[0:01] we’ve got something new to play with
[0:03] Robin was kind enough to send this to me
[0:05] to try it out in a YouTube video so
[0:07] let’s get this unpacked and plugged
[0:08] together it’s a pixel pump I’ve put a
[0:10] link to it in the description now I have
[0:13] to say this was all packaged up really
[0:15] nicely and all of the boxes come with a
[0:18] handy QR code that takes you straight to
[0:20] the website to work out how to actually
[0:22] use it and there’s a really nice little
[0:24] instruction book so I’ve got uh two foot
[0:27] pedals we have the actual pixel p
[0:31] the uh tool a bunch of different nozzles
[0:35] we have these really handy um SMD
[0:38] magazines so what I’m going to do is
[0:41] load up some of these magazines with
[0:43] some components and then I’m going to
[0:44] try the pixel pump out but the foot
[0:46] pedals work so I think you can probably
[0:49] hear that buzzing and um it should be
[0:51] doing some sucking um let’s get ready to
[0:54] go now there are a couple of modes and
[0:56] we have it in lift mode at the moment so
[0:58] pushing the pedal triggers suction you
[1:01] can switch it into drop mode so now when
[1:04] I push the pedal once it starts sucking
[1:07] and now depressing the pedal stops the
[1:09] sucking so I that’ll be really handy if
[1:11] you’re trying to place a lot of
[1:12] components one after another and
[1:15] obviously you’ve got low and high so I
[1:18] think that will work quite well you can
[1:19] trigger it from here
[1:22] reverse I guess that blows and so of
[1:24] sucks let’s find out um yeah so let’s
[1:26] get these uh magazines loaded up and
[1:29] we’ll try placing some of our components
[1:31] but um so far pretty impressive really
[1:35] well packaged lots and lots of boxes
[1:37] really nicely packaged in this one um
[1:39] great so far quite impressed so I
[1:43] thought I’d try something um fairly
[1:45] challenging so let’s see if we can pick
[1:47] up one of these pretty big es32
[1:51] modules uh suction
[1:54] on well that’s pretty
[1:57] impressive picks up no problem let’s one
[2:00] of these modules with the antenna even
[2:02] heavier so that suck sh
[2:05] on that is pretty amazing that’s uh
[2:09] that’s very very cool so not bad at all
[2:12] um yeah I really should actually try and
[2:14] use this to assemble something but uh I
[2:17] wanted to have a play and just see how
[2:18] good it is you can kind of tell when
[2:19] it’s got uh a good connection cuz the uh
[2:23] the pitch of the motor goes
[2:26] up yeah I think I’m getting the hang of
[2:28] this so I got these these boards
[2:30] delivered from PCB way it’s a it’s a new
[2:33] version of my USB tester that I made
[2:37] quite a while back and I’ve got the uh
[2:40] stencil mask as well so ideal for this
[2:42] project so if you’ve not used them check
[2:45] out PCB way they always seem to do a
[2:47] good job for me they’re currently
[2:48] working on the new version of my ZX
[2:50] Spectrum emulator board so hopefully
[2:52] we’ll see that soon as well and there’ll
[2:54] be a video about that coming
[2:57] soon so these SMD magazines are quite
[3:00] cool so there’s a spring loaded um
[3:02] Contraption here so we just pull that
[3:05] down and slot in our SMD tape feed it
[3:09] all the way
[3:12] in and then what you do is you take the
[3:15] um the plastic
[3:16] strip and you feed that behind
[3:21] here and now when you want to feed
[3:24] components you pull this
[3:26] strip so there you go there’s a little
[3:28] component popping out and there’s
[3:30] another one and another one and then if
[3:33] you want to kind of put them back you
[3:34] just push that back in and it keeps them
[3:36] all in place and then you got these nice
[3:38] racks um and this just Clips
[3:41] on right so so there we go so that’s uh
[3:45] that’s one done let’s do this other
[3:47] one so there is this handy tool as well
[3:51] which you can use to help push the stuff
[3:53] in probably that way so let’s give that
[3:56] a go so we’ll feed this in
[4:01] and then grab it with this tool and then
[4:04] we should be able to wind in the SMD
[4:08] tape now that works that works very
[4:10] nicely so pretty cool nice one Robin so
[4:15] then now we’ve got our thing so we put
[4:18] the plastic behind this little slot here
[4:22] and then to feed components you just
[4:24] pull it like that and the components pop
