Hello Jon, It is not a retrofit. MyData has used Linux since about 1993 on all of their machines, for a short time before that they used Xenix, but the Xenix versions never worked well. The software is called TpSys, it is a collection of C, Perl, and bash programs, about 300 of them. The design is fantastic and well thought out. They are also extremely reliable, and stable both hardware and software. Here is a video of someone setting up a machine, this video is one of the few that allows you to see the UI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdJxuux0r28 Here is a video of the machine in action. The red flash that you see is the up looking camera. It looks at the parts that the 9 vacuum tweezers (nozzles) are holding as they move past to make a precise measurement of the locations of the pins on the parts so that it can calculate the position offset and rotation of the part when it places it on the board. These machines typically place pins to within 0.0005 inches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-aWoHl6pyM I have extensive experience with these machines, I am happy to answer any questions that you might have about them, but I am not sure that this is the right place to have this conversation unless the rest of the Linuxcnc developers are interested in listening in on this tangent... But since we are here, I will put in my 2 cents worth. I have been following the OpenPnP project for some time, and as far as I can tell, they have some (extremely) good ideas, but they are headed in the wrong direction. It is not likely ever going to be in a position to be a good retrofit tool for anything, it will likely only work good on hobby machines. In the PnP world, there is a totally different focus between hobby and professional machines. In the machining world, this difference is much smaller currently, but it is just a matter of time until the machining world makes the same changes that the PNP world has made 25 years ago, and at at that time, there will be a huge difference between hobby and production machines that will make them differ enough that it will not make any sense to use the same software for both roles. Until this happens, Linuxcnc is nearly always a huge upgrade in all aspects (with the exception of the UI) for any machine that you retrofit with it, hobby or professional. To answer your other comment; The entire concept of using G-code for a PnP machine is not a good idea on any level. However, Linuxcnc can help here. You can control Linuxcnc directly with its Python API, so it would be a good match to use Linuxcnc to handle the realtime robotics and IO, but the PnP logic would have to be created. If someone were to do this (properly), such a project would be a likely retrofit for old PnP machines. -Neil-
On Sat, Dec 26, 2015 at 4:55 PM, Jon Elson <[email protected]> wrote: > On 12/26/2015 12:36 PM, Neil Whelchel wrote: > > Hello Chris, > > The reference to MyData is a pick and place machine that is used to > > assemble circuit boards. Check out > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56hQ0oBJ4xk Those machines are about the > > best example I can think of for a well done application of Linux and > > robotics. TpSys (the software that runs the machine) has many > similarities > > to Linuxcnc. In addition, TpSys has many features that I would like to > see > > in Linuxcnc: > > > > > Is this a stock MyData, or a retrofit? > > I have a Philips CSM84, a 1990's P&P machine wi8th a '286 > CPU running it. it has amazing ability to handle pick-up > errors and just keep running. Mine doesn't have the vision > system, so chuck jaws are how the small parts are aligned. > It has a mechanical alignment station for the big chips. > > I've looked at some software such as openPnP, but they > really seem to have no error recovery function. I know I > could retrofit my machine with LinuxCNC if I ever needed to, > but strict G-code would not allow any error recovery. > > So, I'm interested in what you have running, there, on the > MyData. > > Thanks, > > Jon > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-developers mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
