Phil's got a new toy :)

[phil744]

And no its not the front end of another mothballed airliner..

Well chaps, and of course chapesses, decided to treat one self to a new toy in the workshop, and we all love toys as we are nothing more than big kids (well I am ) 

As you know each panel i make has inserted on the rear side a PCB assembly stuffed with tiny surface mount LED's and resistors, the basic package size of what i use are 0603/0805, in short very very small, i have many people over at the shop and when i show them the types of components i use the reaction is always the same "how the hell do you solder those???"

You all have seen the wacky stuff i make and those boards with hundreds of these tiny LED's on there.  And yes, i solder each one by hand. The end result is well worth it but if you take for example the fuel/HYD panel from the airbus overhead there are 222 individual components that i have to manually solder, it takes a long time to assemble just one panel in a set of 14.

And if I'm honest, hand assembly of backlighting PCB boards is so 1970's,  handling bare copper boards by hand is not best practise, grease from fingerprints can cause corrosion issues down the line unless you wash and conformal coat the boards aftwards.  Wearing latex gloves does work but you go through so many,  the people at the department store where i get them from now think i have some kinky fetish thing going on.

So, to get around this issue i got myself a little automatic surface mount machine, its job is to pick the required components out of the reel and place them where i need them, very simple.  Also got the the auto board unloader to reflow oven also. simply put, i drop a board onto the machine, press start, and that's all i have to do now, everything is completely automatic.  The only required after process is attach the back light connector and conformal coat. in short about 90% of the work is done for me, perfect every time.

saying that i cant install the entire line until the workshop extention is complete

You can ask any panel maker and the answer will always be the same, the bulk of the cost in any product is the labour involved with manufacturing the product, they are labour intensive things to make, that don't matter if its a panel or a yoke, everything takes time to make (i know i learned the hard way hehehe) so hopefully by going the more automated route should have a positive impact on pricing, should come in handy for the 737 later this year.

Anyhow, pics and a quick video of its first trial run, 1/2 speed on a 767 nav1 PCB (no paste just double sided tape as im still testing and learning)

Pick and place

[philb737]

Congratulation mate,
I can't wait for more 737 stuff!!! I need a  Selcal panel.
Cheers
Phil

[jackpilot]

Phil One
Real nice toy, Impressive.
When do you start taking custom orders?

Phil 2
Selcal

[ebay]390336826327[/ebay]

[XOrionFE]

Wow, that is really amazing Phil.   Can't wait to see the stuff you come up with now....

Scott

[philb737]

Thanks Jack,
I'm just looking for the NG style panel, so I can use my own custom hardware.

[bnepethomas]

Now that's a real man-toy, seriously cool. Never thought we'd see one of those outside of a serious assembly line.

Cheers

Peter

[hexpope]

Loving the new machine Phil. After reading your first post, and I can totally understand why you decided to buy this machine.

[Trevor Hale]

The Video is awesome.  I have to ask, and maybe it was asked above, but what happens after the pick and place?  is it actually going to be able to solder the component at the same time?  fantastic.. I have seen through hole pcb construction with wave solder machines, but this is amazing.

Trev

[hexpope]

Judging by his post trev, and also that machine model, I think it places, and solders them through IR.

simply put, i drop a board onto the machine, press start, and that's all i have to do now, everything is completely automatic.  The only required after process is attach the back light connector and conformal coat. in short about 90% of the work is done for me, perfect every time.

[dnoize]

the machine now placed the components on double sided tape. in a real run they would be placed onto solder paste (does the machine apply the paste or would you have to do it manually using a mask phil ?).
Next it would go to a reflow oven where the parts get soldered.

Stef

[phil744]

Yup, i have the head attachment for it to dispense solder paste, but i dont like using this method, so instead use solder stencil, faster and much better.

Be honest with you for backlight PCB boards on 0.4mm FR4 its the only way to go, looked into glue dispense and invert wave solder, but every PCB board i have is different and it would take years to tool cradles up for each board.

Fly home tomorrow, cant wait to give it a spin for real

[phil744]

Awww, Got to think of a name for her, and yes i am openly admitting that i am sad enough to give all my machines names, should get out more.....

(expecting next post to be by Maurice)

Jack's Edit:


Amélia??

[hexpope]

Great work Phil, you made me chuckle when you put the cam on or at the arm following it's movements.

If I get stuck with a tight spot for back lighting, I might give you a shout with a PCB schematic if you have the time of course.