[4:26] out and you can pick them up so very
[4:29] good
[4:30] so let’s stick that on the um on the
[4:33] rail here so for my um my USB tester
[4:36] I’ve got a bunch of colored LEDs so I’m
[4:39] going to put all of these into um into
[4:41] one of these magazines and um and then
[4:44] we can do a bit of uh SMD uh soldering
[4:48] and dispensing so I can do that now
[4:50] let’s just put that to one
[4:52] side got a another rack here so handily
[4:57] these have all been nicely labeled with
[4:59] a little dots so I’ll use these dotts
[5:01] and put them on here and then feed the
[5:03] tape in make sure I put everything in
[5:05] the right orientation so I can pull them
[5:07] out and place them really easily so I’ll
[5:10] do that now so let’s start off with
[5:17] yellow lost a few of them because it uh
[5:20] pinged up in my face but uh I think uh
[5:23] yeah that’s a bit annoying um not the
[5:25] fault of this it’s just very fiddly
[5:28] getting the uh getting the plastic tape
[5:30] off to begin with I always have this
[5:32] problem with the um SMD components so
[5:34] I’ve lost a few LEDs um I will try and
[5:38] find them all on my on my desk and put
[5:41] them in a little bag so I don’t lose
[5:43] them um let’s do the other ones uh SMD
[5:47] components do you have a habit of flying
[5:50] off everywhere so you can probably see
[5:53] them here absolutely tiny uh they are
[5:55] all yellow ones so yellow uh let’s do
[5:59] the rest
[6:00] and this time I’ll try not to lose quite
[6:02] so many um Let’s do let’s do blue next
[6:06] okay well this time only really lost one
[6:10] so that’s not too bad and we should be
[6:12] able to pull this yeah that works quite
[6:14] well so what I’ll do is I’ll I’ll push
[6:17] this back in so I don’t lose them more
[6:18] when I there we go lost a bunch let’s
[6:21] just push that back in so I don’t lose
[6:23] more I think um what I’ll do is I’ll
[6:26] finish packing these and um yeah I’ll
[6:29] try not to lose too many and I’ll
[6:30] collect the ones off my desk and put
[6:32] them in a bag of random
[6:34] LEDs okay we’re fully loaded so I think
[6:38] we’re ready to actually do some SMD
[6:41] placement so fantastic um just a few
[6:44] LEDs along the way I collect them up and
[6:47] uh yeah great looking
[6:50] good so what is it with the extra foot
[6:53] pedal well the first foot pedal
[6:55] activates the um suction
[7:00] the second foot pedal what you can do is
[7:02] you can hook up this via the USB cable
[7:04] to your computer and the second pedal
[7:07] acts as a keyboard and it types out the
[7:09] letter M so you can see here we’re doing
[7:12] M M M M M now why is that useful you
[7:16] might ask well what you can do is you
[7:18] can use the interactive bomb plugin for
[7:20] key Cad and as you place components you
[7:23] do the suction place the component then
[7:26] you hit the next pedal and it marks the
[7:28] component is placed so so you can work
[7:30] through all the components on your board
[7:32] as you’re placing them without touching
[7:34] the keyboard or letting go of the
[7:36] suction tool so that’s pretty cool so
[7:39] that should really speed up my pick and
[7:41] place process so pretty cool not bad at
[7:47] all okay I’ve got my uh my board um
[7:50] lined up in the usual way with a bunch
[7:52] of pcbs around it so let’s get some
[7:54] solder paste on this I don’t know how
[7:55] old this solder paste is hopefully it’s
[7:58] still effective but it’s been around for
[8:00] quite a while Let’s uh let’s give it a
[8:03] go and see what
[8:05] happens I really should uh print
[8:08] something to help me squeeze this out um
[8:11] I find these syringes of solder paste
[8:13] really quite difficult um or maybe I’m
[8:16] just getting weak in my old
[8:20] age hopefully that’s uh sufficient
[8:23] should be looks like it now I also
[8:25] assume to have lost my uh official um
[8:28] solder pace so I’m using this not not
[8:32] the Ideal tool and a bit dirty but uh
[8:35] needs
[8:39] must let’s take a look under the
[8:41] microscope and see what kind of a job
[8:43] we’ve done it looks okay from here but
[8:45] I’d like to do a closer inspection so
[8:47] this doesn’t look bad at all really um
[8:49] it is very old solder paste but actually
[8:52] looks like it should be okay I’ll be
[8:53] interested to see how the um USB sockets
[8:56] sold up yeah so I think we’re ready to
