especially so if you're sharing it with the world. It's about the closest we males will come to giving birth to a child - it's the creation of a legacy, something that we hope goes on to greater things and eventually outlives us. Since everyone's piling on the kudos, I'll throw one into the mix. I was so interested in building an Index for my own projects (including a few I hope to go commercial with) when I first heard of the project that about nine months ago I began building a 3D printer from scratch. What I built rivals comparable sized commercial systems and it has all of the features enthusiasts demand, and it was built to eventually build an Index. I'm now in the fine-tuning stages with it and have already made functional prints, so this pick-and-place machine has already spawned the construction of other machines, and thus has the Index already started to grow a legacy. _Stephen, you've done something subversive and through it you've inspired others to do likewise._ There's no where to go but up, my friend - next stop, low orbit!

[@kevinm3751]

Very, very COOL! Congratz!

[@dfn808]

Congratulations. What an awesome project, thanks for sharing!

[@JadenAndrea]

Amazing and inspirational as always Mr. Hawes! Congratulations on your achievement!!! Great job!

[@Vrx-yp1eu]

Very wholesome engineering, I love your project and I really like you as a human.

[@lonewulf0328]

Watching this thing go from basic concept to initial design to prototype to MVP has been amazing. I have been wanting to get into designing my own custom mechanical keyboard PCB, and this has given me the drive to go for it!

[@Sodabowski]

Wow, even better than expected!

[@fredflintstone8048]

Pick and place is a great idea. It's been around for decades. I worked at an IBM plant back in the early 1980s that had pick and place robots, wave soldering machines, and ovens for populating circuit boards. Congrats!

[@polkijain97]

This project has taught me so much apart from tech stuff. You are an inspiration and gave me hope to continue my work ethic. Thank you and congratulations. There is always hope in perseverance!

[@mvadu]

Congratulations on reaching this milestone.. Thank you for taking us for the ride..

[@stivcen]

Congratulations, I have been following your project since day one and it makes me happy to see how time passed and see how your project progressed. Congratulations I start with my project

[@Graham_Wideman]

Well done Stephen! Very satisfying result!

[@NotTheComet]

I’ve been watching since the first video. You have inspired me to start designing my own pcb and do more complex electronic projects. Thank you for your inspiration

[@properprinting]

Your persistency is admiring, what an accomplishment! Congratulations with this insane result!

[@AaronEiche]

Congrats Stephen, That's a major accomplishment. It's really cool to see working end-to-end. Now that you've made a PNP machine, Maybe you can do an NPN? ;)

[@bytesizedengineering]

Congrats Stephen! I've had a blast following along in this journey.

[@leadgtr7]

Awesome work! Glad to see all your hardwork is paying off!

[@gkelly]

Such a great milestone! Congrats!

[@thebobrobert]

Congratulations, it has been great following your project! Can't wait to get my own

[@lesto12321]

not even a minute in the video, i hear your nervous laugh and i know that feels. Subscribed right away, only good things are coming from such laugh

[@natalie5947]

Big congrats Stephen :) It's been a long road and here we are! Nothing like the joy of a project truly paying it's worth for the first time. Here's to many more successes in the road to full production.

[@danhellgren5671]

My experience of applying solder paste is: Put on all the paste you got on the stencil. Then ONE stroke only, never stroke it again. Can't wait to get to know the price of the PnP. Congrats!

[@rashakawa]

I believe that's called the Catholic method

[@Glycheer]

If you're stroking it twice, you're playing with it.

[@KingOfKYA]

Agreed, with pin pitches he has in play its "ok" but the smaller stuff you will make a mess with all the extra solder getting under it. I big drywall blade might work better.

[@spehropefhany]

Stencil printer I use is model ZB3040H. There may be more than one with the same part number- this one has a logo of letter B with a crosshatch to left of it. No connection to them, just a good product and so much better than the cheap one it replaced. I do down to 0402 and 0603 8 lead res arrays with it out of the box. Heavy and expensive shipping though.

[@No1x3N]

Those cable ties are making me itch

[@ericlotze7724]

Exciting Milestone! It has been a pleasure to watch this whole journey, keep up the great work!

