ASTLAB has built an machine that automates programming microcontrollers. This could be a useful machine if you needed to make hundreds of pre-programmed microcontrollers. There is a tube of blank microcontroller chips on the right, and the programmed ones on the left. A motorized arm moves over to this tube and grabs a blank chip using a suction tool and drops it into a ZIF socket, a servo then closes the ZIF socket allowing the chip to be programmed. The arm then picks up the programmed chip and drops it into the tube of programmed chips.
It looks like the project is well documented, unfortunately I don’t understand the language and my trusty Google translator doesn’t help either. If someone wants to summarize it in English I would be appreciative.
Video after the jump.
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Well, I understand it, but I won’t translate 12 KB of text. O.K., some day I would, but not in this month, nor the next month. 🙂
The thing was made from some parts of a printer, 5 RC servos, some aluminium junk, and some PCBs. It was designed to be reliable and simple, and fast to build. The ICs are picked up by vacuum created by a vacuum cleaner.
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The only way this could be cooler is if it were faster or made out of Lego.
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Hey mbaron,
Thanks for the giving us some details of the text, of course I wouldn’t expect someone to sit down and translate the entire thing. 🙂 But can I expect it the month after next? Just kidding…
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Man, that’s an awesome project!
It does seem that the printer carriage moves a bit slower than it needs to, but still, that’s pretty darn cool! I love electromechanical projects like that – so many projects are just purely electronic yet there’s something fascinating about watching the EM stuff.
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Hey, I like that. You should be a automation engineer at a production facility somewhere.
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Hey great project!
I also like the soundtrack of your movie. Is there a place where i can download it or do you know the interpret and song title? Thanks for your help.
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Try looking this up:
“Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo” (“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” main title)