FirePick Delta is a rotary delta Pick and Place (PnP) machine architecture designed to be cheaply manufactured for low volume and/or DIY use. Rotary delta machines are reknown for their ability to place parts accurately and quickly. Rotary delta machines are also typically manufactured with highly accurate metal machining processes. Advances in 3D printing have actually made it possible to build a rotary delta machine out of PLA for as little as $700 in a DIY scenario. Such a plastic machine would not be as fast as top-of-line commercial deltas, but it has potential. Neil Jansen introduced the first FirePick Delta prototype for the 2014 Hackaday contest. Since then the designs (and there are multiple) have grown and changed.
Here's a Dec/2015 video of FirePick Delta: https://youtu.be/oeQE3WurXmE
There are multiple versions of FirePick Delta.
- Tin Whiskers FirePick Delta Beta Kit (reference design in this repository).
- LooseCanon FirePick Delta
- Tin Whiskers FPD "metal machine" (prototype)
- Countless individual varieties (see newsgroup)
For current information, see FirePick Google Group