LitePlacer.com forums

On this thread, I'll post announcements for new software releases and betas. Discussion should happen in other threads. This is so, that you can subscribe to this thread and get alerts when there is something new, but are not distracted about discussions.

New beta version of the software

https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... 2-2020.exe

This is the download link to the exe itself. This is not an install program, just copy the exe to your liteplacer directory. As far as I know, <this can live together with the official release*>, but a backup copy of the directory is recommended.
Discussion of new version and its betas at: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6304
About this version specifically: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6304&p=10121#p10121 onwards

edit: <*>: This needs data from a working setup. There will be another beta soon.

Latest beta of the new version:

Download link to exe: https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... 2_2020.exe. Use this if you already use LitePlacer; just copy the exe to your liteplacer directory.
Download link to install: https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... 2_2020.exe. Use this if you are just starting with LitePlacer and want to go directly to the new version.

Largely untested beta as my machine is broken. So, proceed with caution. Still, if you want to try, here is the exe: https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... 1_2021.exe

Notable changes since last beta:
- Vision can search for components by outline (as in the official software)
- Vision can search for components by pads (visible pads make up a component). For this to work, we need:
- capability to filter features by size (ex. throw away everything smaller than 0.1 and larger than 2mm)
- option to draw results on top of unprocessed image (known issue: doesn't work if measurement zoom is used)

Here is the latest exe: https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... _02021.exe
I built also an install file: https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... 1_2021.exe

This might be the release version. From now on, I don't intend to develop it much further right now, unless severe bugs or easily implemented good ideas come up. Rather, I'll write the documentation to make this the official version.

Notable changes since last beta:
- option to draw results on top of unprocessed image works with zoom also
- bug fixes
- tape setup allows jogging with z down
- esc key works on table edit
- retry option on vision errors (with ability to jog, tune vision algorithms etc before retry)
- ability to jog machine before measurement (customer request: allows using a via as a fiducial on a very tight board, for example)

A quick bug and usability fix, the exe: https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... 2-2021.exe

No install file this time.

Fixes:
"Reset Placed" button did not reset.
Moved camera location and nozzle setup back to algorithms page. (Although they logically belong to camera setup, you need them when setting up the algorithms.)

Yet another beta release, the exe: https://www.liteplacer.com/Downloads/be ... _04_04.exe

Changes and fixes:

- Nozzle height calibration routine rewritten. This was unfortunate, but had to be done. There was a serious issue with the old routine: quitting the process at a bad moment would leave the TinyG in to a state, that you couldn't get out without digging deep into the TinyG internals.
- Loose part pickup fixed
- Kill color, keep color image processing functions now work better
- Pick color function issue fixed
- Move resolution cosistently set to 1um. No more "goto 2.99999999994" style commands.
- Minor UI and bug fixes

Release candidate for next version. More info at viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6390

New software release, date 18.06.2021:

Installation file: https://liteplacer.com/Downloads/LitePl ... 6_2021.exe

(The beta is now in better shape than the official release, so I retired the old version.)

Compared to the official version:

This is a major release; if I would use traditional version numbers, this would be 2.0.0. Compared to the official version: The major change is the updated vision algorithm, allowing unlimited number of vision algorithms, filtering the acceptable result candidates for size and distance etc. There are also numerous bug fixes and small improvements.

Breaking changes:

The old vision algorithms are not imported. Please take a screenshot of your existing setups (or just redo them, it is easy).

The Z height calibration needs to be redone.


Issues fixed from the latest beta release:

-Clicking on the image gave wrong size move with show processing on and zoom was used
-Filter features by size did not take zoom into size calculation
-Placing 0402 resistors with only 3 or 4 parts picked up from wrong position (fixed, sort of. Now, the first hole needs to be good.)
-On old tape files, an error about bad data in capacity was sometimes reported
-No crash if all nozzle change move slots are full

New software release, date 28.06.2021:

Installation file: https://liteplacer.com/Downloads/LitePl ... 2021-B.exe

* Added frame rate measurement to camera setup
* Added also the nominal frame rate promise from the camera
* AForge vision libraries updated; this should give better video performance
* Warning for measurement using default pixel size
* Box now zooms with the rest of the display

Note, that a wrong file was up for a while. If you downloaded a file without the -B ending, please re-install from the above link.