April 2012

Flying High - A Great Post About Manncorp Customer

 By Brad Graves

It’s a land rush in the air.

Jordi Munoz Bardales is one of a handful of San Diego entrepreneurs staking out new territory in the rapidly commercializing field of unmanned aviation.

Munoz, 25, is CEO of 3D Robotics Inc. Working out of a Kearny Mesa business park, his enterprise produces and sells components for model-size unmanned aircraft, providing them to hobbyists, college engineering programs and other entrepreneurs.

Its specialty is autopilot electronics.

Early in the venture, Munoz said, he saw that he might be onto something when he assembled 40 autopilots and sold them in a single day. “I realized I had a business here,” Munoz said.

Munoz works at the micro level. At the macro level are Austin Blue and Eddie Kisfaludy. The two fly a small business aircraft that doubles as a test bed for cameras and other sophisticated new technology that may one day ride on unmanned aircraft.

“We operate a surrogate UAV,” said Blue, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.

The military makes extensive use of unmanned aircraft, to spy on the battlefield and to deliver weapons. But they may have peaceful missions, too.

Coming to U.S. Airspace

The federal government is loosening regulations for the use of unmanned aircraft in U.S. airspace. In February, President Barack Obama signed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. One of its many provisions is to let drones fly in the national airspace by 2015.

Those drones might be handheld models able to hoist small cameras aloft. Or they might be bigger models able to carry heftier imaging equipment and the electronics that go with it.

Camera-equipped drones may one day be the choice of paparazzi. People already have used camera drones for real estate sales, taking pictures of properties from unique vantage points. Federal officials closed at least one such business, because drones can’t yet be used for commercial purposes.

Blue said farmers may one day use drones and sophisticated sensors to determine what areas of their fields need water or fertilizer; they use conventional aircraft now. Researchers might also use drones to find items of interest in wide expanses of forest or ocean.

These aircraft can be as small as four-rotor copters that resemble a flying letter X, and can be put together with a few hundred dollars. The copters built by 3D Robotics run on open-source software. College engineering programs like them, Munoz said, because students can analyze software code, modify the code, improve the product (or crash the copter) and learn in the process.

Munoz said his enterprise is a success because it uses open-source software. 3D Robotics operates a website called DIY Drones, which lets tinkerers compare notes.

He said he also tries to make everything he sells as inexpensive as possible.

Cruising Along

It’s a long way from 2007 and 2008, when Munoz disassembled components from a Nintendo Wii and integrated them into a model helicopter, making a drone of his own. He posted updates to the project on the Internet, including the code he wrote. The work attracted notice from Chris Anderson, editor in chief of New York-based Wired Magazine and author of “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More.” Anderson sent him $100 and a note of encouragement. Today, Anderson and Munoz are 50 percent owners of 3D Robotics.

3D Robotics has left garage and bedroom quarters in favor of 10,000 square feet of industrial space. The firm has 20 employees in San Diego and six in Tijuana, and relies on 20 software developers worldwide. It has three jobs open.

Its building houses specialized machines that churn out ArduPilot autopilots, which fit on purple circuit boards the size of business cards. Munoz said he would like to buy a second pick-and-place machine to mount components to circuit boards, and locate it in Tijuana. Eventually, he said, he would like to put most of his production in Mexico, while keeping the engineering team in the United States.

Seeking a Higher Ceiling

Current law states that model aircraft and UAVs must not fly higher than 400 feet. Preparing for the day when that ceiling might be lifted is SciFly LLC, based at Montgomery Field in Kearny Mesa.

SciFly said it can help camera developers today by carrying their inventions into the sky. Since sensors can often produce great amounts of data, the SciFly aircraft (a Cherokee Six model from Piper Aircraft Inc.) has room for people onboard. Those passengers can interpret that data, eliminating the need for a sophisticated wireless connection to transfer the data to the ground.

SciFly said commercial or government clients might one day want to send specialized instruments such as multispectral/hyperspectral cameras into the air. These cameras can key in on certain colors and ignore surrounding “noise,” accomplishing feats such as locating whales and dolphins in the open ocean. They might also locate wreckage, lost hikers or oil sheens.

A combination of cameras, software and computers might soon allow robots to pass over an area, then revisit the area and detect changes such as a moved vehicle, Blue said.

Large drones able to keep a lot of fuel onboard may someday work for long-endurance commercial or government missions, Blue added. Drones may also be best for dangerous missions, such as low flights in bad weather.

For now, some drone work is science fiction, or at least appropriate for April Fool’s Day.

One outfit in the San Francisco Bay Area recently promoted food delivery to certain GPS coordinates via small helicopter drones.

