LitePlacer.com forums

Looks like a software bug:

There is hard coded limit of Z 1.6mm below the measured PCB surface. However it does exist thicker PCB's (12+ layers are usually 1.9 or 2mm).
And another possible situation (I have fallen in to this) then double sided pcb is lifted up on supports.

In both cases component tapes glued on table are deeper than 1.6mm from PCB surface, and at each pick process hangs with error "needle below table surface. Continue?". Hitting "Yes" it picks that one component but on next - same story again.

Responsible code in MainForm.cs

...
if (Z>(Properties.Settings.Default.General_ZtoPCB + 1.6))
{
DialogResult dialogResult = ShowMessageBox(
"The operation seems to take the needle below table surface. Continue?",
"Z below table", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);
if (dialogResult == DialogResult.No)
{
return false;
};

Looks more like brain error to me, not thinking the usage situations through. I added a user settable limit to allow moves below PCB level. http://liteplacer.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=295

After update (or coincidence) stopped working at all. Loads some sort of debug version with bunch of strange things (see screen)
At start up throws error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at LitePlacer.TapesClass.AddWidthValues()
at LitePlacer.FormMain.Form1_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)

I'm sorry, my bad. I tried to do a quick update to add this feature, but did a bad job in disabling stuff I'm working on*. There is a fix at the downloads:
Announcement: http://liteplacer.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=299
Software: http://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/Lit ... 4_2016.exe

---
[ > Loads some sort of debug version with bunch of strange things ...

Including the debug info is intentional. If it crashes I'd like to know why and I have no trade secrets to protect (it is open source software, after all). The other strange stuff is because it failed in the middle of initialization, some stuff was set up, some not.

*: I'm adding jig based placement (push a part to a corner so the system knows exactly where to pick it up). For that, we need data about component sizes, that will be at Component Data tab. ]

that leftover extra things are the least problem, no harm. However tape issues are not addressed.
And to the biggest surprise looks that nobody uses official software otherwise such things would be spotted right away.
Don't have time to pinpoint to all the problems now but in short Tapes tab stuff does not work. Formats mixed - tries to save v2, read .tape or vice versa. Extensions not shown. May be uses yet anther format. The end result is - no way to save or load tape files + constant crashes with funny message boxes.
Not to mention camera. Few months older version had no issues with cameras. And tapes. At least here. Now the cameras itself works but after an hour or so on the Job tab the view window appears red crossed white screen. But placing continues normally - means camera works, just not displayed. On the other tabs its view is normal at that time. Smells like video memory management or so.

Thank you for reporting, I will have a look for these issues. I really appreciate reports for issues, as I can't fix something I don't know is broken.

The tapes stuff is fixed. I'm sorry this puzzle took so long to solve. I'm still looking the root cause for the video red cross.