Opulo Unveils LumenPnP v4: New High Resolution Optics and 300% Faster Placements
Stephen Hawes explains how LumenPnP v4's new features can accurately place passives down to 0402 and BGA ICs with a 0.5 mm pitch.
In his latest video, Stephen Hawes, CEO of Opulo, eagerly announces that LumenPnP version 4 is available! This open source desktop pick-and-place machine now supports passives down to 0402 and 0.5 mm BGAs with its all-new optics system and upgraded electronics. Plus, it is over 300% faster than its predecessor!
"For the last few years ... we've been iterating, improving, and developing based on the wide experience from our user base, with millions of parts placed. The LumenPnP v4 is the culmination of those insights, distilled into an assembly workhorse, leaving no stone unturned." — Stephen Hawes, Opulo CEO
The LumenPnP automates taking parts from feeder tape and accurately placing them on a printed circuit board (PCB). PCBs up to 225 by 400 millimeters fit inside LumenPnP's work area. The work area depends on the number of staging plates in the configuration. Structural elements include v-slot aluminum extrusions, aluminum brackets, and 3D-printed parts. There are five axes of motion: X, Y, Z, A, and B, with A and B as rotations for the vacuum heads.
The head has two vacuum-operated nozzles for placing components. After a nozzle picks up a part, its orientation is unknown. So, one camera captures a "bottom" view of components to orientate parts for placement on the PCB.
The vision system is one of the most significant upgrades to LumenPnP v4. Hawes says they needed to use custom optics to achieve a balance between high resolution and a wide field of view (FOV). The resolution is necessary to capture component images accurately for sizes down to 0402 or 0.5mm pitch BGAs. In contrast, a wide FOV enables imaging of larger components, like an ESP module.
Another quality-of-life improvement on the placement heads is an Auxiliary (AUX) connector. This feature gives users GPIO control and allows them to connect programming headers, lights, or other useful accessories.
Opulo integrated two other upgrades into a single piece. A new STM32-based microcontroller (MCU) board contains new vacuum sensors, integrated stepper drives, and an expansion port. Compared to v3, the new control board adds a dedicated driver for the Y-axis, which improves v4's speed by 300%! Opulo put the MCU board inside a custom (3D-printed) enclosure that also houses the pneumatics. This design decision makes LumenPnP v4 much quieter than previous machines.
Powered component feeders are available in 8mm and 12mm variants to accommodate industry-standard tape widths. These devices are small machines that communicate with the PC-based OpenPNP software directly. They run a firmware for pick-and-place feeders called Photon. There is enough room for up to 50 LumenPnP Feeders when using the machine with two staging plates or 25 feeders with three staging plates.
LumenPnP is an open source project. This GitHub repository houses the project's KiCad design files for the PCBs and CAD files for mechanical pieces. It also links to related software like OpenPnP.
The Opulo store is taking orders and ready to ship LumenPnP v4. The basic unit, which includes a staging plate, a build plate, nozzles, tools, and a getting-started kit, costs $1,995. The powered feeders are sold separately and start at $95 each.
