Author Topic: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics  (Read 16484 times)

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Offline Brumby

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #25 on: April 08, 2019, 04:18:27 am »
 

Offline Simon

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #26 on: April 08, 2019, 06:45:03 am »
Yea, infrared = light, things absorb heat and light differently based on colour and texture. Just had an IR thermometer thrown out at work that they were using for measuring hot water :palm:
 

Offline wilfred

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #27 on: April 08, 2019, 06:59:03 am »

My first test was with the thermocouple in air.  The boards burned while the temp indicated 230 C or so.  So, obviously, the boards absorbed more IR than the thermocouple.  Next test, I poked the thermocouple into a plated through-hole in the board, and got beautiful reflow soldering.  So, unless you attach the thermocouple to some kind of PC board simulator that has well-matched IR characteristics, you won't get the right temperatures.

Jon

Thanks Jon. I'll keep that in mind.
I wanted to avoid fitting the probe into a board each time. I think I might try embedding it into a square of PCB material about 4cm and fixing that to the wire shelf. I've got a tube of Selleys Sealfix that I was going to seal any gaps up with. Maybe I could use it to glue the probe tip to the copper. Just floating ideas here. Stop me if it is stupid. I don't think I'll need to seal gaps up though. The small size of the oven seems to work well getting the heat only 5cm from top and bottom sides.

http://www.selleys.com.au/adhesives/household-adhesive/task-specific/seal-fix/
 

Offline Doctorandus_P

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #28 on: April 08, 2019, 11:46:24 pm »
I think it is a combination of having a reliable and adjustable temperature profile in combination with some experience and experimentation.

Being able to generate a repeatable temperature profile in the oven is one part of the equation.

Some use loose thermometers, which can be clipped to the PCB, but if the thermometer is in a fixed position then there wil (hopefully) be some fixed and repeatable temperature difference between the thermometer and the board itself.

On the first board this temperature difference is unknown, which is where it becomes handy to be able to live monitor the soldering process.
Based on previous experience you make an educated guess, and then tweak it a bit in time or temperature untill it works for the PCB to be soldered.

There are also a lot of reasons for temperature differentals in the oven, which makes soldering more difficult.
Compare black (good IR absorption) and shiny (Reflect IR) components.
Some thick components can also take more time to heat than other thinner components.

I've heared some success with usig a frying pan with a layer of fine clean sand, which heats the PCB evenly from the underside.
The sand has a high thermal mass, so you probably have to use a plier to take the hot PCB out of the sand to prevent overheating.
 

Offline Nasdrasil

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #29 on: July 01, 2019, 06:28:38 pm »
I know it's been a while in this topic, but I am looking for an oven too. So far the experience has been no fun at all. I quickly discovered there are not a lot of reviews and there is not a lot of info on the cheaper chinese machines. From what I read I should try to avoid a T962. I did just that and found that the qs-5100 was a model that showed some promise. I ordered one from Aliexpress, only to find out they shipped me a T962 with a frontplate that says qs-5100. Did the model change over time? The firmware that my "qs-5100" has is exactely what is on a T962. My "qs-5100" has two green lights instead of red ones, just like a T962. It also has the infamous masking tape. Looks to me like at some point they just changed the qs-5100 to use T962 hardware and hoped people wouldn't notice. Anyway... I shipped it back (which was not cheap) and ordered another one in another Ailexpress shop. Totally exited I came home after a crappy day of work. I knew it had arrived. I open the box and... THESAME darn thing! They clearly show on their store they are selling the qs-5100 that I see reviews of on the web and youtube, but whay they shipped me is AGAIN a converted T962. Just as a heads up to anyone ordering a qs-5100 through Aliexpress... be very alert to what they ship to you. Anyway... for me the qs-5100 is not an option anymore. I did find the T962a+ and I don't know if that is a new model or something, but it has almost no reviews. Some people were saying that it took care of some of the problems the T962(a) has. It also features a usb connection for programming profiles, which is supposed to work on Windows 10. Anyone with some experience on this particular model? What do you guys think?
 

Offline Simon

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #30 on: July 01, 2019, 07:33:36 pm »
Sounds like someone has come up with  a new part number QS-5100 for the old 962, the 962A is a bigger model and then it jumps to a 962C that is massive, I bought one and promply sold it on to work as it was so large but now that I find it easier to manually run the thing I almost prefer it to the smaller oven I got with a temperature controller because the sheer size of the thing makes it react quiker and with a quik on-off of the fans you get a +20C boost in temperature as the hot air from the back is wafted to the front. I did some boards today with inductors that my little oven struggled with but the 962C handled with ease simply due to the power so I would offer that advice to people, think big if you can afford to as it makes life easier than if you are on limited heating capacity.
 

