A friend of mine once used a PLD to turn a plotter into a pick-and-place.
It was only two axis; the "destination" was placed precisely by a conveyor
belt, and only one component needed placing each time.

Most plotters already provide the necessary axes of motion- they move a
sheet of paper in the Y-axis, and a pen in the Z- and X-axes.  I don't know
how much one can be acquired for, but I'd imagine fairly cheaply once the
logic is gone and it's outdated.

Could be a fun project.  Check out www.tinaja.com and look at Don
Lancaster's "Santa Claus machine" articles.  He has a lot of things to say
about using PICs to implement "flutterwumpers", and the use of
PostScript to control the machines.  Let us know if anything ever comes
of it!

Mike H.

>Just interested, has anyone tried making a surface mount pick and place
>machine?  I have seen a 3 axis CAD robot at
>http://www.milinst.com/robotics/robotics.htm and thought how much time it
>would save.  Has anyone used this machine?  Is it any good?
>
>Brian.
>
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