Reflow Oven Controllers

[Don_Kirby]

Manually soldering surface mount parts has been getting a bit tedious recently. Even with the hot-air station and vision enhancement, it's just too time consuming. In an effort to put together a workable reflow oven for less than the thousands of dollars that a real one costs, I've been doing some searching.

There have been quite a few articles floating about the internet about building controllers, toaster ovens, hot plates, and blow torches. I was about to buy a controller from SparkFun for about $90, but it didn't include any of the ancillary bits and peices required to make it functional, nor did it come with code to run it. There are a handful of other 'project' style controllers out there as well, which I looked into also. One for sale on eBay did look promising, as it came with a windows application to control it. At $60, it seems to be a better deal.

Then I stumbled on this . While still $90, the thermocouple (available from the same company) is only $6.50, and the SSR is a paltry $15. I like the idea of a standalone controller. I also like the fact that I can probably cram it all into my doner toaster oven.

I'm curious if anyone has used one of these. My biggest reservation, after reading the specifications, is that the timing is programmable only in minutes. I wonder if that will make it unfit for my purpose. Perhaps the eBay controller with other pieces from Auber Instruments is the way to go.

-Don

[dlh]

http://www.zbasic.net/forum/about368.html

[dkinzer]

I was about to buy a controller from SparkFun

I used one of the EuroPro convection ovens for mine, typically available on eBay for $25 plus shipping. The thermocouple and amplifier came from SparkFun. If you use an AVR chip (perhaps translating the ZBasic code to C) you should be able to get the cost down to close to $100, somewhat higher if you use a ZX chip.

[Don_Kirby]

I've read that thread before, but I was hoping to put something together without programming or major assembly as I have a nasty habit of making everything overcomplicated. If I'm not careful, I'll have to buy a commercial reflow oven to cook the board for my reflow oven controller... I think a prefab controller, of whatever type, is what I'm after.

I'm still intrigued by the Auber controller, probably because is has a nice colorful display, but I think I'm going to try the eBay model since it offers much more control over the profile.

-Don