Designing your own circuit, pcb, assembling it manually, refining and improving it, creating automatic testing equipment for it, releasing it and now manufacturing it automatically at scale. Congrats, what a journey!

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yes, it's been quite the journey!

Unexpected Heavy Industry

If I remember the beginning of this channel, Seon populating some boards on a livestream and now he has his own production line. How long has it been? 3 years? I am really impressed how your hobby changed into your business to make a living from in such a short time. Best wishes from Germany.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Is it only 3 years? feels like 10 for sure! It's amazing so many of you are still here watching my crazy adventure!

Great to see your line up and running!

Looks great Seon. Very impressive.

I've been following you for years. I'm so happy to see you're doing well.

Well done, Seon. It looks great.

Awesome, congrats on assembling your dream. Great stuff

"There are many lines like it, but this line is mine"

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Indeed! And I have the bruises to prove it :)

Thats a beast!

Straight from KiCAD to functionnal boards in one click !

@Graham_Wideman

Жыл бұрын

Well, actually you can do that -- if you get the boards made at one of the popular PCA (PCB Assembly) services in China, such as JLCPCB, PCBWay, AllPCB etc.

Brilliant!

Pretty awesome stuff!

Great tour Seon, especially how you got around various issues and how you've set things up for one man almost-unattended operation.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Cheers mate! It's been an "interesting" process getting to this stage. Not for the weak of heart!

Looking good there Seon.

dude!!! bloody amazing. well done

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Dave :)

Come a long way from designing a timer for yours kids Hot Wheels !!! congrats.........cheers.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Indeed! Totally unexpected!

Congratulations👍

Congratulations Seon. Another awesome milestone, to complete a full end to end production line. Mind blowing! 🤓

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Thanks mate!

Looks good 🙂

Exciting. 👍

Thats awesome. Big upgrade to the last time I watched a video of you, it was still in the small office

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Well, that was only 7 months ago ;) Or 3 years ago... or somewhere in between!

just found you and bought some Tiny Pico Nano boards. Just what I needed for a tight fit prototype! thank!

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Missed this, sorry! w00p! I hope you enjoy Ising them in your project!

Damn, that is a big oven.

So amazing to see how far you have come. Still hard to believe the reflow could be more efficient than the toaster oven :D Next up, monitoring downtime reason codes and calculating OEE etc. Not sure it would even need servos and homing, I should bail up one of the mech engineers at work. So many weird sensors available and interesting ways to use them.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

How far I've come in my insanity levels? Sure, I agree :)

@Captn_Grumpy

Жыл бұрын

@@UnexpectedMaker Well I wasnt going to mention that bit but seeing as you brought it up :D

Thats looks compact for automated line... Nice.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

I'd like it more compact ;) but yes, it's a good solution for the length.

It's time for a change, Unexpected Manufacturer. Maker no more.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

How about just "Unexpected" or Unexpected Industries!

@CraigHollabaugh

Жыл бұрын

@@UnexpectedMaker Unexpected Industries

>My production line is now fully automated! Watch out man! Next thing coming is the memo where you are fired! ;)

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Wouldn't that be nice! I could use a break for sure!

That looks to be a very PRO assembly line setup. Is there big enough production needs, or are you considering some sub contracting assembly to assist covering costs? Sorry to admit that I have not been following the continued setup for some time. Been on non network activities for much recent time. It is most impressive what you have achieved over recent years. 👍👍👍👍🙂🙂🙂❤️❤️❤️❤️

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Well, right now it's pretty quiet - but that makes its a good time to have down time on my line while I setup new equipment :) No, I'm definitely not looking at taking on CM work to offset the investment. The line is for my own production :)

@helmuthschultes9243

Жыл бұрын

@@UnexpectedMaker good I do hope the volume goes to levels that payback in reasonable time span. At least you have done well in your endeavours to get to this point. You have made some excellent items in the past years and I would expect that I can keep up interest in your efforts.

Amazing. What's next? Making the PCBs themselves in house?

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Nah, making PCBs is an expensive and messy business. And cant compete with the prices from JLC etc... so I'll always outsource that.

Thank you for the great video and sharing your experience. I am curious when you mentioned replacing the K1830 with something more advanced. What features or capabilities is it missing?