[8:58] do um a bit of pick and placing um I
[9:01] think we might get some shorts on the
[9:02] USB connectors but we’ll we’ll cross
[9:05] that bridge when we come to it so let’s
[9:08] get set up for a bit of pick and
[9:11] place so unsurprisingly I dropped a
[9:14] bunch on the desk but uh let’s give this
[9:16] a go so I’ve got the pedal hooked up so
[9:20] we should be able to let’s just
[9:22] uh maneuver these into the right
[9:25] orientation picks up easily enough
[9:29] there we go let’s
[9:32] [Music]
[9:34] try Dr it on well I do that that was
[9:38] fairly painless let’s try that again
[9:41] picked
[9:45] up dropped on well this is certainly a
[9:47] lot easier than um messing around with
[9:50] tweezers I must
[9:53] say yeah so get the angle right
[10:03] oops
[10:10] ah so I think a bit of practice is
[10:13] required for this um but it’s certainly
[10:15] easy to pick the components up that’s uh
[10:18] working very nicely um let so drop it
[10:26] on yeah there we go right then
[10:30] now I can actually move back to the um
[10:32] the actual dispenser because we’ve
[10:35] actually got something in I see one of
[10:36] them is on oh
[10:38] de oh gosh all right then well one of
[10:41] them is on the floor now but that’s
[10:43] that’s all right we got this one on the
[10:44] table so put
[10:46] pedal that high OT
[10:53] ourselves all right not quite that get
[10:57] on let’s suck it up
[11:00] drop it off TR and flip it over come on
[11:03] flip over there we go
[11:06] right
[11:14] up right we getting there slowly working
[11:17] out how to do this let’s actually try
[11:19] picking from the dispenser so Su on
[11:23] oops picked it up right very
[11:25] good now let’s try placing it
[11:32] yeah that’s
[11:33] better all right I think I think this
[11:35] needs some practice so let’s uh let’s
[11:38] get some more resistors out one two
[11:42] three let’s do it not do too many in
[11:44] case I jog it again and then they all
[11:46] fall on the floor um cuz that although I
[11:49] have lots of resistors and they’re very
[11:50] cheap can’t keep dropping them on the
[11:51] floor that’s just getting silly so pump
[11:55] on pick
[11:57] up we go steady hands drop release the
[12:01] pump ah yes all right then next one pick
[12:08] [Music]
[12:11] up yeah I’m getting the hang of this now
[12:14] bit shaky to begin with but uh certainly
[12:16] improving oh there’s there’s my missing
[12:18] resistors seem to be up there
[12:21] it’s yeah I think with a bit of practice
[12:23] you could get pretty fast at doing this
[12:26] I think possibly with a another 20 or 30
[12:30] or 100 pcbs I will be an expert at this
[12:34] yeah we definitely uh definitely
[12:37] improving on the technique side of
[12:39] things um why don’t we try some of the
[12:42] these two USB sockets so we got our USB
[12:45] sockets okay man to suck it up um I mean
[12:50] really before you don’t we could just
[12:51] use um tweezers for this one but uh
[12:54] let’s try it so
[12:59] well dropped straight in brilliant well
[13:01] that’s that was not quite then why isn’t
[13:04] it going in come on got there in the end
[13:08] that’s on let’s do the other one I might
[13:09] actually just do this by hand because
[13:10] these are pretty big to be honest no
[13:13] that one actually just went in very
[13:15] easily so that’s good right then um we
[13:19] need one more resistor over here can I
[13:23] actually find one I found another
[13:25] resistor so that’s good so let’s get
[13:28] that um
[13:30] flipped over first so I change my nozzle
[13:33] to the smaller
[13:38] one okay turn on the action suck it
[13:43] up and now I just drop it down
[13:48] so there we go definitely getting better
[13:52] with a bit of practice so now we’ll do
[13:54] the um let’s do the LEDs next so I’m
[13:57] going to get my other um
[14:02] container then I think we’ll start off
[14:05] with
[14:07] the let’s do white ones first so I’ll
[14:11] use white for I think we use white for
[14:13] ground that seems like an appropriate
[14:17] color Okay gosh but they do tend to flip
[14:23] around a lot don’t they now let’s try
[14:24] not to lose all these well too late
[14:27] let’s try not to lose them on the floor
[14:28] if Le do on the desk I can still get
[14:30] them all right okay let’s just Scrabble
[14:34] around and get them all into one place
[14:37] so that I can find
[14:39] him okay right then let’s do the uh
