[time-nuts] OT stuffing boards: was GPS interface/prototyping board

[Bob Camp]

Hi

You can indeed get a pick and place for under a thousand dollars. I wold not use one of them, but they do exist. It all depends on how much of an “advantage” you want over a hand place approach. A half way decent screen printer will run $500. Some sort of reflow setup will be a couple hundred. You can go cheap on the printer and get it down to $100 or so. A rebuilt toaster oven will run $20 or less. It all is a matter of how much hassle / how tight pitch you want to deal with.

Bob

> On Jun 23, 2016, at 6:38 PM, Bob Stewart <bob at evoria.net> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Bob et al,
> 
> This is about what I expected, but I had to ask.  I wonder how long it'll take for that several thousand bucks for a pick-n-place machine to become a couple hundred?  That would be the final hurdle for the tiny electronics business.
> 
> Anyway, I've had my say and we can let this die.  Thanks for the responses!
> 
> Bob
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> GFS GPSDO list:
> groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GFS-GPSDOs/info
> 
> --------------------------------------------
> On Thu, 6/23/16, Bob Camp <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
> 
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT stuffing boards: was GPS interface/prototyping board
> To: "Bob Stewart" <bob at evoria.net>, "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Date: Thursday, June 23, 2016, 5:27 PM
> 
> Hi
> 
> Around here, assuming:
> 
> 1) You supply all the parts on full reels with
> leaders 
> 2) There is no hand assembly
> work
> 3) You already have framed stencils
> that are the correct size for their gear
> 4)
> You have multiple proper solder and placement fiducials  on
> both sides
> 5) The boards are designed to
> mount on their gear
> 6) Your parts and design
> rules fit their gear and rules. 
> 7) No
> electrical test, visual inspect only. 
> 8)
> Best effort only, If the part does not solder etc, you
> replace it on your time.
> 
> You can get various places to look at a batch
> for $500 to $1000. If your stencils !=
> their
> stencils figure $100 to $200 each. 
> 
> If you want to ship things a ways, you can save
> a bit of money. Shipping plus packing 
> always seems to be a bit expensive. 
> 
> By far the best approach is to
> get all of their rules before you start a board layout.
> Then
> do it in whatever arrays / panel size
> they are set up for and all the other little details. 
> 
> This all starts to make a lot
> more sense to the local outfits when you are talking a few
> hundred boards. 
> Even more so if it is a few
> hundred boards a month, every month for a few years. 
> 
> ====
> 
> Some math:
> 
> 120
> parts on 10 boards is 1200 parts. A good machine will do
> that in < 6 minutes. Setting up the machine, 
> loading and unloading the machine, pulling
> boards on and off the machine, programming the whole thing,
> 
> validating everything ….. that’s an
> afternoon’s worth of work (maybe more) and maybe an hour
> of down time
> on the machine. 
> 
> ====
> 
> Of course for a few thousand dollars you can
> buy your own pick and place machine …. 
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
>> On Jun 23, 2016, at 3:28 PM, Bob Stewart
> <bob at evoria.net>
> wrote:
>> 
>> One more
> related question before this topic dies, if you don't
> mind.  What about the other side of building: stuffing the
> boards.  My GPSDOs have about 120 parts per board, plus
> some custom work on the SMA connectors.  Is there a service
> out there that will populate boards with SMT components for
> small orders at a reasonable price?  Small is 10 boards.
>> 
>> Bob - AE6RV
>> 
>> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> GFS GPSDO list:
>> 
> groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GFS-GPSDOs/info
>> 
>> 
> --------------------------------------------
>> On Wed, 6/22/16, Clint Jay <cjaysharp at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> 
>> Subject:
> Re: [time-nuts] RS232 / GPS interface/prototyping board
>> To: "Discussion of precise time and
> frequency measurement" <time-nuts at febo.com>,
> "Nick Sayer" <nsayer at kfu.com>
>> Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016, 6:06 PM
>> 
>> Life is so much
> easier
>> now,  dirtypcb is a great
> service,  I have a pile of
>> boards here
> from them which are far greater
>> quality
> than anything I could
>> hope to
>> produce at home or even in the lab I used
> to have. 
>> They're also
>> better quality than any of
>> the local board houses I used in the
> past.
>> 
>> Having said
> that,  I did hand
>> manufacture fifty
> single sided boards from
>> photo laminate
> to completed product in one
>> weekend
> using a Dremel drill
>> press for
>> somewhere around four thousand holes and
> hand soldering
>> every
>> component so it was definitely
>> possible
>> On 23 Jun
> 2016 00:01, "Nick
>> Sayer via
> time-nuts" <time-nuts at febo.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
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