Offline Nasdrasil

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #31 on: July 01, 2019, 09:25:57 pm »
I don't know... some pictures down here

This is the unit I received twice. This defenately is a T962 even though it says qs-5100 on it. The firmware, the tape, everything points to it.


This is the unit I wanted. This is what you will find on the web and on youtube as a qs-5100. This is also what the store showed me as a picture.


Finally... this is the T962A+. I don't know much about this oven but it looks interesting. A couple of reviews mention some improvements. That... and I'd like to see the software that fomes with it. Haven't found screencaps so far..


 

Offline flydrive

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #32 on: July 01, 2019, 09:50:55 pm »
That's really frustrating. Aliexpress is usually not too bad .. however in this case it seems the long-running bad reviews of the T962 have caused the manufacturers to start cheating. All my research from a few months ago gave me the conclusion that the QS-5100 really is a different machine made by a different manufacturer altogether. It's not a re-badged T962, it's a similar size but has entirely different electronics, entirely different software and good insulation. It was also very hard to find and more expensive to the point I gave up looking. Looking today I can't find it anywhere I trust, there's no aliexpress vendor I've seen so far today that appears to have the whole range of Qinsi ovens which leads me right to believe they are all selling T962s with a fake faceplate on and hoping people don't send them back. I will say if you find a QS-5100 at the kind of price you'd usually pay for T962, it's not a 5100.

I'd say post the names of the stores but they change names on a regular basis so it's probably not worthwhile.
 

Offline Nasdrasil

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #33 on: July 02, 2019, 06:12:54 am »
I could post the names of the stores. I really think this is a way for them to try and get rid of the T962 units. They know they are bad and they also know people prefer other models. I will return my second order today. What I did notice is that the return shipping adres is thesame on both parcels. Now I'm no expert, but these two ovens came from different stores and need to be returned to thesame location?

Anyways... In the mean time I'm over 100 euro's into this story on return shipping alone that I could have spend on components for my projects. Contacting the seller is of no use since they won't reply to my messages. Seriously bummed out about it.

I can't seem to find a "real" qs-5100 anywhere. I will try to see what comes up with more searches on the T962A+. Once I get over this waisted money and if by some miracle I gather up the courage to purchase this model I'll post some pictures on here to let people know what this model is able to do.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2019, 06:31:00 am by Nasdrasil »
 

Offline flydrive

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #34 on: July 02, 2019, 07:03:32 am »
I did some more searching today and I can no-longer find the Qinsi ovens on Aliexpress. There used to be a couple of places which sold several machines from their lineup, enough different products I believed they were real. All those links are now 'no-longer available'.
I'm absolutely sure you're right that the sellers are just putting 'QS-5100' as the name and re-badging the old T962s which are pretty much the same size and you are probably right that most of them come from the same place.

I think if you want a real Qinsi your only good bet is
1) finding a real one on ebay somewhere near you which can be inspected
2) buying one direct from Qinsi which you may actually be able to do.

I've also researched the T962A+ and all the other variants and as far as I can tell they are all just versions of the same thing. I don't believe they have changed the firmware nor the basic design, they're still IR and still don't circulate air. I looked into the Puhui ones as well, I wasn't convinced they were more than a small step better if at all. There's another thread somewhere about the Puhui, someone purchased one and was going to report back on it but never did.
I gave up in the end deciding they were all probably mediocre. I did note the comment from yesterday (I think) about getting one of the large ones and how much more that poster liked it.
 

Offline jhalar

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #35 on: July 02, 2019, 07:17:37 am »
I wasn't convinced about the T962 series or the Qinsi ovens. In the end I decided to convert a toaster oven.
I settled on the Sunbeam BT-2600 9L toaster oven and the Whizoo Controleo3 oven controller kit.

Looking forward to the day when I test the reflow oven.
Electronics and Network Engineer. Working in both worlds.
 

Offline Nasdrasil

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #36 on: July 02, 2019, 07:52:39 pm »
Concerning the T962A+... here is a link where they state that it does hot air circulation. I don't know if I can trust that though...
 

Offline sugi

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Re: Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
« Reply #37 on: August 23, 2019, 09:12:38 am »
I purchased and reviewed ZB2520HL.


https://youtu.be/kkk4h7xrV6A
 


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