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Ben's Home-Brew Solder Reflow Oven 2.0 Episode -- Episode 116

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element14's The Ben Heck Show

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Ben's fed-up with the difficulty of soldering surface-mount components by hand and builds a new reflow oven to keep in his shop. He transforms an inexpensive toaster over into a vital tool for electronics engineers and tinkerers. In this updated oven, he uses two thermal couples to ensure even heat distribution and effective reflow.
  • in reply to colecago

    Well, I have a RasPi but I really don't want to use an SD card, as they've proven unreliable (except for the most expensive ones). I would like to put it into an enclosure and have it in fire and forget manner, once I've done everything I need on it. Most likely I'll not be the only one using it, moving it around, loaning it to friends, etc. and I want to minimise the risk of anything going awry. RasPi without SD card would be the single solution to my problem... Is there such a thing?

     

    I would require ethernet shield only to configure wireless connection (or something like that, don't have that concept worked out in my head yet.) I don't want to reprogram arduino everytime a friend asks me to lend him the oven so he can connect to his own wireless.

    One of the ideas I came across is connecting arduino via serial port to TL-WR703N wireless router

    One is using Spark and cloud.

    and so on...

     

    I don't know...Its been occupying my mind for a week now, making me losing sleep because of all the possibilities image

    I'm lost...

  • in reply to matas1

    I believe the SPI I was using for those sensors was bit-banged, so it was kind of slow.  I wouldn't recommend putting all of those things on a SPI bus with an Arduino.  The Arduino is a pretty limited device.

     

    Maybe look into using a Raspberry Pi instead, they have a TFT touch screen that fits on it, it already has ethernet, and there are a lot of tutorials on SPI sensors and I/O control with it.

  • in reply to benheck

    Hi,

    I'm new at this but i love to learn new stuff.....I would like to make this, but beside just copying your thing, i'd like to add network access and a web server where i could set the values, and monitor progress...(timer, current temp, etc...)

    What are the limits of the SPI ?

    will i run into a problem if i grab a tft touch screen, ethernet shield, wifi shield, and those two sensors?

    if yes, is there some way to avoid it? other MCU? 1-way type sensors?

    what are the memory restrictions? i'd like to avoid SD cards if possible.

     

    thank you

  • in reply to sb72104

    You might be better off foregoing the max31855, they take a little time to read and are expensive.  There are other thermocouple cards out there that output an analog signal and still do cold junction compensation and such and are a much cheaper.  I'll look on Monday as I'm using some in another project.

  • in reply to Ironaxe

    I'm working on a Schematic for a board that includes the max31855's, the avr processor, power supply and connectors for the lcd and ssr "all inclusive".  it's kinda hard when I work 60+ hours a week but I'm getting there.

  • I would really love to see real Schematics/BOM´s for this kind of Projects.

    So any Hobbyist can build one for himself. image

  • in reply to colecago

    I guess I need to find a good Arduino tutorial.  I have never messed with one. 

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    Not sure what Solid State relay was used exactly, they tend to be expensive, I think that was his ebay comment to try there if you can't find a cheap one elsewhere.  This is probably comparable to what we used

    SSR http://www.newark.com/opto-22/240d10/ssr-panel-mount-280vac-32vdc-10a/dp/96F1061

     

    Here is the thermocouple stuff

    Thermocouple reader http://www.adafruit.com/products/269

    Thermocouples Ready-Made Insulated Thermocouples, Models 5TC-GG, 5TC-TT  (5TC-GG-K-30-36)

     

    and for LCD we used a generic 16x2 character display he had lying around the shop.

  • Hi Ben

    nice video but there things which could be improved.

    1.) Use a convection oven. It will improve the soldering process a lot.

    2.) To get a more accurate solder profile, you have to connect the thermocouplers to the PCB board.

    Otherwise you will measure the air temperature, which will rise much faster than the PCB temperature

    3.) Use a program which shows you the temperature curve against a optimal solder profile.

    4.) Always run a dummy test first. This will heat up the oven. It can be critical when you have to reach a solder phase in a certain time.

     

    Cheers. J 

  • in reply to Sabrina

    Like Stephen is mentioning: There is only the program-file for the Arduino(?).

    What I need is the BOM, so I know which components Ben has used for this mod.

    In the movie there is a hint to look at ebay for the thermocouple interfaces, but which are used here?

    The SolidState used? etc...