Cheap Reflow Oven

[Icky]

With all the boards I am working on there are a lot of SMT components and using the hot air rework station is good for some small jobs but for a large board or a couple of boards at the same time I wanted to go for a re-flow oven.

I ended going for the cheap T-962 which has had a lot of bad reviews and even exxos has hacked around with it http://www.exxosforum.co.uk/IMPULSE2015/pcb-oven/

I only decided on the oven after seeing various updates that can bring this oven up to something that actually works. I used the following links on the web to go through and do the upgrades.

http://hackaday.com/2014/11/27/improvin ... flow-oven/
https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T ... provements
https://www.bankras.org/projects/projec ... schematic/
https://www.bankras.org/projects/projec ... rovements/

One of the biggest problems with this oven is that is uses masking tape to insulate between the bottom and top half. This emits a burnt smell that lingers everywhere. This is replaced by kaplan tape. First problem solved.

Next up was the firmware upgrade that Unified Engineering have done an excellent job on making the profiles match the oven better and additional options such as extra sensors etc. The firmware upgrade was done with a simple USB to FTDI UART board.

The last upgrade I did was to add a cold junction sensor that the new firmware uses as the base temp outside of the oven.

I could go further with more upgrades as can be seen with the links but this works for me and am happy with the re-flow. Below is an image of re-flowing the reset chip used on the STF Remake. I did not put too much solder paste on as my hands were shaky (no solder screen to make it easier), but it is soldered fine.

Photo on 20-04-2019 at 18.28.jpg

[PhilC]

Careful or your "office " will start to resemble exxos's floor :D

:goodpost:

[Icky]

Careful or your "office " will start to resemble exxos's floor :D

:goodpost:

I think it already does PhilC :D

[DrF]

How cool :D
Always wanted to do this when I was into electronics, thing is there was not many controllers around back then and they was super expensive, im guessing theres a choice now?

Only choice not so long ago was some Russian built kit and that was about it :lol:

Aldi have a oven that comes on special now and again, apparently its very hack friendly, I always miss them though :(

[Icky]

Aldi have a oven that comes on special now and again, apparently its very hack friendly, I always miss them though :(

I have seen a few videos of hacking a toaster oven from Argos too :D

[exxos]

Interesting... I know I looked at replacement LCD and board but it was expensive and hard to find , so I didn't bother. I messed with the probes to change the temps, so I have no idea if what's on screen is the right temp or not. Basically I just used the first profile and it had a good ramp up and down, and just fiddled with the probes until the oven melted the solder fine, without burning the board into a charcole mess.

I assume the thermal probes take a average between the 2 of them, I think one probe is pushed to the side of the oven, basically bent upwards out of the way, and the other probe is more in the middle.

Also note you can't use the front inch of the oven tray as its not actually under the lamps. So there is actually a cold spot at the front. Trying to get the temps higher there to melt solder results in burning PCBs ;)

[Icky]

Interesting... I know I looked at replacement LCD and board but it was expensive and hard to find , so I didn't bother. I messed with the probes to change the temps, so I have no idea if what's on screen is the right temp or not. Basically I just used the first profile and it had a good ramp up and down, and just fiddled with the probes until the oven melted the solder fine, without burning the board into a charcole mess.

I assume the thermal probes take a average between the 2 of them, I think one probe is pushed to the side of the oven, basically bent upwards out of the way, and the other probe is more in the middle.

Also note you can't use the front inch of the oven tray as its not actually under the lamps. So there is actually a cold spot at the front. Trying to get the temps higher there to melt solder results in burning PCBs ;)

I think with your lamp mod exxos and all the other upgrades this would be the ultimate oven. However a lot of effort to put in though to get it to that stage.

[juz400]

Not a new design I know but may be of interest here, some cool hacks with it for those on a budget.
Open Source design by Andy Brown
https://andybrown.me.uk/forum/index.php?topic=60.0

A Build video:


Operation video:


Super Budget hack:


Carefully thought out hack: