Using panel assembly with 7722FV

[blogger]

Next week I'm getting a batch of boards that are paneled in a 4x3 matrix, looking something like this:



So I think I will need to do something on the MDC to make it use this matrix info for assembly.
I know the spacing between boards is 1mm for v-cut. There's no "guide" on outside of the boards. Has anyone done this assembly and if so, how difficult was it to setup?

One thing I did notice there's no fiducials so I'm not sure how I'm going to be aligning this board.

[adafruit]

we use steprepeat all the time. its in the PCB parts list. use gerb view software to figure out the precise x/y matrix
its pretty easy to use, just TRACE when you're done to make sure you got it right
w/o fiducials its going to be a little tough you may want to use a via as a fiducial

[ktownsend]

I use step and repeat for this all the time (including about 30 panels this week). You just program the board in once, and then specify how many in each direction and the spacing between boards. But I know you don't use teaching mode so I'm not sure if it works differently? No fiducials is definately going to be a problem, though. If it was me, I'd select a via or the corner or a large square pad and set the fiducials to manual alignment (forget the code number).

[blogger]

I still don't understand why the software wants "offset" (on the blue assembly screen - press T to set offset) *and* fiducials for alignment. Surely it should be one or the other? What's the point of offset, I never used it. Anyway, will try steprepeat in a couple days.

[adafruit]

we use both because the bias point/offset can change from panel to panel and if its off by a bit (and when you tile a lot, the error adds up) it doesnt find the fiducial as nicely (we use a small fiducial window for crowded PCBs

having 2 fiducials and checking them for each board increased our yield and accuracy dramatically!