Thanks, Romain!

That's correct, You should avoid inhaling the dust. The mineral oil is there to keep the dust out of the air. For drilling and routing operations where it's not feasible to use the oil to contain all of the dust, you should use a vacuum with a HEPA or ULPA filter - a standard vacuum filter is not sufficient, but a HEPA replacement is fairly cheap.

Yes, exactly. Thanks!

Mineral oil. You can get it in pure form at a pharmacy, or use baby oil which is typically just mineral oil plus fragrance (but check the ingredients).

agua nada, oleo mineral oleo de bebe serve mas verifique os ingredientes para ter certeza que e oleo mineral

That depends on the particular TQFP because they come in different lead pitches and recommended footprints. The largest that would be sufficient is a 10-mil diameter, but a 7-mil diameter would support the vast majority. The bit used in the video was 7-mil in diameter. Some would require an even smaller one - it just depends on the package. If you have the spec sheet for your particular TQFP, you could go to somewhere in the back where they have the recommend footprint or "land pattern". Then see what the clearance is between the pads. You would want to use an end mill that is no larger than that gap.

Yes, Prometheus mills/drills FR4 and other laminates. In this pre-production model shown in the video, front and back registration is done via alignment pins and our software, though there is a better method in the production version that I'm not quite ready to announce yet ;) The liquid is mineral oil which keeps the dust from getting into the air. Thanks for watching!

​@@zippyroboticsinc5171 is a really good trick to avoid the dust in the air :) I understand the cause of it at first time i watched. Also is was the first time i saw that trick in hundred of videos about PCB milling processes.. So is a new version of Prometheus near to get out?

Thanks, Shane! The small holes were about 30 mils (.8 mm). The simplest way (and the way I did it with this board) is to slip bare copper wire (not magnet wire, but actually bare copper) through the holes and solder both sides to the pads. You can find bare wire online. One place is Digi-Key: bit.ly/2ovly7Z. I used 22 AWG for this board. Another technique is to use rivets made for this purpose but that is more pricey because you have to buy the tooling.

Thanks! I was always under the impression that vias were pretty much out of reach for a milled board--this is good news :)

So the via drill diameter should be the same size as other through hole components, 0.8mm? Can it use smaller via diameter that uses a smaller endmill? But I guess the software cannot distinguish (yet) between different hole sizes? Also in the demo, some of the bigger holes (mounting holes?) are not drilled completely through. Is this intentional?

It's not that they *should*, although it's nice to limit the number of drill sizes you use so that you require fewer tool changes. You can definitely go smaller. I drilled 20-mil holes (.5 mm) in another board recently. The software does distinguish hole sizes - It groups each size together and then prompts you so you can insert the proper drill size before continuing. Then it drills all holes of that size before prompting you again. The mounting holes not being drilled through was a bug with the software which has since been fixed. Good eye :)

Excellent, and because drilling holes I think don't need probing the surface again you can change the drill and continue. I'm about to pre order one, just need to check first with Dutch customs for added duties and taxes. Cause they can be a pain.

IT WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE

You would need to drill the holes first, add a plating step after that, and then do all the routing. The nasty bit there is that this gets you working with chemical baths again. The other option would be to drill oversized holes and use hollow rivets to create the plating.

That's a good question that I should have mentioned in the last email update. I've weighed the options and it looks like I should kill the vacuum table. After I ended up having to put the probing/surface tracking feature in the software, it became less useful to have the vacuum table. In this video I removed the vacuum table and replaced it with another block of HDPE that is milled flat and has two holes pre-drilled to accept the alignment pins. The vacuum table used two 90 degree brackets for alignment and while they could work they take some effort by the user to get right. The alignment pins will always provide good registration. I put a groove in the new table to make it easy to pry up the board, so the tape is less bothersome now. This also frees up your vacuum for dust collection (having two vacuums on gets quite noisy). Overall I think this was the best option.

Great to finally see a video of the new Prometheus. I really like it and I am looking forward to receiving the Prometheus. I do not mind not having a vacuum table. One question. You said that there are two pre-drilled alignment holes. It looks like that's fine for the max allowed copper clad board size, but what about alignment of smaller size boards? Wouldn't adding a few more alignment holes be a good idea to match some standard board sizes? Thanks!

Hi Ron! Yes, you're right. The table actually has a third hole in between the outer two to support 5"x3" boards (127 mm x 76 mm), but as of today it's not supported by ProCAM. The board in this video was made from a 6"x4" board (152 mm x 101 mm). It's on my list of software features to add.

It seems like it would be much more efficient to put a spoil board on the table, drill the alignment holes, and put shorter alignment pins in place. That way, you don't have to pry it up, flip it over, put it on pins and tape it back down. Just lift it off of the pins, and flip it over, sit it back on the pins.

It is! The motor is then coupled to a custom spindle design.

We created our own software specifically to control Prometheus. It's called ProCAM.

$1,800 if you preorder, $2,300 once it's released, in case anyone's wondering. And no info on the site about when it will be released.

Yeah, this sounds like a great project to convert your $300 3D printer into.

IgnoreMyChan 3d printers arent usually stable enough for this kind of thing. A cheap cnc router or homemade router is probably better than this machine. (In terms of cost efficiency anyway.)

Overlordx666 I found that out in the mean time and you are totally right. Thanks for the reminder!

I mean, I don't begrudge anyone from coming up with a product and a price but ... yeah it seems this is a bit much and it is a bit of a trend for this type of machine.

Yes, Prometheus is made by us (Zippy Robotics).

@@zippyroboticsinc5171 whats the pitch of threaded rod