PCB file importing

SMT50 pick-and-place videos with english translations.

The SMT50 is a cheap, vision enabled pick-and-place machine from China. After buying this machine I had english transcripts created for its instructional videos to help me understand how to use it. Because I like the machine, and because these videos might help others, I’m putting the transcripts and videos here. The transcripts are the first comment with time links into the video for easy reference.

[aanon]

ENGLISH TRANSCRIPT:

Introducing the PCB’s file import. Let’s take a sample PCB file from Protel 99. Open file. Desktop. We can’t find it, so let’s go back and open the other PCB file.

(00:46) Open this PCB file. First, set up the original point. Everything is based on the original point. Go to Origin and Set. If you want more precision, then enlarge the view so you can see better. Next, we will open a .txt document. 

(01:24) Click CAM Manager. A few more next. 

(01:47) F9. Yes to All. Document. CAM for Adjust Tool. Export the .txt file. Close. The file is on the desktop. Now let’s open it in the software.

(02:37) Click on “File”, “New Operation”. “No”. Click on “Component”. Add a new Diagram. It’s empty. Add a new PCB. It is empty now. Right click. Import PCB Coordinate file. Select Protel 99. “Open PCB Coordinate Data File”. Open the .txt file on the desktop. 

(03:33) “Import everything into operation”. OK. Open PCB1. Now we got all these values in there. 

(04:19) Let’s look at the Component Management. Component Name: R27. Component Type: Capacitor. Component Package:YS. X and Y coordinate. Rotation angle. Component Number. Component Material Rack Number. PCB. Mount or not. Vision Centering. Centering Type: IC. Confirm. 

(05:03) We can change these values. 

(05:24) Mount or not. Click to disable. No Need Mounting. Need Mounting. Component List.

(05:45) Vision Centering. Click to disable. 

(05:52) Material Rack Number. WE can get the number through “Material Belt Measurement”. This is not correct. 

(06:08) We actually get the number from the “Material Rack”. Click on Material Rack 2, the number is 2. PCB1 component. They contain all the values. So these are steps to import. After import, if you want to save, click Save. It’s displayed up there. 

(07:19) Open a new file. This file was previously made. So let’s open it. The coordinates of components on the PCB must match the ones on the material rack.  For example, click here, the Component name is R27, the corresponding material rack number is 2, it’s needed by R27, all these need to be set properly. 

(08:20) Material Rack. Component. They both need to match. The Material Rack also needs to match the Material Belt. You can see in this Material Rack that the Material Belt is 8mm West. Double click. The direction is 8mm West. So these 3 things: Material Rack, Component, Material Belt, they all need to be matching with each other. If they are not matched properly, there will be problem with the position and direction. 

(09:12) Material Rack Management. Number: 2. The red boxes need to be filled. Some of these can be set by yourself. 

(09:38) Angle of Component in Material Rack: 90. Number. Leave it at 0. Thickness. Length. Width. Measure these with a ruler. X and Y coordinate. The 0 is clear. X is measure. X is based on the Suction Nozzle coordinate. The third one is to obtain coordinates through the camera. 

(10:47) Method for Providing Material. Various motors. 

(10:57) Rows and Columns Table. Configure Rows and Columns Table. Add and remove components. Add Rows and Columns. The order is such that it starts from the top left, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ……If one box is empty, it will skip to the next box. During mounting, it will automatically search for the components on these rows and columns. 

(12.26) We will not discuss this since we don’t need it.

(12:33) Suction Nozzle Number. 1, 1.2, 2.5. These come from the Suction Nozzle Repository Management. You can see the values match. This is used for Auto-Switch Suction Nozzle, it will be able to automatically search for the Suction Nozzle. If it’s 1, it will search for 1’s position. 

(13:20) Get component by inspection. We don’t use this function. But click Yes if you need it. 

(13:28) Camera for Vision Centering. There are 2 of them. 

(12:45) Activate Pinpoint Assistant. We can pinpoint marker locations inside IC components, during mounting it will search for the marker locations to help in centering. This is used for high precision mounting. 

(14:20) On the right side, are Independent Settings. Component Suction Height. The height between component and Suction Nozzle will take effect. It will override the height of Automatic Switch Suction Nozzle and other height in settings. Let’s take a look. 

(14:51) One of them is a height value in the Suction Nozzle Management. It will override the “Height between Suction Nozzle and Suction Material”. It will also override another height value in Other Settings, the “Vertical Distance between Suction Nozzle Head and Component on Material Rack”. These two values will give way to the overridden value. Ticking the “Activate” box will activate the new height value, 10. 

(15:33) The one on top is Suction Nozzle, the one on the bottom is the Resistor. This height is independent. This is for use on special components.  

(15:43) Speed of Mounting. Choose Normal Mounting Speed. If you need a certain speed, then click the drop down menu. These values are generated in the Speed Simulation. You can add any special values of speed in it. 

(16:12) Vision Centering Test Speed. Some IC are very big, the Suction Nozzle might not have enough suction power to handle them, problems will arise if the process of mounting is too fast, causing the IC to shake. So clicking on this will cause the speed to be slower. After activating this, the speed can be customized independently. All these speed values are from the Speed Simulation.

(16:43) Suction Material Mounting Z axis Speed. This is the speed of lowering or going downwards. This can also be set up with an independent value. All these speed values can be customized. 

(17:08) This is “Size of Vision Centering Effective Area”. It is represented by the red box. This is used for ICs with different sizes. This will help in increasing precision during mounting and vision centering. 

(17:45) You can right click here. Add Material Rack, Modify Material Rack, Delete Material Rack, Copy, Paste, these are basic ones. This is “Test Move Suction Nozzle to Coordinate”. Clicking this will cause the Suction Nozzle to move to the coordinate, X=11.7694, Y=-113. When it has moved to that point, use your hands to press down the Suction Nozzle to see if it is centered on the component. If it is not, then adjust these X and Y values. Use ALT + Shift + Arrowkeys to adjust the coordinate. 

(18:46) Test Move Mark Camera to Coordinate. Clicking on this will move the Mark camera to this coordinate X=11.7694, Y=-113. We will go into these in more detail later. 

(19:10) Test Move Pulling Material Head to Pulling Material Hole.

(19:17) Deliver Material Test. It will deliver the material to the coordinate.

(19:32) Rows and Columns Table Management. We have talked about this before. 

(19:43) Component. These components are on the PCB1. Right click, you will get these menu. Add Component, Modify Component, Delete Component, Copy, Paste. This is “Test Move Suction Nozzle to Coordinate”. Similar to what we have talked about in the Material Rack. “Test Move Mark Camera to Coordinate”. This will let you inspect the coordinate with the camera. 

(20:19) Current Coordinate Actions. PCB, Mark 1, Mark 2. 

(20:53) Click on PCB 1 Type. 

(21:09) PCB Name: PCB1. Distance between PCB Zero Point and Restore Point. X 93, X-151. We can look at the graphic. 

(22:14) This one. Restore Position Settings. Top Left Corner. This is X positive and this is Y negative. 

(22:42) It matches with this, X must be positive and Y must be negative.