[@Phreaqin]

For the manual application of paste, there’s numerous hand squeegees that will be perfect for this, you mainly just want to have the width be minimum the width of the panel, and even pressure is key (generally 5-8kg per 300mm)

[@jeanmorin4580]

Wow, I'm really impressed! We had Siemens machines at a previous job that the guys in production were using and was always impressed. Especially the image recognition for proper part orientation which you mastered. Bravo!

[@jupiter909]

Congratulations! You've done well! Been following your journey since the start and your persistence and passion have remained solid all this time. Looking forward to seeing what the next years bring! Onward and upward!

[@l0k048]

>make this machine and a 3d printer >make both replicate themselves as well as helping each other replicate parts they can't >profit

[@zodak9999b]

Congratulations, Stephen! Congrats to you all!

[@mikeselectricstuff]

To validate 0402's, why not just make it place a grid on sticky paper

[@davidjohnston4240]

Or just don't use 0402s. I hate them. They're useful in RF circuits where they lower the parasitics, but for any other purpose, bigger parts are easier in every way.

[@mehrdadfeller]

You can just print PCB layout on paper and stick it on an old PCB for testing 402s or other compensate without having to make PCBs for it

[@excitedbox5705]

Yup I was going to say the same. You can also take a marker and draw some dots on a paper. If the component lands on the dots you know it is placing them repeatedly.

[@davidjohnston4240]

That's me from the perspective of a board designer. For the purposes of making a P&P machine, make it work with 0402s and you know it's going to be robust on 0603s. Then you can sit and worry about 0201s instead.

[@ericl3272]

@@davidjohnston4240 then 01005s

[@alanjrobertson]

Amazing work, Stephen - congratulations!! 🎉🥳

[@joshhaughton1893]

Congratulations buddy! Been watching your channel for a while and it's really awesome to see how far you've come. :)

[@DETERNET]

"Machines making Machines, How Perverse." - C-3P0

[@ltsgobrando]

Best way I can think of applying solder paste: 3d print a tool. I had the following in mind. The main structure would look almost like a coffee mug. On handle you'd want a trigger. Using housed cable (like the ones for bicycle breaks) you could connect the trigger to a spring loaded door along one of the bottom edges, though I'd highly recommend the one opposite the handle. Ideally you'd want it to work like an upside-down drawbridge (so the edge that would be touching the bottom lifts towards you) with its pivots only a few mm up. Just enough for it to freely move. The tiny door would also need bounding edges, else the solder would just come out everywhere. Lastly you'd need a means to squeegee up the excess, I was thinking of just applying weather stripping to the bottom of the little door. Lastly you'd need a plunger... aka a piece of plastic that fit snug in the middle of the cup. Neside the door install a rubber wheel that can drive some threaded rod, though you may want to run it through a gear box&dif /have one set up on wither side. Then just tap and holes on the plunger, set it in place, and you're good. Also the door would make a nice lockout for the plunger driving mechanism, so it would only come out when the frigger is pressed and it's moving. Basically it's a coffee cup with trigger to pop open a flap along the bottom. Then a roller would slowly push out the solder with little to no excess, and any extra would be collected by the improvised squeegee 🤙

[@emolatur]

For better or worse, consider an side job making infomercials. You have the absolute perfect voice for it.

[@dave_dennis]

I have loved watching your progress. Congratulations on crossing the finish line. I already liked you but I like you more seeing you admit you are a mushy guy. Takes a real man to acknowledge that. Keep up the good work. BTW, I’m rooting for 0201’s. 😉

[@gregorka9]

Such a fulfilling moment! Way to go

[@kennorman3586]

For solder past, I use a 6 Inch Body Filler Spreaders and a version of Seon's, Unexpected Maker, vacuum box to hold the stencil.

[@saysphilippe]

Skynet is active! Great work Stephen! I think all of us that have followed this project is truly impressed over all work and problems being overcomed.

[@CBaggers]

That was so cool. Congratulations on such a big milestone

[@matthewsimmons6831]

Great stuff Stephen and community. Must be a great feeling to be able to the first mobos thru. Well done.

[@TheMadManPlace]

Major kudos on the progress you have made. I am guessing that all the people that have been having endless issues with the commercial PnP machines are keeping a VERY close eye on your masterpiece...