Some have dismissed TacoCopter Inc. as a hoax, though the business does seem to be offering a product — logo T-shirts — on its website.

Benefits Of Taking Fido To Work May Not Be Far 'Fetched'

Posted by Manncorp

There may be no direct evidence that employee stress has been reduced as a result of Manncorp CEO Henry Mann bringing his pet Rottweiler, Maddie, to work each day. But even a short visit to the company will prove she is everybody’s best friend – parading from office to office, begging for a rubdown or handout – or just curling up alongside her master during a meeting. Stress reduction isn’t the issue here. We love spoiling Maddie, ‘cause she’s a nice, friendly lady, minds her manners and never has a harsh word for anybody.

Manncorp Direct Coupon

Posted by Manncorp


For more information, please visit the coupon online, Manncorp Direct Coupon

Manncorp MC-388 Pick and Place Machine

Posted by Manncorp

Manncorp MC-388 Pick and Place Machine: Available with 2 Heads for Placement Rates up to 6,400 cph; Accepts up to 256 Feeders; 408 mm x 1200 mm Max Placement Area


For more information, please visit the website: Manncorp Pick and Place Machine MC-388

New to Social Media Marketing? Your First Campaign

Bruce Johnston, LinkedIn Evangelist & Sales Coach, SMT Magazine

You’ve convinced the powers that be at your company that this social media phenomenon is something that can help your company or organization increase sales. Now what? In putting together your first campaign you need to do two things right above all else: You need to know when to be modest and when to be aggressive. Getting this right will make your first campaign a success.

Be Aggressive in Your Research

Many social media gurus insist that you should just begin publishing and figure it out as you go along. I think this is lousy advice. It doesn’t take much work to get an idea what your readers and potential customers want to hear. They want help with their problems. You may be able to guess what some of their problems are, but it doesn’t take that much more work to call them and find out for sure. I prefer what I call the 80% rule: Get to the point where you think you’re 80% right, and your readers will help you adjust and get the remaining 20%.

Be Modest in Your Goals

You may have grandiose ideas in your head and, for now, that’s exactly where they should stay. This is going to be your first effort, your pilot program. You want it to go well, so start with something simple. If you envision putting out content from nine different people on five topics from three of your company’s departments over a blog, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, with all this generating hundreds of sales leads...maybe you should scale those back. Stop thinking total war and start thinking skirmishes instead. My recommendation is to run a modest program whose main goal is to show that it can work and is worth investing more time and money.

Be Modest with Your Channels


How about you just use one channel to start. Work at understanding what works on a blog or on Twitter. Become good and really understand a channel before you add the next one. And, while we’re at it, make your first channel one that you have some familiarity with already. See who you have that are already Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn users. Put these talents to good use.

Be Modest with the Amount of Scheduled Content


Thinking of five blog posts a week? How about two or three instead? And make the posts short. Your readers' attention spans are short; they’re on the run all day. Class does not equal mass in social media marketing. It’s much easier to expand your content offering as you hit your stride than it is to cut back on it. The optics on cutting back never looks good to your readers and potential customers.

Be Aggressive in Your Listening, Monitoring, and Analysis

With these three areas, it’s not so much a case of spending much time and effort, it’s a case of most companies not putting in any effort at all. How many times have you seen a blog where the entry just trails off, or a company using Facebook where all the entries suddenly stop? I call this “abandoned social syndrome” (we’ll not use the acronym for now, thank you). These people just shrugged their shoulders and said “this isn’t working” and gave up. Instead, listen to what is going on; listen to your reader’s comments and questions. Everything said, and sometimes the things not said, gives you clues as to what you could do next.

Manncorp Upgrade Any Non-Vision ECM Pick and Place Machine: ECMRK1 Retrofit Kit

Posted by Manncorp

Manncorp Upgrade Any Non-Vision ECM Pick and Place Machine ECMRK1 Retrofit Kit Includes Windows7 & XP Compatible Software, New Stepper Motors, Control Box & More


For more information, please visit the website: ECM Pick and Place Machine ECMRK1 Retrofit Kit

Inline PCB Cleaner With Many Innovations Added To Manncorp Product Mix

Posted by Mike Schwartz, Marketing Director of Manncorp

Manncorp has expanded its website section dedicated to PCB cleaners. Included are updates of existing models and a new INLINE BOARD CLEANING and DEFLUXING SYSTEM for water-soluble fluxes that combines higher throughput with exclusive operational and ecological benefits.

