Flying Probe Testers?

Steve: Take a look at the attached url. As with all testing systems, tooling / fixturing is costly. But, not as bad as a bunch of "Bed of Nails" test fixtures. Glad you had one of those great weekends, had to spend mine fishing,, again ,, Caught a 7 pound nothern, big for our little lake. Wayne

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| Good Day All!! | I hope ya'll had a decent weekend, I did...didn't do a damn thing, I like weekends like that. Anyways, the big guys here are thinking about buying a "Flying Probe" tester, and the G.M. came to me and asked what I thought of them. | I had to plead ignorance, I didn't know much about them at all. So I've been trying to learn something about them. I've done a web search and I could find a mess of bare board moving probe testers, but not many ICT testers. | The two companies I've found are Tescon, and Genrad. From what I've learned, Tescon has been building flying probe testers for a while, while Genrad is just coming out with theirs. I've learned that flying probe testers can actually test denser boards than a fixed probe station can, but that is at the expense of cycle time. Cycle time won't be something that we'll be too concerned with, as we don't plan on doing any high-volume stuff. | I was wondering if any of you guys have worked around a flying probe tester? If so, other than the slow test times, what is the biggest gripe you have about them? Who are the other vendors besides Tescon and Genrad? I did see a couple of european companies, but from what I could tell on their web sites, they don't market them in the states. From the experiences any of you have had with them, is there any vendor any better than the other? | Sorry about all the questions, but I'm pretty clueless about them... | Thanks for any info! | -Steve Gregory-

| | (image courtesy of Mind and Machine) The biggest problem I have faced with these systems is flatness of the board. If you have a problem with any of your designs after reflow ie they are not flat this where this system can be a problem. They work fine but are not as tolerant as bed of nails fixtures.

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| Good Day All!! | I hope ya'll had a decent weekend, I did...didn't do a damn thing, I like weekends like that. Anyways, the big guys here are thinking about buying a "Flying Probe" tester, and the G.M. came to me and asked what I thought of them. | I had to plead ignorance, I didn't know much about them at all. So I've been trying to learn something about them. I've done a web search and I could find a mess of bare board moving probe testers, but not many ICT testers. | The two companies I've found are Tescon, and Genrad. From what I've learned, Tescon has been building flying probe testers for a while, while Genrad is just coming out with theirs. I've learned that flying probe testers can actually test denser boards than a fixed probe station can, but that is at the expense of cycle time. Cycle time won't be something that we'll be too concerned with, as we don't plan on doing any high-volume stuff. | I was wondering if any of you guys have worked around a flying probe tester? If so, other than the slow test times, what is the biggest gripe you have about them? Who are the other vendors besides Tescon and Genrad? I did see a couple of european companies, but from what I could tell on their web sites, they don't market them in the states. From the experiences any of you have had with them, is there any vendor any better than the other? | Sorry about all the questions, but I'm pretty clueless about them... | Thanks for any info! | -Steve Gregory-

| | (image courtesy of Mind and Machine) Stevo: Flying probe automatic test suppliers, in no particular order, are: ManTech Test Systems, 12015 Lee Jackson Hghwy, Fairfax VA 22033 703.218.6400 fax 6401 Mike McCabe Engr Joe Bormanis sales 602.553.0987 Tescon 2122B Metro Circle, Huntsville AL 35801 205.881.1625 fax 1430 Patrick ONeal $130k Probot 203.481.4764 fax203.488.3942 Bath Scientific Limited 26 Main St Lakeville MA 02347 508.946.2660 fax 0404 ITA 714.583.1553 fax 581.4785 texmac 408.970.9171 fax 9178 Probetech 317.849.6197fax6195 Things I like about flying probe automatic testers are: 1 Cheap fixtures ... for you, no Test fixture NRE passed back to your customers. 2 Roughly comparible test programming NRE. Things I don't like about flying probe automatic testers are: 1 Expensve: $130k stock 2 Slow compared to a MDE. Take a deep breath, you could need three or four of these things. 3 It's just a MDE 4 Programmers are not easy to find. Don't let them kid you about CAD data. As you know, you might get pad centroid data from your CAD (your customers CAD), but a functioning program is a long stretch from there. For instance, you probably can't use the centroid data because the component lead or body is sitting there. Plus you have to characterize the component measurement for each supplier. For the money I'd buy two AOI's. TTYL Dave F

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| Good Day All!! | I hope ya'll had a decent weekend, I did...didn't do a damn thing, I like weekends like that. Anyways, the big guys here are thinking about buying a "Flying Probe" tester, and the G.M. came to me and asked what I thought of them. | I had to plead ignorance, I didn't know much about them at all. So I've been trying to learn something about them. I've done a web search and I could find a mess of bare board moving probe testers, but not many ICT testers. | The two companies I've found are Tescon, and Genrad. From what I've learned, Tescon has been building flying probe testers for a while, while Genrad is just coming out with theirs. I've learned that flying probe testers can actually test denser boards than a fixed probe station can, but that is at the expense of cycle time. Cycle time won't be something that we'll be too concerned with, as we don't plan on doing any high-volume stuff. | I was wondering if any of you guys have worked around a flying probe tester? If so, other than the slow test times, what is the biggest gripe you have about them? Who are the other vendors besides Tescon and Genrad? I did see a couple of european companies, but from what I could tell on their web sites, they don't market them in the states. From the experiences any of you have had with them, is there any vendor any better than the other? | Sorry about all the questions, but I'm pretty clueless about them... | Thanks for any info! | -Steve Gregory-

| | (image courtesy of Mind and Machine) STEVE, DAVE HIT IT. IT'S ALL ABOUT PROGRAMMING TIME. I'M IN THE SAME BOAT YOU'RE IN. WE LOOKED PRETTY HARD AT THESE THINGS BUT THE TIME INCORPORATED WITH GETTING A PROGRAM UP ACTUALLY WOULD FORCE US TO BRING ON ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL FOR THAT EQUIPMENT. NOT WORTH IT. FOR MY OWN KNOWLEDGE, IS MDE THE SAME AS MDA?? I'M KIND OF "TEST-ILLITERATE." JUST LEARNING THE GAME. REGARDS, JUSTIN MEDERNACH

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| Steve: | Take a look at the attached url. As with all testing systems, tooling / fixturing is costly. But, not as bad as a bunch of "Bed of Nails" test fixtures. | Glad you had one of those great weekends, had to spend mine fishing,, again ,, Caught a 7 pound nothern, big for our little lake. | Wayne WAYNE, NICE FISH. THOSE PUPPIES CAN TAKE A FINGER! WE HAVE TO GET OUT. I PULLED A 5 POUND BROWN TROUT OUT OF THE NISSITISSIT IN PEPPERELL ABOUT 2 WEEKS AGO. IT WAS LIKE LOVE. TALK TO YA, JUSTIN

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| | Good Day All!! | | I hope ya'll had a decent weekend, I did...didn't do a damn thing, I like weekends like that. Anyways, the big guys here are thinking about buying a "Flying Probe" tester, and the G.M. came to me and asked what I thought of them. | | I had to plead ignorance, I didn't know much about them at all. So I've been trying to learn something about them. I've done a web search and I could find a mess of bare board moving probe testers, but not many ICT testers. | | The two companies I've found are Tescon, and Genrad. From what I've learned, Tescon has been building flying probe testers for a while, while Genrad is just coming out with theirs. I've learned that flying probe testers can actually test denser boards than a fixed probe station can, but that is at the expense of cycle time. Cycle time won't be something that we'll be too concerned with, as we don't plan on doing any high-volume stuff. | | I was wondering if any of you guys have worked around a flying probe tester? If so, other than the slow test times, what is the biggest gripe you have about them? Who are the other vendors besides Tescon and Genrad? I did see a couple of european companies, but from what I could tell on their web sites, they don't market them in the states. From the experiences any of you have had with them, is there any vendor any better than the other? | | Sorry about all the questions, but I'm pretty clueless about them... | | Thanks for any info! | | -Steve Gregory- | | | | | (image courtesy of Mind and Machine) | STEVE, | DAVE HIT IT. IT'S ALL ABOUT PROGRAMMING TIME. I'M IN THE SAME BOAT YOU'RE IN. WE LOOKED PRETTY HARD AT THESE THINGS BUT THE TIME INCORPORATED WITH GETTING A PROGRAM UP ACTUALLY WOULD FORCE US TO BRING ON ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL FOR THAT EQUIPMENT. NOT WORTH IT. FOR MY OWN KNOWLEDGE, IS MDE THE SAME AS MDA?? I'M KIND OF "TEST-ILLITERATE." JUST LEARNING THE GAME. | REGARDS, | JUSTIN MEDERNACH Justin: You're correct. I should have typed MDA. Dave F

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| | Steve: | | Take a look at the attached url. As with all testing systems, tooling / fixturing is costly. But, not as bad as a bunch of "Bed of Nails" test fixtures. | | Glad you had one of those great weekends, had to spend mine fishing,, again ,, Caught a 7 pound nothern, big for our little lake. | | Wayne | WAYNE, | NICE FISH. THOSE PUPPIES CAN TAKE A FINGER! WE HAVE TO GET OUT. I PULLED A 5 POUND BROWN TROUT OUT OF THE NISSITISSIT IN PEPPERELL ABOUT 2 WEEKS AGO. IT WAS LIKE LOVE. | TALK TO YA, | JUSTIN Justin: Heard from Jon about the big brown, although he indicated it wasn't that big! (just joking) Guess you two might be hitting that section of stream this weekend Wayne

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