Ovens

[Spikee]

The default controllers seem to have a bunch of issues. Most ppl switch these out with 3rd party controllers.
The beta reflow thingy does not seem a too bad choice at that pricepoint.

[mcs_5]

I use a cheap fan-assisted toaster oven with the ControLeo2 controller, and it works very well so far. I soldered a 31x15cm 4-layer board with a solid groundplane today with no problems. I dont have a p&p machine yet though, so placing the parts took some time

[mawa]

reasonably priced vapor phase oven:

I've been into evaluating vapor soldering for quite a while and that device is a good approach.

There are several proven methods on how to run the vapor soldering process and for most purposes the method IMDES uses should be fine.

You place the PCB down in the "bucket", heat up the Galden fluid until it evaporates and the vapor condenses on you PCB and components , wait for a peak re-flow period and turn off the heat and accelerate the cool down with a set of fans. After cool down you retrieve you soldered PCB.

It's a little bit like making French fries except that you do not preheat the oil and you don't submerge the PCB into the oil. There are several professional suppliers that sell machines using a similar method. Some use water to speed up the cooling process.

Important is that the device seals tight and no vapor can "escape" and that you can view the process through a glass lid or side window.

I am thinking of buying the medium sized machine in near future.

The only minor problem is the price for the Galden fluid you need for the vapor.

I btw do not trust any of those oven type machines especially when you want to solder components that have most of their connectors on the bottom like the 5050 LEDs I want to assemble almost side by side with 0605 capacitors in the "shade" between the LEDs.

I recently bought set set of breakout boards from one of the mayor suppliers (no I won't say who it was ) and they really smelled very "overtoasted".

[Spikee]

I have been using a cheap skillet for reflow soldering. As long as the components are placed good enough than it works with no problems.
But when you have components that have stricter temperature limits like MEMS sensors or RH sensors this method lacks in controllability.

Vapor phase seems the most stable process out there. Especially when using 0201, 0402, BGA and small pitch qfn components.
With this new device it is possible for smaller companies to use this technology.

When it is in stock I will buy one for my company.

[mucek]

I ordered T962 anyway (well, it's not much choice in this pricerange), but found, that there's been quite some users working on upgrading this oven.
There are hardware modificications (remove smell, more accurate and leveled heating, additional temperature sensor ...) as well as completely rewritten controller's software, which now has everything, that's needed (https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T ... provements)

I am waiting to receive it in the next week; will try to photograph all steps and post them here as well as final result ...

Regards,
Gregor

[jarekk]

The only minor problem is the price for the Galden fluid you need for the vapor.
.

Do you know how much of the fluid is lost during normal operation ?
I do have quite good working oven ( http://www.aoyue.eu/aoyue-inthhl-3000-r ... ammes.html ),
but as I want to start with BGA I am looking for something better.

I am tempted to buy one as well.

[Spikee]

It will be only a few ml if not less. Pretty much depends on how long you wait before opening the cover. One one fill you should do at least 100 boards. I think around 300 is more realistic. But I have not been able to test this myself yet.

[jarekk]

I have sent them mail.
Few interesting things:

>> Due the large response we have at thsi moment a delivery time from approx 3 weeks
>> Sorry for this delivery time an other reason ist that in our work shop two weeks ago all the materials and computers has been stolen

So for good or bad some waiting...

I have asked about possibility of stacking boards
>> Yes it is possibel to some boards up approx 20 mm

About Galden losses:
>> Use of galden is very less if you folow up the instructions
>> The loss depends also of the size of the PCB, s square cm you want to solder


If you get yours, please share your experience
Do you know if you can program soldering profiles in their oven ? I have not seen any manual.




Well, nothing precise

[jarekk]

Ok, got manual.

No profile control , but most likely it is not much needed.

reflow_profile.jpg (59.64 KiB) Viewed 10897 times

[Spikee]

It seems to have some kind off the shelf temp / pid controller. But due to Galden fluid I do not think that a strict temperature profile is needed.