RAREblog

Wonder of wonders - our Raspberry Pi has arrived. Over at Quick2Wire we are beginning to get on with the business of testing hardware and software for our experimenter's kit. I'll be blogging about the board over the next few days at DesignSpark , and I'm looking forward to meeting some potential users at our focus group this Thursday. A couple of people have dropped out, so if you might interested in attending, email me.

We're close to testing a prototype of our Poor Man's Pick and Place robot. It's based around a 4-axis engine using three stepper motors, a servo, and a small vacuum pump, reservoir and valve to hold  and move the component being placed. A human controller will drive it, using a USB microscope to check the position of the SMD components before placing them on the board. We'll be open sourcing the plans. We're using a 200x USB microscope form Maplin, and it's on sale over the Easter weekend. At  £19.99 (half the usual price)  it's a bargain. Get one while you can! Buy it here .