LitePlacer.com forums

Hi,
Maybe its just me, and maybe I have missed something about the LitePlacer software. If so, please tell me how you do it.....

First of all I like the LitePlacer machine. It performs really great, the support from Juha has been quick and perfect. So for anyone who might reads this and maybe are in doubt of ordering one. Don't be in doubt, just order one!:)

Now to the case, I have 2 pick place machines, and I'm spending alot of time on both machines, correcting the rotational data I get when recieving a pick&place file. Some times the data does not make any sense at all, and "rotational" collum could have been blank and it would make no difference.

My question is,how do you guys correct these data?
Unless you have some smart way of doing it, that I haven't found, I have thought of a function in the LitePlacer software that could help with this issue.

Would it be a good idea if you could correct the rotation when in the "Run Job" page, you select a component and press "Measured location" The cam then hovers over the spot and an arrow shows the rotation of the component. If the arrow shows the wrong rotation, you have button you click to have the Arrow to rotate. When you are happy with it the new rotation data will be stored in the pick & place file.

Hope my suggestion is understandable:)

Kind regards
Michael

Is the fundamental reason for the issue a bad PnP file, the interpretation of it or just that the CAD system doesn't output the data in the first place? Could you send me a file with this issue, so I can see if the read in routine can be made better?

> Would it be a good idea if you could correct the rotation when in the "Run Job" page, you select a component and press "Measured location" The cam then hovers over the spot and an arrow shows the rotation of the component. If the arrow shows the wrong rotation, you have button you click to have the Arrow to rotate. When you are happy with it the new rotation data will be stored in the pick & place file.

I get what you are saying. This would be one way to address the issue, and might be a more intuitive way to set the rotation on the tape correctly. I'll have a look how much work this would be.

You are the only person so far that tells me about the data problem. Are there others? In general, if there is a data file that LitePlacer doesn't read in correctly, I'd like to see it.

Hi,

LitePlacer reads the file correctly. No problem at all.
What I mean is that when a person designs a pcb. They do not pay attention to how the tapes are located on a given machine, or how the components are placed on the tapes.

The result of that is that the rotation data you receive is not for much as, as you always need to corrects to suite the tapes you are using and how those tapes a placed in a machine.

Is it understandable?

Kind regards
Michael

Here is my view of this:

I would think that it safe to assume that the alignment of a part is the same for a part type per job; in other words, the part should have come from a part library. So, let's say you have a 0805 diode in 0 deg. rotation on your board, and anode points to right. If there is another diode at 90 deg. rotation, the anode points up. (Development idea: Do we need provision for cad data that rotates the part clockwise for positive angles?) You set this rotation in the tape definition, so the software knows which way the part is in the tape pocket. You also tell the software which way the tape is. These two are not related, so getting the rotation right is a two-way step.

You can check the rotation of the part on the tapes page. When you select a cell in the tapes dialog (to identify the tape), you can put a number to the alignment text box and click show part; the machine locates the part and draws the arrow. If that is the wrong way, you correct that with the rot. drop-down. The rotations on the board are taken care of automatically.

If I get your right, you are asking a hot key to change the rotation in the tape data when looking at a part on the board to make that two-step thinking more intuitive or correct it, if you didn't get it right? Makes sense.

Hi,

"If I get your right, you are asking a hot key to change the rotation in the tape data when looking at a part on the board to make that two-step thinking more intuitive or correct it, if you didn't get it right? Makes sense."

Yes excactly!:)

Problem with just changing the tape orientation is that I sometimes experience, it's not enough. In this situation you have to correct the data of that single component in the pick&place file. For solving this issue I think that a Hot Key would be genius.

Kind regards
Michael

Hi,
Have you thought about the possibilty of a hot key?

Kind regards
Michael