Wiki Pick & Place

[stewi]

Intrigued by another thread (daedalus) I would like to open a site for a Wiki-Pick'n'place project, pretty much like Rapid Distributed Problem Solving

I have many years experience in fast pace electronic assembly machines and some of you may already know me from open source postings.

The idea is to share our combined resources and come up with a product, beating commercial machines by a large margin in price, reliability and performance.

The poll will help to get an idea of who would be:
interested
contribute
participate

[Larken]

Hey I got an idea .... Why don't you actually start a company that employs people in this bad economy to make pick and place machines !

Open source projects are usually started by financially secure people with an axe to grind ! Whats your story ?

Lets ruin another industry. Hey we have CNC routers under $1000, fully built controllers under $400 (wow the person makes $20 ) lots of stepper drives for under $60. And we have millions of people without Jobs !

[phomann]

Hmmm.. Sounds like your the one with an axe to grind.

I don't quite get it. Are you saying that we should buy overpriced goods just so we can prop up inefficient businesses. What exactly is your beef here?

A classic example is the SMT paste dispensers. A foot operated switch to an adjustable monstable operating a pneumatic air valve. Only $4000. What a steal. Literally.

So many products in the SMT assembly process are over priced. They have themselves to blame. That said I'm not sure that the pick and place machine is one of them.

If you don't like the concept of this, then don't join in.

Cheers,

Peter.

[stewi]

The wikiplacer project is already going full speed and we'll post our progress on WikiPlacer this week.
We have decided to build a single nozzle, single head table top machine for the hobby market, which we'll sell in a kit format.
We consider these entry level machines a market, which create new jobs and we'll try our best avoiding copy clones from China.

[Larken]

Originally Posted by phomann I don't quite get it. Are you saying that we should buy overpriced goods just so we can prop up inefficient businesses. What exactly is your beef here? A classic example is the SMT paste dispensers. A foot operated switch to an adjustable monstable operating a pneumatic air valve. Only $4000. What a steal. Literally.

Is anyone forcing you to buy overpriced goods ? I'm sure if you look on ebay you can get a foot switch for $100.
Just because Mercedes makes expensive cars (or you got fired from mercedes), do you start a "wiki" free car project to spite them ? No, a real business man would start a cheap car company and compete !


Stewi, looking at your posts, you obviously have an extensive background in the Pick and place industry (with your patent attempts), and have helped a number of people on this site who are developing machines , so why would you want to trash everyones possibility to make small pick and places for profit ?

I for one, am also working on a low cost (not so low, i undercut competitors ) pick and place machine. So when i see a thread like this, it really Irks me !

Whether you make a free pick and place kit doesn't really matter, but like all Open source projects , we all know there is usually a story behind it.

[stewi]

The main difference between this Wikiplacer and any other commercial product is, that we are a group of people with many years experience in the industry, sharing our combined knowledge for free, in order to design a better product as most of the commercial machines on the market.
At the end, we'll sell our product, likely to a more competitive price, than any other larger corporation could do.
From other examples like Wikispeed, makerbot, velomobile and others, we know that this business concept has its merit, in particular finding kickstarter funding and getting more attention through internet media, than any other company projects would get.
My previous experience with Siplace machines helps in many respects, knowing what works and what doesn't. However, I'm not violating any contracts or trade secrets. The Siplace revolver head was copied many times, by Universal, Fuji and Panasonic. At Siemens, we used to say, that we have done something good, when we were copied so many times.
Eventually, the Wikiplacer will also be copied, but it will be extremely difficult to re-write the software or make a better product out of it.

All Wikiplacer members are convinced, that there is currently not a single well built and reliably placing 0201 to 50X50 mm, 25 mil QFP components on the market. That said, we don't think, we are bashing or trashing anyone.

[Larken]

At the end, we'll sell our product.. that there is currently not a single well built and reliably placing 0201 to 50X50 mm,

Good to hear its not for free . Good luck with the project, you'll need it to place 0201 parts .