I was just catching up on some episodes of The Amp Hour and heard about this DIY Pick and Place Machine by Build Your Own CNC Router Machine. I love the fact that the entire thing has been constructed from everyday items. It isn’t the fastest thing but I love machines that you can program and walk away and get something else done while it completes the task. If you thought a normal CNC machine had enough steppers on it already you will note that this has an additional stepper motor to allow for the part alignment. I like the way the picking tip also feeds the tape strip to expose the next part. This way there isn’t a need for extra solenoids, wiring, electronics etc. Looks like the tip can handle the pulling motion without any issue but a small future upgrade would be to add a way for the head to press an advancing lever with a nub mounted on the pick and place head.

“A few points of update:  the software used for all ofthge pick and place is EMC2 running under Ubuntu Linux.  The control language is g-code and almost every feature of this language was used to make the final control easy to use.  Three main sub g-code programs have ben created.  The main g-code subroutine contains all of the camera offset, feed specifications, rotation compensation and the levels of various places on the machine.  The tape and banks are held in another file that defines their x and y part locations for picking.  The final subroutine takes care of tool changes (vacuum cup changes).  The main file that users will have the most interaction with is a file that contains all of the place locations, orientaion specs and choice of tape from which to pick that part.“