Cheap Reflow Oven
Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:48 pm
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.
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.