Normally when there is talk about drag feeders, it is expected you to have pin actuator for dragging.

Normally this pin actuator is controlled by solenoid. But control of solenoid is very insensitive and when solenoid reach it's end it causes quite shock that can throw component from whole strip away,

So why not to try drag strip with the nozzle?

With nozzle you can adjust height so that you do not hit the strip of bottom at all. Motion controller slows down motion before touching the strip.

Juki 501 nozzle outer dimension is around 1mm. Size of the strip hole is 1,5mm, so this should be just fine.

OpenPNP documentation does not say anything about nozzle actuators.

After some experimentation found out that you can specify same offset for head actuator than you have on your head. Ok, now OpenPnp know where your actuator is located, but how to get it actuating?

First you have to experiment with jogging what is correct head height for dragging the strip.

With current setting strip was dragging nice with Z height of 10mm.

Gcode driver under actuator have section ACTUATE_BOOLEAN_COMMAND

Following line do the job: G0 {True:Z10}{False:Z0}

Then some tuning with drag settings.. BackOff of 0.2mm was fine to prevent parts to fly away when lifting nozzle. Drag distance is bit more than 4mm because the is some slack around nozzle in hole.

Wow, works just great. OpenPnp is just awesome.