Electronics > Beginners
Best Re-flow Oven for Hobby electronics
(1/8) > >>
FotatoPotato:
Hi all, I'm starting work on a pcb that will have a 500 ball BGA chip and I need a re-flow oven in-order to solder it to the board . I did look on amazon but all the ovens I saw looked cheap, were from random Chinese sellers and the reviews were not that food so I was just wondering If you guys know of any good quality re-flow overs for under $500

Thanks  :D
Simon:

--- Quote from: blueskull on April 01, 2018, 05:44:23 am ---I presume the cheap Chinese ovens are T962/T962A/T962B. Those are shit and those come with severe thermal design issues. They can't cook large boards evenly.

The cheapest good oven I would consider is T962C, the C version is completely redesigned with IR+hot air heating. It won't fit in your budget, but it's just a little stretch.



--- End quote ---

I have one of these at work, the controller is exactly the same as the smaller ones with 1s on the display actually being 1.5s, I dont see any hot air ? but it does have move even heat with more bulbs closer together. On mine one of the two fans has failed which is not a bad thing as the one left pushes heat around a bit and not much out.

I have another oven myself now made by a another company and new on the market, it does have an internal fan that moves air around as well as the exhaust fan.
chris_leyson:
The toaster oven from Beta Layout is €389, or €489 with the magnetic stencil workbench. https://uk.beta-layout.com/estore/order_product_details.html?p=740
Mine arrived this week but I haven't tried it out yet, I will have to reflow some boards with QFN packages and didn't fancy risking a hot plate and hot air. I've done a few repairs with hot air in the past and it isn't easy. Dave reviewed the same oven a while back and gave it a thumbs up.
together with a follow up video


There is also an article on their website about soldering BGA packages in a pizza oven, in German.
https://uk.beta-layout.com/download/rk/RK-10590_702.pdf. It's important to use a heat spreader underneath the PCB so I'm going to try some thin brass sheet. Will let you know how it goes.

EDIT: Oven is 230V but it should work OK on 220V split phase.
Simon:

--- Quote from: blueskull on April 01, 2018, 09:08:53 am ---
--- Quote from: Simon on April 01, 2018, 08:45:45 am ---I dont see any hot air ? but it does have move even heat with more bulbs closer together.

--- End quote ---


I think I read somewhere that it has internal fans as I was researching on getting myself a reflow oven. I didn't end up getting this one, though.

--- End quote ---

Well haven't taken one apart but I don't believe it. They just make 3 sizes of the same basic design.
KE5FX:
I recently bought a T962A and added the ESTechnical aftermarket controller.  Not a whole lot of experience with it yet, but I've used it to solder a board with a 400-pin Searay connector and it seemed to do OK. 

The ESTechnical controller makes a huge difference.  Moving the graph to the PC is helpful in itself.  The T962 can't control the temperature of the board very closely, but the graph allows you to tweak the process to get something resembling the desired slope, e.g.:



The USB interface is flaky and requires frequent reconnection and/or power cycling, but the controller itself is solid.  It really makes the most of the oven's limited hardware design.  In a couple of weeks I'll run a board with an 0.8-mm BGA through it, and we'll see how it holds up.  But I have no reason to think it won't do OK.


--- Quote from: chris_leyson on April 01, 2018, 09:35:55 am --- It's important to use a heat spreader underneath the PCB so I'm going to try some thin brass sheet. Will let you know how it goes.

--- End quote ---

I haven't heard this before, any pointers?

The advice I've read (and followed with the Searay board) was actually to elevate the board in the drawer slightly by putting a couple of PCB scraps beneath it.  The ESTechnical controller uses the fan to provide air circulation during operation, so this seems like a good way to ensure the whole board is preheated adequately.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod