Hi! I'm new to pick and place, and I'm interested in buying a VP-2500HP for my small business (I am very tired of loading boards by hand, especially QFNs). I have a few questions. I've looked through this forum and other forums, and I haven't found answers, so hopefully someone here can answer my questions. Thanks in advance!
1) I would like to make sure that I understand the air pressure that I need to give to the machine. I was expecting that I would need a vacuum pump, but it looks like I actually need to provide a compressor with positive pressure to the machine. I see on http://www.smallsmt.biz/home/vision-placer-vp-2x00d/ that "Vacuum generation inside needs
Compressed air 6 Bar 110L/min oil free!" Would something like this work: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-30-Gal-175-psi-High-Performance-Quiet-Portable-Electric-Air-Compressor-C303H/206532808 ? Doing the conversions, this compressor would deliver a positive pressure of 144L/min at 6.2bar. I just want to make sure that I am not confused about what the VP-2500HP needs.

2) I have some LGA 14 pin parts that I receive in ESD foam from Mouser. Can the VP-2500HP pick these parts right off of the foam if I secure the foam to the machine (for example near the tray) or do I need to manually put the loose parts into the tray? See this picture that I took: . Also, here are the LGA pad dimensions from the datasheet:

3) I am working with small batches of boards (sometimes only 3 boards for prototypes!), so I use a lot of cut tape. What is the best way to use cut tape on the VP-2500HP? Should I stick it to the tray with double-sided tape? Can I put it in one of the feeders? How short can the tape be in the feeders?

4) I want to get a vibration feeder, and it looks like I could put about 10 different tubes of SOIC parts in the feeder at one time. I am assuming that the VP-2500HP can pick parts from the feeder when there are several different parts next to each other in the feeder. In the video that I watched, there was only one tube in the feeder, so I want to make sure that the feeder can handle multiple parts at the same time.

I am very impressed with what I have been seeing in the videos about the VP-2500HP! I'm really hoping this machine will work for me because it looks really good. Thanks again for your help.|addpics|9s2-1-e42e.jpg-invaddpicsinvv,9s2-2-4434.jpg-invaddpicsinvv|/addpics|

Hi Michael,
Thank you so much for your answers, and thank you for answering quickly. I understand your answers. I also have some questions about the feeders:

1: Can I get a custom arrangement of East and West feeders, or is 8mm the only option for those feeders?

2: Do you offer any 32mm feeders? I have one connector that comes in 32mm tape. The height is 12.7mm, and I am hoping that I can place this part using your VP-2500HP. I know this is a little higher than the maximum component height. Here is the part datasheet. Do I have any hope of making this part work with the VP-2500HP?

3: For the North feeder, I do not want any 8mm tapes. Instead, I would like a custom option. Can you tell me which of these options will work?
A: 3x24mm + 5x16mm + 6x12mm
B: 3x24mm + 5x16mm + 7x12mm
C: 3x24mm + 4x16mm + 7x12mm
D: 2x24mm + 6x16mm + 7x12mm
E: 1x32mm + 3x24mm + 4x16mm + 5x12mm

Thank you again very much for your fast response. I am very excited about getting your machine because I have heard such good comments on other forums. People on other forums say that you do a very good job of providing support -- thank you!

Hi Michael,
This is very helpful information. I am currently making a spreadsheet in Excel of all of my parts for all of my boards based on my KiCad BOM's so that I can decide what is the best configuration for me. I think I will probably get the NWE machine with custom North and East feeders. It will take me some time to put together my spreadsheet, but I will post again when I'm done. Thanks again!

Regarding spare parts like feeders, pumps, I got a link to share. http://www.robotdigg.com/category/27/SMT,+AI+n+Laser

I may have some settings wrong, and it's possible that there's new software available...

That said my experience has been that the vision software isn't precise enough to place QFN. VP-2500D from 1/2016, v1.0013 software. The machine itself can hold those tolerances, but I'm having issues reliably getting even a SOIC-16 to be imaged and placed consistently. The said, jellybean 0805 parts work very well.

As an edit to my post above re: accuracy, I've made several changes to our setup which have made a big difference in the machine's operation.

For reference, this is a VP-2500 running 1.0013 software.

1. All larger parts (SOIC16, voltage regulators, SMC diodes, etc) were moved to nozzle #2 with a larger suction cup. I noticed that with a smaller nozzle, the parts would sometimes rotate after they'd been inspected by the camera, leading to incorrect mounting. This seemed to be a function of mechanical vibrations in the machine. I chose a nozzle with a larger diameter (for more suction power) and a suction cup which was large, but not so wide as to overlap the pins on a SOIC chip.

2. After changing nozzles, the larger parts were picked up properly but the machine wouldn't register their presence. It would keep re-picking them. To fix this, I changed the default suction value in the feeder properties menu from 27 down to 10. This lower value was enough to signal to the machine that the part had been captured.

3. I changed the speed for all of these larger parts to 'take the chip speed.' It slows down the entire run, but in exchange there's less touchup work required.

Hope this is useful to someone down the line.

As a further update, one of our vacuum generators became clogged, which lead to the lower suction levels mentioned above. The part was disassembled, cleaned thoroughly, and then replaced. Working well now.