Quick Question - SMD Placement Pick and Place Tool

[fair.child]

Hello folks,

I am back... after have been gone a while with my little self driving project. I am on and off building now and I do need your help. Does anyone here have recommendation for getting the Pick and Place SMD Placement tools? I think I'm ready to spend around $3000 for the okay tool to start. Not demanding like $250k equipment but at least decent start to do the PCB placement/automated soldering.

I saw sparkfun suggested to get the  Charmhigh but I am not quite familiar with it.

https://www.sparkfun.com/sparkx/blog/2586

So, here we are. I need some brief suggestions to start.

[gtr2]

I think you can use Open PNP with that particular machine now.  The stock software is terrible from what I have heard.

What is the reason for the purchase?
Assembly costs are fairly reasonable now for SMD work.

I have looked into it but my time is more valuable than the amount of money it would save me, along with the headaches and cheap machine upkeep.
My other problem is the reflow, for a larger panel that you would be assembling on the machine you need a good reflow process with good profiling.
You also need a way to reliably and accurately paste before the pick and place.  It can be done with a nice stainless steel stencil but it is an art form to get a proper paste thickness.

[m-Kresol]

we've aquired a pick and place machine for R&D purposes (a manual one, more for sake of accuracy, repeatability and die-bonding) from a reputable vendor and we still have some problems that occur from time to time.
I agree with Josh. As long as you're not planing on investing in some other gear too and have a lot of boards to populate, it's easier to let someone else do the job.

[pickdropper]

I think you can use Open PNP with that particular machine now.  The stock software is terrible from what I have heard.

What is the reason for the purchase?
Assembly costs are fairly reasonable now for SMD work.

I have looked into it but my time is more valuable than the amount of money it would save me, along with the headaches and cheap machine upkeep.
My other problem is the reflow, for a larger panel that you would be assembling on the machine you need a good reflow process with good profiling.
You also need a way to reliably and accurately paste before the pick and place.  It can be done with a nice stainless steel stencil but it is an art form to get a proper paste thickness.

I really don't enjoy the paste and stencil process at all.  I'd almost rather solder them by hand.

[alanp]

How good is the PCB Assembly thing with SMD, from the likes of Seeed?

[fair.child]

Guys, thanks for responding. I've been busy lately with demo and test at the moment so I'll be checking the answers back and forth.

One of the reason I want to invest in it because China folks quoted me around $300-$400 for labor placement. The cheapest I can go with surprisingly from MacroFab but it takes lead time about 10-12 days and sometimes longer.

Local/manual assembler charges me $75 per board. Larger qty can go down as $50. But yeah, still costly. I'm aiming around $10-$25 per board labor assembly. That's reasonable than most of other companies quoted me so far.

[pickdropper]

Guys, thanks for responding. I've been busy lately with demo and test at the moment so I'll be checking the answers back and forth.

One of the reason I want to invest in it because China folks quoted me around $300-$400 for labor placement. The cheapest I can go with surprisingly from MacroFab but it takes lead time about 10-12 days and sometimes longer.

Local/manual assembler charges me $75 per board. Larger qty can go down as $50. But yeah, still costly. I'm aiming around $10-$25 per board labor assembly. That's reasonable than most of other companies quoted me so far.

How many boards are you planning on doing per run?

[fair.child]

around 120 boards total. And sneak peek of what I've been working.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpVvKHBH90U/

[pickdropper]

around 120 boards total. And sneak peek of what I've been working.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpVvKHBH90U/

Very cool.  How many parts are on the board?

[fair.child]

I believe around 121 parts as far as I remember

[pickdropper]

I believe around 121 parts as far as I remember

Unless there is something funky, you should be able to get those made pretty close to that labor range if you are building 100+ boards at a time.  Is it all SMT or hybrid?