Connecting to a 3D printer - Basics
Note: This guide is a work in progress, but if you already have some basic understanding of gcode or if you’ve written some lines before then this will be easier to follow.
If you have a 3D printer or a CNC you can connect them to this dispenser and have them consistently dispense pastes, adhesives or other fluids. This guide will focus specifically on paste dispensing for PCBs, but the principle is the same for any other material.
The way this works is that you hook up your 3D printer’s fan output (typically 12V) to the dispenser directly via a 3.5mm cable more info here. Then you send the standard command M106 S255 that would normally turn on the fan to start dispensing. Suck back movements and speed values are handled by the dispenser so it’s just a matter of moving from one pad to another.
Example code:
G1 F3000 (sets XYZ movement speed)
Pad 1:
G1 Z3 (lifts tip by 3mm)
G1 X10Y12.5 (moves to pad1 coordinates)
G1 Z.2 (lowers the tip to dispense height: 0.2mm)
M106 S255 (start paste extrusion)
G4 P1200 (wait 1200ms, this will determine paste amount)
M106 S0 (stop)
G4 P1000 (waits another second to give the piston time to move back and the paste to settle down)
Pad 2:
G1 Z3 (lifts tip by 3mm)
G1 X12.5Y12.5 (moves to pad2 coordinates)
G1 Z.2 (same code as before)
M106 S255 (same code as before)
G4 P1200 (same code as before if pad size is the same)
M106 S0 (same code as before)
G4 P1000 (same code as before)
… and so on for every pad
In this case the dispenser was set in Manual mode, this means that the paste will be extruded as long as the fan output is switched on, this time is set by the line G4 P1200.
However, an alternate method -that works better for high viscosity fluids- is to assign a dispensing profile (menu item #5) to each pad size on your board, then send specific G-code commands to swap between them in the middle of the job.
A “profile” is a set of predefined settings in the dispenser (speed, retraction, etc) that can be saved in memory for easy recall.
Using the dot mode is the easiest way to dispense consistently the small volume of paste required in PCBs.
Before starting, you first need to setup your dispenser and machine: jump to next page.