[@iDoPew]

Amazing to see this machine working and your joy seeing it finally work!

[@joshsmithbuilds2158]

So excited for you! Congrats!!

[@JGCRAFTONES]

It's fun to watch you, you're always excited

[@webslinger2011]

Congratulations!

[@AJB2K3]

Congrats on reaching such a milestone!

[@graham8316]

So exciting! Congratulations!

[@Leezorc]

Congradulation m8. You guys have done an amazing job. Like really wonderful.

[@shibbleswentworth]

I feel like I'm watching a young prusa. Congrats bud.

[@chrisghz]

Excellent Stephen! Well done!! This has been a joy of a journey to watch. I'm super impressed and looking forward to building my own. I have a Neoden 4 at work that might help me build my first for home ;-) . Great Job!!!

[@joetkeshub]

Coooongrats! I will never imagine how happy you are. It's an achievement! talent, patience and a lot of skills. Greeeeat and awesome job Stephen! Your team is up to the job too!

[@zeno2712]

Fantastic! Well done. That's a whole lot of engineering.

[@MakeStuff]

Amazing. You've come a long way. You should be proud. Keep it up.

[@chopper3lw]

Amazing job! Congratulations!

[@asteriondaedalus6859]

Well done! I have been so inspired by your work, I designing my own for the fun of it. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@Mattequation]

Super pumped. Nice work Stephen.

[@jurgenaddicks1634]

So awesome, congrats !

[@thomasmugrauer970]

It‘s absolutely inspiring to watch you build and test the PNP system. Continue with your amazing work and energy! 👍🏼

[@cwbh10]

Congrats my man!!!

[@rxblackpill]

I hope you guys will make more things available on the store! Your project is making advanced PCB design and manufacturing easier for the whole world!!!

[@stephen_hawes]

Thanks!! :D We are working as hard as we can to get more products up on the store. It's been quite a beast with the silicon shortage and supply chain congestion lately, but Lucian's been kicking ass and finding some creative workarounds!

[@augurelite]

SO PROUD OPF YOU WHAT AN AMZING ACCOMPLISHMENT HEHE

[@phitsf5475]

The AI overlords praise your efforts in the advancement of replicator technology.

[@TipsTricksMore]

Awesome 🎉🎉🎉 Congrats! Picking 0402s is just sick 👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏

[@hintzoner]

Thank you for sharing such genuine joy. legendary.

[@scottrich976]

Love this idea, keep it going !

[@keebordcowboy]

Bravo. This is beyond inspirational.

[@beatlessteve1010]

This was 2 years ago but jeez man .. congratulations are definitely in order even after all this time.

[@wolfaddict]

Very cool! Next up: building a clanking self-replicator!

[@ThePaulus2010]

dewd congrats! you enthousiasm is great to see!

[@Crypt1cmyst1c]

I work in a facility that has a very large solder paste stencil, we apply with a 1m long rubber squeegee that travels down the stencil. a flat rubber window squeegee will probably be sufficient for your purposes. I'm not 100% sure what material ours is, probably neoprene rubber. it's white rubber with a red layer in the middle, probably a harder plastic for rigidity

[@bobweiram6321]

Excellent! After the MVP phase, it's time for rapids!

[@safran4588]

Amazing work!

[@davemould4638]

Design fiducials (unique shapes) near diagonally opposite corners on the top copper layer, and use the overhead camera to determine their absolute coordinates on the P&P bed, adjusting all component positions and angles relative to the measured fiducial positions. Then no need to position the board exactly on the bed.

[@argusroot]

Congratulations ! Hope I finish my "more than a year" projects soon too ! 🍻

[@DFPercush]

I just binge watched this series. Wow, what a showcase of a broad spectrum of talents, from programming to component level design, communications protocols... This is awesome. But I'm surprised you aren't building more tape feeder modules for your own production. Is that because you don't have enough quantity yet, or just wanted to iterate on the motherboard? Anyway, this is such a cool project, and I'm glad to see someone come up with an affordable way to do this. I think making small-to-medium scale circuit board manufacturing more accessible will only feed forward and encourage more ingenuity in the electronics field. Good on you. Cheers.