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

What's it missing? Hmm... support, reliability, speed, support reliability and support. I think that covers it :)

handy

where you are showing the stacker, is there something coming off of the machine on the right hand side? Looks like something has come unglued.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

No, nothing unplugged or unglued. Everything is at it should be :)

I would be interested in the economics of such an assembly line, how many tinypicos do you need to sell to justify running your own assembly line in comparison to outsourcing it.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

It doesn't really work that way for me... it's not a financial thing, it's the ability to leverage many products with similar components and be agile enough to assemble on demand and ship faster than if I used a CM. I can bring a brand new product to market super fast - can't do that with a CM. Even without the silicon shortage, CM's usually have 4-6 week lead-times..... I can get an order and assemble and ship it fast then a CM can queue it up. Plus I don't have to worry about all of the other issued associate with using CM's.

Hello, Could you tell me an approximate amount of how much you invested in this assembly line? Cool content. Thank you !!!

How did you scale to having this many resources. What am I doing wrongggggg. Some of my ideas and inventions are as earth changing as the iPhone. They are worth gold. But still after 3 years of development I struggle to buy a couple of Linear rails for a half built CNC. I am fed up with these limitations. What were/are you steps to evolve to this. I'm crying inside everyday haha.

@UnexpectedMaker

7 ай бұрын

Way too complex a question for a YT comment sorry. Maybe jump on my discord and ask there in the manufacturing channel ?

will Model 3 have the machines work with each other to load boards?

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Model 3? Am I building Teslas next? :) No further automation planned than this :)

I wonder if your printer is capable of reading pads and stencil cutouts like the Yamaha YCH-10 I use at my work. Also has a clamping system that makes sure the board is completely level with the stencil surface as well. Love that thing over the Essemtec we also have.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Reading as in inspection after pasting? Or using cutouts ad fiducials? Yes, mine does both.

@KnHawke

Жыл бұрын

@@UnexpectedMaker Exactly, the stencil cutouts and the pads, to use them to line everything up... But of a pain, considering that it isn't 100% reliable in my experience, still better than having to hand print a hundred or so panels.

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Yup, I'm happy hand stencilling panels without stencils that have fiducials for the printer. Anything I make in qty had correct stencils, and over time I'll switch them all out.

@KnHawke

Жыл бұрын

@@UnexpectedMaker oh that's good! Doing any of that in quantity makes my back and eyes hurt! Hehe

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

That's why I built a vacuum bed manual stencil printer setup - fast and perfect pasting of panels every time. But automation is always the goal :) Gotta remove those pesky humans (me) from the production!

I'm planning to buy in6 Owen is it any good ?

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Depends on what you want to reflow. There's a neon discord server. Maybe join that and ask there before you buy.

Those RED vacuum pieces in the stencil machine. You have them going from front to back and said you would need to print others for different sizes of boards. Would it work for all sizes if you put the red pieces going left to right and made shutoff valves to turn off unused holes for shorter PCBs. When the PCB comes into the machine, does it get lowered onto the RED pieces? Going left to right, would you need a slope on the leading edge of the RED pieces to keep the PCB from snagging the edge of the RED piece as the PCB comes in? Alternatively, what if you made the RED pieces so their length could be adjusted with mortice/tendon joints between each section to keep them lined up...

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

The bed rises to meet the PCB. The better question is - why do I need to change what I have already designed? It was designed based on how it needs to work with the machine process, and I can print custom supports in < 1 hour and they do exactly what I need them to do.

@WagonLoads

Жыл бұрын

@@UnexpectedMaker I thought you were saying that you would need to make a new RED part if you had a different PCB size(Width, I'm guessing)... Could you show how the RED pieces are oriented to the PCB? What part of the PCB do they vacuum against?

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

I do have to print a set per panel width - I have 3 panel widths that need this. Most of my panels are standardised on these 3 widths, so 3 sets needed of which I have designed 3 and printed 2. They are designed to suction down the leading and trailing edge of the panel to ensure no corners lift.

@WagonLoads

Жыл бұрын

@@UnexpectedMaker I am not criticizing you or your design. What you did looks great. I was just trying to figure out how to make an universal version(one size fits all) type solution.. If you change run sizes often, you could make the hose connection magnetic between the upright red part and the part the hoses are attached to, so you can change upright part in a quick click.. If that doesn't lose vacuum..

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

I'm not switching every 5 mins ;) - This solution really is simple and quick. It doesn't need a universal solution. The fact that I'm already using it rather than "still designing it" is proof of that ;)

You selling your IN6?

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

No, I'm keeping it for redundancy.

Don't you want to vent the oven outside?

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Nope! I cover that in the video :)

That hobby escalated quickly...

@UnexpectedMaker

Жыл бұрын

Hahaha, yeah it did... though doesn't feel "quick" :)