Homebrew PCBs

These are the reasons why I am making provisions for extra room for more
tools on the head.  At first I was thinking of a tool carrousel, but I'm not
ready for that yet.  The rotation would add yet more 'slop'.

Instead, I'm going to distribute the tools as close to the center of the
work area as possible, and calculate an offset for each tool.  I believe
Mach 2 already has that feature.


"The solder paste could be dispensed via screw-driven syringe
substituting for the drill/mill head."

EXCELLENT idea!  I was racking my brains for a consistent technique of
applying paste.  I kept thinking motor and couldn't get out of that
'groove', a screw is perfect for a slow regular flow control.


"Component placement could be made by a vacuum head able
to articulate at least +/-180* normal to the board."

And another great idea!  I had figured the vacuum part, I was missing the
rotating head.  I already have a Pick and Place file exported from QCAD that
is just sitting there.  The rotation is already determined in the file, the
data is all there waiting to be used.


"Getting this far would be cause for celebration but
a useful addition which quickly comes to mind would
be the addition of a small CMOS camera to the head."

Now that one I already had covered, in fact, I'm going even one step further
with this one.  I have 2 USB cameras waiting by my desk (read pile of junk).
I was initially going to place only 1, but now I intend to place 1 camera on
each axis for a perfect view of alignment.  Small lamps will come handy,
maybe high intensity LEDs.

Check EBay for USB miniature cameras.  The resolution might not be
excellent, but I've bought several magnifying devices through EBay and I'm
going to test adding a DIY mag lense on the camera.

And the last tool remaining would be the via/trackpin gizmo and I've got my
dream machine.

Robert
:)


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