Comment on SMD Dispenser Cartridge

• JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  What are the improvements? It seems like just a functional switch of existing designs from magnets to a specific Lego part (I am assuming you are a Lego builder then haha) without DIN rail mounts.

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  • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I wanted something smaller than most of the designs I had seen. These are 60mm x 60mm which yes them small enough to go into the Plano parts boxes I use for storage. I also wanted them in various widths with various slot openings. I use resistors and capacitance on paper tape but I also have chips and LEDs on plastic tape such require a wider and a wider slot. The splitter and slot width was important because I need to be able to clip off the end of the tape and throw them in a drawer without losing parts. I also wanted to avoid multi part designs with clips and springs to connect to a rail or spools to hold the tape which make the whole thing thicker. The cover was important because I expect to use them individually rather than connected together. Connecting them together with the LEGO pins was a concession to the guys I work with (well, one of the guys) who tends to build a few at a time where I tend to do a lot of prototyping and repairs. The pins mean there are no clips or pins projecting from the individual cartridges.

    Yes, I’ve been a LEGO builder for 50 years or so and there is lots of Technics in my office. The kind are POM and very compliant. I’ve actually considered adding a DIN mount to these using a compliant DIN latch from BUD that I can buy from Digikey or Mouser. Another thing I’ve considered is just building DIN end clips where you game one with an integrated cover and one without. You would clamp those to a DIN rail then sandwich your stack up of cartridges between them. I’m just kicking around ideas right now.

    I may ultimately make up a version with a window in the little sloped part so my friends can use a pick and place pen to pick the parts up from there with a bunch of them pinned together for assembly work. I tend to just expose the one or two parts I need and dump them out into the board in working in. I’m an electronic slob. I do most of my work under an Olympus SZ40 binocular microscope setup for soldering.

    So, nothing major and I could have used any one of the designs available for download but I wanted to tinker with the design and print a bunch of similar but different cartridges that work for me.

    Sorry…flow of consciousness.

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