Favorite DIY Reflow Toaster Oven Controllers?

[ElektroQuark]

THIS is a DIY reflow oven project from Andy Brown.
It can be controlled directly or with a simple Android application from a phone or tablet.

[iph]

looks cool :-)

[iph]

the www.reflowcontroller.com is sold on ebay for $19.99 !!! :-)

(spring sale!!)

do a search on ebay for "reflow controller" and youll see them :-)

cheapest one around and comes with licensed end user sourcecode including the GUI :-)

this one has full sourcecode GUI included and firmware sourcecode too :-)


visual c# project 2012 (free) and microchip firmware :-)

[salbayeng]

I'm with HowardLong,
I have a PID controller, but just used for temperature readout. It's very important to have the thermocouple touching the PCB (E.g. jammed in a convenient hole)

I use bottom element only for preheat , then switch to both elements for the reflow, and open the door/turnoff at 205C.

Unless you go to effort of upgrading to fan forcing/ fan cooling and quartz elements, then there is no point having an electronic controller, it can't switch from bottom to both elements, and it can't open the door.

[salbayeng]

array of resistors as a heating element

Don't think that will work,  most resistors lose the plot around 300C   (I once built this jig using two metal clad resistors to sweat some braid to a copper strip and the resistors kept failing, but even the normal ceramic resistors will be struggling to stay together much above 500C).
Quartz halogen bulbs make great heating elements when they are glowing dimly, I used some in a vacuum drying jig , it was only 25 x 50 x 100mm internal volume.
You can buy $$$ nice square ceramic heating elements for rework, and these could be placed under your pcb.
Another option might be to hack up a cheap hot air gun to blow air under the PCB, you would need a  diffuser, but it could make for a small oven.
Or you could take some toaster elements and rewire for 24V,  but whatever path you take, it's hard to beat a $20 toaster oven from Kmart.
And you can bake out silica gel in a toaster oven, and warm up PCB's prior to conformal coating, and heat up pies!

[iph]

IR elements are nice.

the black and decker infrawave was a great oven to use :-) back then "the silicon horizon" was making reflow controllers.

IR elements heat faster but can have hot spots too.

theres a Panasonic oven with infrared elements.

[iph]

www.reflowcontroller.com same as the one on ebay for 19.99 :-)

it has free software too, pretty cool.

sourcecode is avail too


I like to order on ebay and its cheaper shipping too

[iph]

anyone know of any other infrared ovens besides Panasonic?

[villekille]

I have been looking at these ovens, but is there really any advantages to just using a simple electric stove? I bought for 15 euro a simple 1500W stove and I place the PCBs directly on top of that, and turn the heat setting between 1 and 2..and wait for 5 minutes..first comes smoke, then the solder melts, then I let it be for a moment and turn the power off. So far only once I burned the board when I was choose the power level too high. This is a very simple way and at least DFN-10 packages were soldered perfectly.

[salbayeng]

By "Stove" , I'm presuming you mean a single hotplate.  I've done PCB's this way, but just little ones. (E.g. a batch of 20 connector adapters 10mmx20mm) I unscrewed the base on my hotplate and found a screwthread  in the middle of the element, so I placed a thermocouple there, hooked up to a simple PID controller ($20, ebay) that is used more as a readout.
Minor issues
(a) temperature can be non-uniform
(b) can't heat up big inductors or electrolytics properly
(c) you meed to skid the PCB off the hotplate once it has reflowed to get a nice rapid cool down, to get a fine grained, shiny crystal structure
(d) can't do double sided

[Fleetz]

Any of you guys got any reviews of any of the reflow controllers that are on the market today?

Just bought a Russell Hobbs two element toaster over and wondering which controller to go with?

[dreamcat4]

much cheaper (new at NZ$35), smaller, quartz element oven, worked immediately and has been running successfully for a few years now, turning out perfect boards.
The oven is 9 litres and uses just two elements, one top and one bottom.
Best wishes, Ron.

Hi there Ron, if you are still around can you please tell us which make and model of quartz oven you have there? Even if we cannot get it ourselves, it would still be very helpful for finding similar types of ovens. Many thanks.