#Prototype reflow oven update#
#Prototype reflow oven full#
#Prototype reflow oven software#

The overall structure of the hot air reflow oven is mainly divided into five main parts, namely, heating area, cooling area, gas circulation device in the furnace, exhaust emission device and PCB transfer. Heater and fan are used to make the air inside the furnace heating and circulating continuously.

#Prototype reflow oven full#

Full reflow oven transmits heat energy through laminar motion of hot air. Hot air reflow oven has the characteristics of uniform heating and stable temperature. The heating system of hot air reflow oven mainly consists of hot air motor, heating tube, thermoelectric coupler, solid state relay SSR, temperature control module and so on. The advantage is that the heat energy is always kept in a certain temperature range when welding, there will be no sudden hot and cold, so that welding is easier, the success rate is higher.

This type of reflow oven is characterized by laminar flow of hot air to transfer the heat required for welding. Whether or not you choose this particular oven, and whether or not you choose to modify it, adding a reflow oven to your workbench is a must.Reflow oven is carried out in this way by using heaters and fans to heat up the internal temperature continuously and then circulate. I’m extremely confident I can handle BGAs now if I had to. In summary, this was the best decision ever and it makes working with surface-mount components really easy. As soon as it’s cool to the touch, it’s ready to test! Start Reflowing! Once all the pieces are in place, the board goes into the oven and is reflowed according to the reflow profile I have chosen. Once stenciled, I can quickly transfer the components from the mock board. I then do a quick optical inspection to make sure all the pads have been adequately covered.

To stencil on the solder paste, I usually use some scrap PCBs or veroboard to create a fixture to hold the PCB in place, and then tape the stencil over top:Īfter that I lay down a nice glob of paste on one end, and then use a plastic card to spread the paste over the board, pressing down a bit firmly. This ensures that when I move to the next step, I don’t have to hunt for components and verify values. I then place all the components as if I were assembling the board for real. I start by printing a 1:1 image of the board and taping it down on a clean, flat surface that is safe from bumps or accidental disturbances. I usually complete the process in three steps. My process is evolving as I complete more projects, so this is very subject to change.

#Prototype reflow oven update#

I’ll update this page as I add improvements to the oven or the software. However I would like to be able to have some push-button modes built in and be able to operate the oven without the computer. I haven’t implemented any displays yet, mostly because I’ve been controlling the oven from the computer to monitor the temperature.So far I’ve just been connecting an FTDI cable to the board directly, and routing it through the case of the oven. The oven itself needs an easily accessible USB port on the outside.I’d like to also show the projected reflow profile in the chart.

#Prototype reflow oven software#

The control software is mostly feature complete but is very rough around the edges, especially charting the temperature.So far the setup has worked very well, but there are several loose ends I haven’t tied up: Desktop app for loading profiles and running reflow jobs I also created an application that allowed me to store and keep track of different reflow profiles, as well as view the reflow profile as the oven heats and cools. While it seems that some versions of the board were equipped to operate the fan and heating elements separately, this one had several footprints unpopulated (what seems like a triac circuit) and instead the fan and heating elements were driven together, making temperature control difficult. The next issue to overcome was the rather limited control board that came with the oven. This issue is solved by opening up the oven and replacing the masking tape with Kapton or some other heat-resistant tape. The tape is in place to keep the oven insulation sealed. I won’t go into the stock firmware or control board, as I found them unsatisfactory and I never used them much.Īt the time I bought my oven, they came pretty much unusable, owing to the fact that they used low-quality masking tape inside the oven that tends to give off a rather unpleasant odor upon first use. The front panel is pretty simple, just a dot matrix screen with five buttons and two LED indicators. Two thermocouples come down from the top of the chamber for temperature measurement. There is a 320mm x 300mm drawer where your PCBs sit. It has four heating elements inside, and a large fan in the back. The oven itself is little more than a toaster oven on steroids.