Anyone want to be my enabler?
5 Likes
I’d have thought you’d be better off with one of the yoocnc 3020 cnc machines from eBay. Way cheaper and you can do real cnc manufacturing with it too.
Link? Searching eBay for “yoocnc” is only returning a controller. No CNCs.
http://www.carving-cnc.com
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/190834245222?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=m&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108
Apparently, they’re much more popular on the UK eBay than the U.S. However, the ones listed look very different than the ones on their site. They’re either a really old design or they’re clones. Nice deal, though.
Seems to be plenty when I search the US site.
By making a stencil perhaps.
That’s the nice thing about the this machine – it’s an all-in-one prototyping machine. In one day you can go through various iterations, without having to deal with the chemicals of the photo-resist (it’s fine if you’re used to it, it’s just not for me).
About the only part that I’m not sure that I’d use is placing tool, seems tedious to have to replace the strips like that (but then again I’ve not manually placed 0403, so I may change my mind :D)
You can send out to get stencils, but that would take at least a day – unless somewhere local has a company doing that.
About the only thing it can’t do (from my perspective) is the silk screening, but that’s minor for me.
After getting a working proof of concept, I would send it out to DFRobot, OSHPark or the like for a board that would be an accurate production representation.
But you pay dearly for this convenience.
As you say, after the first tester you want to send out to get the pcbs and stencils made professionally.
The pick and place would be awesome for that final stage, but I didn’t see any computer vision built in so the accuracy would be rubbish especially for 0402s. Most pro systems take a quick snapshot of the component after its been picked up to correct for rotation and offsets of the components in the trays/reels.