Manncorp
CEO Henry Mann claims the inline system answers market demand for increased board width by accommodating PCBs up to 24”. “It also uses less floor space, measuring just 12 ½ ft. long. Less energy and water are consumed with its 60-degree angled nozzle directing spray under the components for more thorough removal of all water-soluble (OA) flux residues,” he stated.


Along with high-performance stainless steel spray pumps that deliver increased flow and pressure, the system is powered by a turbine-powered rotating air knife, working along with fixed-position air knives to provide maximum effective drying area. The Manncorp inline cleaner is priced at $106,700, which according to the CEO is one lowest cost inline PCB cleaners available. “The quality of this cleaner and its attractive price opens the opportunity for ownership by a greater number of PCB assemblers,” he stated.

A rinse water closed loop recycler is available for zero discharge operation.

For details, access Inline PCB Cleaner, call 1.800.PIK MANN (745.6266) or e-mail sales@manncorp.com.

Preparation for Reflow Profiling

Electronics Manufacturing Insights from ACI Technologies, Inc.

Preparation is the key for successful lead-free reflow profiling

There is a smaller process window and a much narrower margin of error when creating and using lead-free reflow profiles for surface mount parts on printed circuit boards (PCBs). Solder balls, dewetting, tombstones, voids, and head-on-pillow problems will occur much more frequently because lead-free alloys behave differently than eutectic pastes. Problems are compounded due to the extra heat necessary for some lead-free pastes to reach their melting points.

Additional preparation is necessary to ensure that the reflow profile is correct and can be used repeatedly. Preparing and checking the surface mount parts, the screen printer, and the pick and place machine are integral preliminary steps to performing a lead-free reflow profile. Analyzing the size of the assembly, the density and mix of its large and small components, and having all the necessary paste product data, is also required.

Checking the moisture sensitivity of surface mount parts, like ball grid arrays (BGAs) or quad flat packs (QFPs), is an important step. If moisture is absorbed within these parts, flash boiling or popcorning can occur, destroying the part and ruining the PCB. A part’s moisture level (on the outside of the bag) indicates which parts need to be baked, and the time and temperature required.

Using parts that are not lead-free with lead-free paste will cause placement problems. BGAs for lead-free boards must also be RoHS compliant or an effect (similar to head-on-pillow) may appear to be a processing problem, when it is really a materials issue. Oxidation on parts should also be checked and avoided.

Since solder balls, voids, and tombstones often occur even in well constructed lead-free reflow profiles, the need for accuracy and precision in the stencil printer and the pick and place machine is intensified. With the equipment set up properly, any shifting parts, mid-chip solder balls, or other process indicators, are the result of the reflow oven profile and not another factor.

A proper print is crucial for determining whether the reflow profile is correct. Verify that your stencil has apertures designed to accommodate lead-free paste. Lead-free pastes have a high surface tension and do not flow on the pad surface like other pastes. The paste can not extend beyond the pad, and voiding or smudges (Figure 1) can not be present. A poor print can cause problems with determining whether a profile is accurate and repeatable.

Figure 1: Avoid paste smudges.

Precise placement of the part on the pad is now more critical than ever. Unlike eutectic pastes, which have properties which pull the part into place, lead-free solder does very little to help with alignment when melted. Parts continually shifting or tombstoning (Figure 2) during reflow are an indicator that an adjustment needs to be made.

Figure 2: An example of tombstoning.

Technical data sheets provided by the manufacturer will provide the operator all the information they need about the paste. These sheets include composition and reflow profile information. Data sheets are also provided by the PCB and part manufacturer. An analysis of the paste, the size of the assembly, density of the components, and combination of small and large components should be used to create a repeatable lead-free reflow process.

New Product from Manncorp Direct - 5500 SMT Stencil Printer

Posted by Manncorp

New Product from Manncorp Direct: 5500 SMT Stencil Printer, Vertical separation for ultra fine-pitch printing, dual-squeegees for bi-directional printing sturdy 165 lbs, $6,195.00


For more SMT stencil printers information, please visit the website: Manncorp Direct SMT Stencil Printer

Three And A Half Months To Plug In Our Machines Legally

Posted by Jan on 29 Mar 2012

Three and a half months to plug in our machines legally - Great post by Pololu Robotics and Electronics who share experience of getting permits to run their equipment (including Manncorp pick and place machines, reflow oven, stencil printer and PCB conveyors) at their new location for the past four months. Pololu’s primary products are small electronics modules for robot and motion control. They also make simple mechanical components on their laser cutters and 3D printer. In addition to items they manufacture, their online store offers small gearboxes, breadboards, servos, and robot kits that complement their products.

Click here if you want to read the whole post

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