Hi,

I am working for a chair at the University of Technology Berlin Germany and we are interested in your entry PnP machine. I have a couple of technical and organizational questions. Our background is: we are designing basically only prototypes with a quantity between one and 10 maybe 20 PCBs. Until now we are populating smaller boards by hand with a microscope (footprints 0201 (some), most 0402, often QFN but also some BGAs) and larger/complex boards with EMS companies. We are thinking of pushing the ratio between doing it by ourself and EMS companies a little bit to doing more by our selfs. For that reason we think of buying a machine to take over the workload of the most parts during the placement (mainly 0402, some QFN or SOT...) and doing the hard components by hand with the microscope.

Now the questions:
1. You show in a video, that you can handle 0201 components with the VP-2500DP, does that hold for the VP-2000S? Anyway, can the VP-2000S reliable place 0402 components?
2. We do use mostly cut tapes, what is the minimum length of cut tapes for the drag feeder and can shorter tapes be clued to a tray and used from there?
3. Question 2 but what is the minimum length for the VP-2500DP push feeder?
4. is the VisionPlacer 3 software compatible with the VP-2000S, it seams to have quite some advantages.
5. I read in the forum, that you will charge a 500$ fee for the VisionPlacer 3 software, is that also the case for machines which would be bought after the release of V3?

Some organizational questions about purchasing, if you can not / don't want to answer them publicly, I can also write you an email.
6. as a German University and a state organization, we can only buy via invoice with the payment after the invoice/delivery. There is NO way around that bureaucracy at our university, even if we would want to.
7. Also buying from foreign companies is a bit of a problem for us because of bureaucracy within the university. Is there any distributor at least in Europe (best in Germany) from whom we could buy?

Best Regards
Thomas

Hi,

thanks for the answers.

About the software, is it planned that VisionPlacer 3 supports drag feeder or will that probybly never come?

About the German machines, the interesting part of the VP-2000S is the price point arround 4000$. The german machines with 10000+$ are already in a price range where an investment is a much bigger step and harder to justify (and also there are other companies around for that price). Also the German machines seem to be oversized for what we want. Are there any plans to have a simpler / cheeper version of the German machines available?

On your website you have IMDES CREATIVE SOLUTIONS as a distributor for the BENELUX countries. Is it possible to order the VP-2000S via IMDES?

Buying from a chinese company might be possible, but we have no way arround paying via invoice after the machine would arrive (and as a University, I think we a thrustworthy enough...). Would that be somehow possible or not at all?

Hi Thomas,

You can create a small feeder with 10 or 20 resistors or transistors. I put a small strip with double-sided adhesive and then remove the plastic tape from the strip. Then adjust the feeder coordinates and go. A little time is wasted but it can be done without having to buy a lot of resistors.

Attached picture.

Regards,
Ricardo

Hi Ricardo,

thanks for the tip and the picture. But anyway as it seems there might not be a chance for us to purchase such a machine (since it seems it can not be ordered with invoice payment, an university rules are strict in Germany). I will be on the Berlin Maker Fair in June, maybe I can talk with IMDES and smallsmt there about that issue.

Best Regards
Thomas