Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Equipment
Initially, a secondhand reflow oven—later named Gramps—was purchased from a small
businessthathappenedtobeshuttingdownitsoperations(SparkFunsharedanofficebuild-
ing with this company). A great workhorse of a pick-and-place machine, the Manncorp
MC383, was also purchased; it was affectionately known around SparkFun as Optimus
Prime (
Figure 12.2
). The purchases of both Gramps and Optimus Prime were mostly blind
decisions. Little research was done before the purchase decisions were made, mostly be-
cause very little information was readily available and easily accessible at the time. Admit-
tedly, Manncorp was one of the top results returned in a Google search for “pick-and-place
machine,” and it was easy to see how any pick-and-place machine would be an imme-
diate upgrade over SparkFun's existing manually intensive process for assembling circuit
boards.
(Source: Images CC-BY 2.0 SparkFun/Juan Pena)
Figure 12.2
Pick-and-place machine affectionately known as Optimus Prime.
With more experience and knowledge came the realization that there are even better
PCB assembly machines out there. Nevertheless, these first two industrial machines rep-
resented low-risk, high-reward investments. The only real risks were the possibility that
