[vonnieda]

I'm the founder/author of OpenPnP, which exists to do exactly this. I've been working on the project for about 6 years now and I'm happy to say that lots of hobbyists, small companies, maker spaces, etc. have built and are running OpenPnP based pick and place machines.

It's a harder problem than it seems, as I've found out over the past 6 years. While the basics are quite similar to a 3D printer, PnP has some unique challenges. 3D printing can be relatively inaccurate but still produce a good output since you are working with a pretty "oozy" substance to begin with. PnP has to be pretty accurate across it's entire work surface, though. If the machine is 0.1mm off at any point in it's travel that creates a likelihood that a part will be placed incorrectly. Feeders are also, mechanically, a lot more difficult to get right than it seems like they would be.

In any case, we're having good luck and a lot of success, so if you are interested in DIY / Open Source / Hobby pick and place, please come check it out!

http://openpnp.org

[eggsome]

For those interested, here is a video/demo of OpenPnP from LCA2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9BGVYnaOs8

(great project by the way!)

[stryk]

No way is that the same Aussie chap from SuperHouse? (he used to [?] do excellent video guides on DIY hacking those cheap Sonoff wi-fi enabled electrical relays)

[jacquesm]

That's a super project and I'm really surprised this is the first time I hear about it if you've been working on this for 6 years.

[jcoffland]

OpenPnP is awesome! I enjoyed seeing you guys at the Bay Area Maker Faire last summer. We were about four booths down.

[jcims]

Have you seen the odrive motor controller project?

https://odriverobotics.com/

Looks interesting (to me anyway) for this type of project. I can’t tell if the precision you need for PnP is there yet, but it looks like the speed is.

[mch82]

Excited to see OpenPnP progressing. Looking forward to models that are as approachable for novices as a LulzBot or Ultimaker are for 3D printing.