IR or HOT AIR rework station.. what`s best?

[ErikTheNorwegian]

IR or HOT AIR rework station.. what`s best?

The use BGA, cellphones, XBOX, PS3, laptop and GPU on graphics cards..

Anyone with experience of the two different technices of reballing?

[Unelma]

Hello

Common budget Hot Air rework station is now Honton HT-R390 New model is marked as R392.
There are machines now in the market what have IR and Hotair in the same unit.

I have Honton HT-R390.

- Good case and supports.
- Good Hot air temperature controlling +/- 1C accuracy Altec PC410 PID controller.
- Semi good IR controlling.
- No PCB TC controlling.     

The Hot Air temperatures slides because the TC assembly, it reads lover temps when the machine gets hotter. I have not modified this yet. But I will do some modifications on it someday.
I run my profiles using pause method when I have new PCB what I am repairing.
I did little mod in top heater controlling, Used CNY17-3 (opto) that I can manually add more pulses to the SSR what controls the top heater element. I have done lot of different modifications also in the unit:

- Bottom Air flow controlling. (Stock Fan is 12V all the time)
- Silent Fans when the machine is idle. Fully automated on/off and Heat element cooling time can be changed 1-30 min.
- Laser pointer for the bottom Nozzle.
- Power controlling for the side 600W IR plates, Fotek SSR-25VA (Triac).
- IR preheat function R390 does not have this but R392 has it.
- Pimped it using 5050 RGB LED´s.


I like the unit easy to use and modifie because there is no “PC” controlling softwares.
Chine LCD displays machines have one problem is there any support when the controlling fails.
Is the controlling computer PID software really good or is it buggy?
If you want to change it, can you get support? All PID controllers can be changed.
Inside Honton HT-R390 there is basic relay stuff really easy to repair and understand this is why I bought it.

Video IR preheater:
Video Hot Air Controlling accuracy:
Video XB360 repair using manual pulsing:

[hifihifi]

can you tell me the wires to connect the PC410 to the optocoupler ?

[Unelma]

Sorry for slow answer.
This is the simple circuit to add manually extra pulses. I used Honton 12V PSU for power. Warning pressing the button will drive the heater to 100%. I operate my machine so no protection was needed. If you need protection or more automated system simple 555 circuit will give you automated pulse what you can tweak using trimmer.

[zus]

@Unelma I am wondering if you can help and understand if you cannot as the post is old. Crossing fingers I would get a reply lol. I have the Honton HT R-390.
"- Bottom Air flow controlling. (Stock Fan is 12V all the time)
- Silent Fans when the machine is idle. Fully automated on/off and Heat element cooling time can be changed 1-30 min"

Please can you explain how you did it or provide  schematics for this mod?

[zus]

@Unelma, No worries I found the answers in one of your videos on youtube titled "Honton HTR390 Guts". I did the IR Preheating mod which is straight forward. In addition Top and bottom hotair fan mod, can turn off completely during ir Preheating. The upper hotair, I disconnected the factory huge Potentiometer and bridged the connector near where the upper ir fan connectors are to the board so that I could use a PWM Fan speed controller module to control it. The bottom one I used PWM module as the top. All working good. When running a profile I ensure I used full fan speed at bottom and top 50% to 100% percent speed. The laser I am just using a battery powered laser attached to the side of the upper hotair casesing which I prefer. Thank you I got there in the end. If you have time it would be great to have the schematics especially for novices.

[kolbi7]

@zus

Can you help me?? I have a Ht r390 machine and I would like to solve the IR Preheating mod. (I can only turn on the ir heating with a separate switch) I'm a beginner in this field, can you explain with pictures exactly what and how to do it? I would be very grateful.

[Postal2]

There is no need to ask for an opinion, you just need to see how normal people do it.

[zus]

@zus

Can you help me?? I have a Ht r390 machine and I would like to solve the IR Preheating mod. (I can only turn on the ir heating with a separate switch) I'm a beginner in this field, can you explain with pictures exactly what and how to do it? I would be very grateful.

Do this at your own risk, I followed the author's guideline. I drilled and installed a switch as in previous post picture. I connected a wire to the positive  input terminal of the SSR-40 DA facing the machine, it is at the far right where it it sits as in picture. This wire is then connected to one of the switch terminal. From the switch other terminal a wire goes to the positive output of the REX-C10 module as in picture. Once done you can switch the bottom as a Preheater on its own. To run profile the Preheating switch has to be in the off position. It has been a pain to open HT-R390 again and would not open anymore. You need a switch and 2 wires. Hope this helps.

[zus]

@Kolbi7, 2 more pictures as i could not upload from previous reply

[kolbi7]

Thank you!

So I would like to put the motherboard to be repaired on it, turn on the ir preheater, if the motherboard has been sufficiently preheated, then I run the hot air profile, so that the ir preheater runs regardless.

[zus]

@Kolbi7, yes and that is the idea. The Preheater is very convenient as before, had to set the profile to run. In the next model Honton HT-R392 a switch for the Preheating heater was added. I am not an expert in reballing but it advisable to pre-heat board like Ps3 in oven at 125°C for 24 hours to prevent pop corning due to build up moisture in the motherboard. The key is to practice and create your own profile due to variables like ambient temperature and so on. The experts seem to advise to get the top board to reach up to180°C by bottom heaters and the top hotair or ir to do the rest after that. I monitor with external thermo couple, as the internal 3 thermo couples of ir bottom, top and bottom hot air are not so accurate. Good luck and from my experience practice and practice until you reach optimum skill.

[kolbi7]

Thanks for the useful advice. Yesterday, I finally didn't dare to make the change, because you wrote that the ir preheater must be turned off when running a profile. What if I leave the ir preheater on and start the profile like that? Won't start?

[zus]

Nothing will happen, the Preheater is just if you want the bottom ir heater to preheat your board at the temperature you desired, say set at100°C so you do not have to run a profile. To run a profile just put switch in off position. You can sort of preheat in profile if you set your target setpoint to 0 and adjust Dwell time in top and bottom hotair. I hope I have not wasted my time and someone out there will find it useful.