[14:43] let’s do all the grounds I think red uh
[14:46] White for ground I think that’s a good
[14:48] good option now ins sunction
[14:51] on pick up now then I think we want the
[14:57] green facing the other way so I’ll turn
[14:59] this
[15:00] around there we go and drop it on
[15:07] oh come
[15:10] on turn this around again
[15:14] oops
[15:17] then that’s
[15:19] better yeah that will that will go into
[15:21] place by itself so what other grounds do
[15:24] we have we got ground at the top there
[15:27] let’s pick up another one
[15:32] so it on yeah that will do I think that
[15:34] will do that will go into place by
[15:39] itself yeah I’m assuming these will snap
[15:42] into place automatically uh what other
[15:44] grounds do we have
[15:45] ground ground over there right
[15:51] then okay well that’s one of the grounds
[15:54] I think let’s do the uh
[15:57] vccs uh let’s do bus in Red so where’s
[16:01] my red here’s my red inevitably these
[16:04] are going to drop on the table let’s
[16:06] just try and do this carefully this time
[16:08] don’t jog it oh damn
[16:12] it right then yes well these are all red
[16:16] so we’ll pick up the red one
[16:20] [Music]
[16:32] [Music]
[16:43] [Music]
[16:52] so I’m actually quite enjoying this um
[16:55] my coordination not quite at the best of
[16:57] times so I keep forgetting that I have
[17:01] to release the foot pedal when I place
[17:03] the um component whats that bit of crap
[17:05] let’s suck that off there you go cover
[17:06] of
[17:07] that I keep forgetting I need to release
[17:09] the foot pedal um which obviously if you
[17:12] don’t do that it doesn’t let it go um
[17:15] but yeah this is this is going very well
[17:16] so one more blue and that’s a bit wonky
[17:20] Let’s uh let’s put that back into
[17:22] position giving a bit of a
[17:24] notch yeah there we go uh one more blue
[17:29] blue blue blue yeah so CC1 there
[17:33] on right well that’s that’s all our
[17:36] components um I’m slightly worried about
[17:40] the USB sockets um I don’t know how well
[17:45] they are going to solder up and we might
[17:47] to do some rework on those because uh
[17:50] they’re quite hard to get in and the
[17:52] solder paste got slightly slightly
[17:55] mushed up um I don’t know how well
[17:58] that’s actually
[17:59] going to work but the the resistors in
[18:02] the um diodes are those are
[18:05] fine so I’ve powered up the hot plate uh
[18:08] let’s get
[18:10] cooking just uh Shuffle this around my
[18:13] mini hot plate is very mini let’s just
[18:16] make sure we get the heat everywhere
[18:18] should have really put this on the big
[18:20] hot plate there we go that’s everything
[18:22] done on that
[18:25] side looks good
[18:29] let’s move the other side on a bit more
[18:31] so that anyone gets nice oh
[18:37] shoot well that was kind of inevitable
[18:39] um not to yourself use the big hot plate
[18:43] from now on let’s just get this USB
[18:45] socket back on hopefully we’ve not
[18:49] messed everything up now amazingly
[18:51] everything stayed on the board apart
[18:53] from this uh annoying USB socket I’m
[18:57] hoping that you can just uh stick that
[19:00] down and I can see the solder
[19:02] melting so any luck haven’t completely
[19:07] mess this up uh and amazingly all of the
[19:11] uh components stayed on the board when
[19:12] it fell off so that’s uh remarkable
[19:15] let’s um let’s get these done and uh
[19:18] let’s make sure the USB socket actually
[19:20] gets done just going to squash that down
[19:24] to make
[19:26] sure let’s give this a quick test then
[19:28] so I’ve wir up to a power supply I’m
[19:31] using very high resistor value so I’m
[19:33] not using the coin cell I’m just using
[19:36] my power supply well the The Shield
[19:39] Works let’s plug in the cable and
[19:42] hopefully we have a whole bunch of
[19:44] lights so yeah that seems to be working
[19:48] um so slightly worried about the USB
[19:50] connectors it’s not completely right um
[19:54] but uh yeah we got a missing D minus
[19:57] here that’s just my dodgy soldering um
[20:01] but yeah it’s quite a nice little
[20:03] project um to be honest for this kind of
[20:05] fiddly soldering I’d normally just get
[20:07] it done by the assembly house cuz they
[20:10] do a much better job than I can but that
[20:12] was fun the pixel pump big thumbs up
[20:16] from Atomic 14 not bad at all