Pick and place – commercial options @ LowPowerLab.

This post is a follow up to the “pick and place” category of articles, if I can call it that, I am trying to keep my promise of discussing some commercial pick and place machines. I researched for a good entry level (non DIY/kit) pick and place machine that could cover assembly needs without a lot of baby sitting. I am not talking about high end machines here, but something like what Adafruit or Sparkfun first got into, something suitable for a startup both feature/budget-wise. Even these entry level commercial machines are easily in the tens of thousands of $. You can easily spend twice what you’d pay for a brand new reliable car. I don’t know about you but when I think of spending that kind of cash I’d want to do my homework and know everything I can possibly expect from the product. This article is not meant to be exhaustive but I hope to cover most concerns and give a good idea what is important to look for, I can only wish there was a concentrated resource like this when I first started my research. It’s a long writeup but I hope those interested in the subject will appreciate the aggregation.