[@ericblenner-hassett3945]

Time to print a " pasted boards waiti g to be placed " holder so you can set up for a bunch at a time as well as cooling rack stack prior to testing.

[@canadaplease7981]

If you ever look to make a larger platform for this machine I would suggest taking a look at the PrintNC project. It's a CNC router but the base and gantry design should be able to be adapted to more easily work a larger space. Love the project!

[@petethetechguy]

I'm building one of these one day. Incredible work.

[@nicomichiels1050]

Do yourself a favor and spend an 4K on a LPKF ProtoPrint S. Easy alignment by turning some knobs and easy to repeat it over and over. We use it at our company to do small batches of 5-10 PCBs but can also be used to make 100's of PCB's. One big tip, tention the stencil strong enough for an even cleaner paste deposit! Good luck!

[@infocus-media]

I once had a job once where I was a Systems Admin where they build Siemens controller boards and the machines placing the components were super fast, they placed the components so fast you could hardly make out what they were doing and some of these components were hardly visible by the naked eye. There were a few bots placing components on the same pc board at the same time.

[@exhebece5480]

In the job I had, the "squeegee" that pulled the paste over the stencil seemed to be the same squeegee material they use for Silkscreening tshirts. There are different grades of flex, you may need to experiment. The angle of the squeegee on draw tilted the "blade" so only one "edge" was in contact with the board. Cheers

[@SolarSeeker45]

That's a really cool machine. My brother has been wanting a pick and place machine for quite awhile.

[@artrock8175]

Congratz! What an amazing accomplishment! 👏 The "ultimate" goal of ANY machine should be to "make parts for itself"! The "cycle of robot life" is on it's way to completion! Now that it can populate it's own motherboard, you need to give it some robot arms (AR3 Open Source Robot Arms) and program it to assemble all mechanical parts (frame, motor mounting, etc). Once you have two fully, self assembled, machines, it will be time incorporate artificial intelligence to officially kick off the Robot Apocalypse! 😃...🤖🌎💥👌😎👍

[@Silverturky]

I just came across your channel this is amazing! I'm about to become a maker / small scale manufacturer and I'm definitely going to be designing some electronics to make speakers and other things me I'm super interested in this product and I'll be a customer 100%

[@rupantaradhikary1793]

You should use some sort of vacuum suction mechanism to hold the board into place

[@spokehedz]

The diodes spinning around is absolutely a 'feature' and not a bug. I expect to see at least one of them doing a full 360 spin on future projects. ;D

[@marvin1790]

Hey i´ve just found your Channel and have a few tipps for applying solder paste: the tool you are using is perfektly fine for applying Solderpaste but use more paste on the stencil, then stroke the paste over the Stencil so that the paste "rolls over" with that you have the perfect amound of paste on your PCB (Depending on the type of Stencil you are using) the perfect thickness of a stencil for BGA or LGA chips is 100µ and for other chips larger than 0201 is 120µ fine i am using a Mydata tp9 for fabricating PCBs and can say you have done a gread job on that Project

[@arkanjo7509]

thanks , very cool.

[@jasonkuehl6985]

My dude, amazing work.

[@randycarter2001]

It would have been better if the X rail was a 20 x 40 double wide rail mounted vertically. This would allow it to resist the torque induced by gravity.

[@OddlyIncredible]

He open-sourced the design, so fork it, make improvements, and submit a push request! Help make it better!

[@KarlMiller]

Very inspiring. You should be emotional about the accomplishment. So, some obvious questions (assuming a calibrated setup) : 1. What is the amount of time you would suggest allocating to preparing for a new board run? It seems you said about two weeks. Or... would you estimate time board configuration as a function of number of components? 2. How long will it take to get the OpenPNP assembled and calibrated?

[@stephen_hawes]

That two weeks metric was more about one-time setup, getting OpenPnP configured for Indexes in general! Setting up for a new board (and other Indexes) will be way, way less. I’ll share more info about setup time after I have more data.

[@ArranAsh]

That is absolutely amazing, wow!

[@oswynfaux]

I put it in the re-flow master, also known as the hacked Hamilton toaster oven