On the raptor machine, using software 2.067, feeders S27-S32 and S33-S38 cannot be reached by (at least) head 1 due to (physical and software) X-axis limits. This would be fine if the placement strategy knew to only use the heads that can actually reach those feeders.

When using the "8 head same nozzle" placement strategy (8 head different nozzle is not suitable for our boards), if you want to place several components from a feeder in one of these 12 slots (S27-S32 or S33-S38), one of the nozzles that cannot access the feeders due to X-axis limits will try to be used, and an axis limit error is thrown. Ideally the PNP software should either know which heads can access which feeders and only use those heads, otherwise there should be an option in the feeder settings to specify which heads can be used for that feeder.

The feeders on the other end of the machine (S1-S6 and S59-S64) have a similar issue where the placement strategy will attempt to use head 8 (or similar) which is also beyond the X-limit. Instead we're forced to only use components in these feeders that are used to load boards that only use 2-4 heads/nozzles.

This issue means we have at least 12 feeders that are completely unusable in production on this machine.

Thanks Michael, we look forward to a fix for this :)

What was the intended fix for this? With the new software and firwmare, whenever there is a feeder to be used that is outside the limits of the "current" head, the placement program just ends. Is this the intended behaviour or are we just missing a setting?

The program should be using one of many available heads that can actually reach the feeder.

Upon further fiddling with this new firmware and software, it appears that this changes works for the case where feeders S01-S06 would try to use head 8. Head 8 is no longer attempting to be used for S01.

This doesn't fix the issue on the other side of the machine. If I have a program that uses parts in feeder S33, on this machine we've checked that only head 6, 7, and 8 can reach this feeder. Head 5 or less cannot reach the feeder without an axis limits error (https://photos.app.goo.gl/emR3XT5uZnYuFdyJ7). If we run a program that uses components from only this feeder, the fiducials are checked, and then the program stops and the machine returns to the home position without any error (https://photos.app.goo.gl/9zdAe1r19Uf2cgXd7).

This behaviour of stopping the program occurs anytime in the middle of the PNP routine, whenever there's a feeder that the heads on the left (head 1-4) cannot reach.

The PNP machine should be using head 6, head 7 or head 8 on this far right feeder, instead of stopping the program without any indication of what is wrong. Similarly for the other feeders on the right side of the machine that head 1 cannot access.