NeoDen YY1 Pick And Place Machine - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mj97
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 19, 2025, 08:34:53 am
content: Hello Everyone,I have recently purchased a NeoDen YY1 Pick And Place Machine for my work place. Until now, I was doing a manual assembly of my boards hence I used to have cut tape passives such as resistors and capacitors without reels. I have never used a pick and place machine before so please pardon me if my question seems silly.Can I use these cut tapes in the tape feeders without the reel? Otherwise, I will never be able to use these parts and have to buy new parts with reel.Thank you in advance.Best regardsMJ

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2025, 10:54:09 am
content: I don't have a YY1, but I have an older NeoDen TM240A, and also a couple of newer machines. All of mine are 2nd hand.For cut tape, the usability will largely depend on how long the section of tape is.For longer sections of cut tape, you can often feed them into the normal reel feeders but keep in mind that you will "loose" some parts at the start of the tape. It may help to get some empty reels to spool the longer tape onto, just to help avoid it tangling. In theory if you have been using these cut tape parts for manual assembly you may have already removed some, and hopefully from the correct end...For shorter sections of cut tape, the YY1 includes a "Short Tape Feeder" which you will find documented in the manual. I'm sure there will be a video about using them as well.NeoDen sell these strip feeder trays if you need more, and they come in several sizes:https://neodenusa.com/cut-tape-strip-feeder-8mm-x3/https://neodenusa.com/cut-tape-strip-feeder-12mm-16mm/That said, in most cases I tend to buy components on full or partial reels wherever possible, and keep any existing cut tape for ongoing prototyping or rework jobs. You mention this is for your work place, so I really think that is the best way to do it and save yourself a lot of extra labour.

author: SMTech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2025, 10:54:53 am
content: The problem with any cut tape in any machine is not so much the presence or lack of a reel but what happens at the very beginning or end of the strip. A new reel has empty pockets and spare covertape at the start of the reel to engage with the mechanisms in a feeder and a take-off spool (if one exists). Equally at the other end with be further empty pockets so when the tape finishes, or gets to the last few parts, it remains secured and the covertape isn't flapping about getting tangled up in other feeder lanes etc.You can buy blank tape to use as leader/trailer and you can buy tools to splice those on. You can also buy covertape extender to engage with a takeoff spool if your strips need it.Here are some examples. Some machines don't like splicing - no idea if the YY1 is such a one.https://www.aliexpress.com/i/1005005979342055.htmlhttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000082995186.htmlhttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005701558229.html

author: newto
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2025, 02:17:51 pm
content: I've been using cut tape in my YY1 for a while. Works pretty well, but you will have to pull the first 17-20 or so passives out of the tape to start feeding. You can put the loose pieces in the bulk feeders (the shallow squares in a line) and have the camera identify them and pick them up. Just make sure there's space around them and check the boards after, sometimes the get put 90 degrees rotated.For really short tapes, or more complicated shapes, you can cut them up and put them in the blue tape holders. If you have access to a 3d printer, you can make your own holders too.

author: level6
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2025, 07:28:25 pm
content: Yes, you can use cut tape with the YY1. I have done it many times. Buy some SMT cover tape extenders from Ali. These will reduce the number of parts you have to dump from the tape when feeding the cover tape into the takeup reels.