How to make an infrared soldering station. Infrared soldering stations for BGA packages (23). Flexible thermocouple tube

Modern, more advanced technology, alas, fails no less than old models. And if earlier the question of improving what was familiar to us was not raised, today it is almost impossible to unsolder or solder a part in the old fashioned way without “hitting” neighboring chips. That is why craftsmen assemble more modern hot air and infrared soldering stations with their own hands. In this review, we will tell you what soldering systems are, how the control unit works and how to connect it, what is included in the structural elements. Only in our review you will find recommendations illustrating the features of assembly and adjustment of modern soldering stations.

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What is a soldering station for?

Soldering station vs. simple soldering iron, is a more advanced system. It allows you to sleep small parts, such as, for example, SMD components, control heating on the display, program buttons. In addition, thanks to the non-contact soldering system, overheating of neighboring elements is excluded here.

The non-contact type soldering station belongs to modern systems soldering. For example, heating with a hot air gun helps craftsmen repair household appliances and mobile phones. But with the help of IR systems, you can mount and dismantle (even BGA format).

General characteristics and principle of operation of the soldering station

The anatomy of a soldering station is quite simple and most responsive necessary conditions: accurate, "smart" soldering of elements. The heart of the device is, inside of which there is a transformer that produces voltage of two options - 12 or 24 Volts. Without this element, all station systems would be useless. The transformer is responsible for temperature control. The power supply is equipped with a thermostat and special buttons for starting the device.

For reference! Some devices are equipped with a special stand that heats the printed circuit board during soldering, which helps to avoid its deformation.

With the help of the control unit, the function of storing the temperature and programming the buttons can also be implemented. Masters “pump” the device using a processor, thanks to which it becomes possible to measure the temperature during soldering.

Let's analyze the features of the operation of a hot air soldering station: the air flow is heated with the help of special spiral or ceramic elements (they are located right inside the hot air gun tube), and then it is sent through special nozzles to the soldering point. Such a system allows you to heat the required surface evenly, eliminating point deformation.

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"The temperature that modern soldering dryers can provide, including those assembled by hand, varies from 100 to 800 ° C. Moreover, these indicators can be adjusted by the operator.

"

A special infrared heater can act as another additional element. Its principle is similar to the operation of a hot air gun, it heats not the junction, but a certain area. However, unlike a hot air gun, there is no flow of warm air. Professional soldering stations can be equipped with special related tools, desoldering pumps and vacuum tweezers.

Varieties of soldering stations by design

There are both simple soldering stations equipped with the classic soldering iron familiar to us, and more advanced ones. Moreover, there can be a great variety of variations in the combination of components and systems. You can easily combine a contact soldering iron and a hair dryer, vacuum or thermal tweezers and a desoldering pump in one station. For convenience, here is a table of the main types of soldering stations.

Contact PS - this is an ordinary soldering iron that has direct contact with the surface when soldering, equipped with an electronic control unit and temperature control.		Contactless PS - at the heart of work control unit and special system control elements.
Lead	Lead free Require high melting temperature.	Hot Air They provide effective soldering in hard-to-reach areas with simultaneous heating of several surfaces at once. Allows soldering of any type, both with and without lead.	infrared Here there is a heating element in the form of an infrared emitter made of ceramic or quartz.	Combined They combine several types of equipment in their design: a hairdryer or a classic soldering iron, or, as we have already said, an IR heater and a desoldering pump, for example, a soldering iron and a hairdryer.

According to the temperature stabilization mechanism and the principle of operation of the control units, soldering stations can also be divided into analog and digital. In the first case, the heating element is turned on until the soldering iron warms up to the desired temperature, the closest analogy is heating an ordinary iron. But the second type of soldering iron is distinguished by a complex temperature control and regulation system. The PID controller is located here, which obeys the microcontroller program. This method of temperature stabilization is much more efficient than analog. Another classification allows you to divide all PS into assembly and dismantling. The former carry out soldering of devices, however, they do not have a desoldering pump and other elements that allow cleaning and replacing parts.

Such soldering systems are equipped with a special container for removing solder, which, in turn, is sucked off by a special nozzle equipped with a compressor.

For your information! There are combined stations that allow for both installation and dismantling. They are equipped with two types of soldering irons, differing in power.

How to make your own hot air soldering station

Not everyone can afford to buy a soldering station with a hairdryer, although IR stations cost even more money, so the easiest way is to assemble it yourself. However, it should be remembered that such air soldering stations have certain disadvantages:

1. Airflow can accidentally blow off small parts.
2. The surface heats up unevenly.
3. For different cases, additional nozzles are required.

Do-it-yourself soldering dryer: a universal scheme

A hot air gun is a special device that heats the place of soldering with a stream of hot air.

The easiest way is to assemble the device with a hairdryer on a fan, and use a spiral as a heater.

If you buy a mechanical heater, then it is quite expensive. And with sudden changes in temperature, it can simply crack. Not everyone can design a compressor on their own. As a blower, you can use a regular small-sized fan. A cooler from a home PC is suitable. To get acquainted with the device of such a device, we will study the scheme of the soldering station with our own hands.

We place the fan near the hot air gun. We carefully attach a tube to supply warm air to it. At the end of the cooler we grind a hole for the nozzle. On the opposite side, the cooler must be closed to provide the necessary traction.

Now it's time to assemble the heating element. To do this, you need to turn nichrome wire spiral on the base of the heater. Moreover, the coils must not touch each other. The coils are wound taking into account the fact that the resistance should be 70-90 ohms. The base is chosen with poor thermal conductivity and good resistance to high temperatures.

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"Part of the details can be borrowed from a conventional hair dryer. In particular, a mica plate is suitable as the basis for a spiral with low thermal conductivity.

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Let's start looking for parts for the nozzle. A ceramic or porcelain pipe is best suited for this. We leave a small gap between the walls of the nozzle and the spiral. We wrap the surface with insulating materials from above. Asbestos layer, fiberglass, etc. can be used. This will increase the high efficiency of the hair dryer, and also allow you to take it with your hands without getting burned. We fix the heating element so that air is supplied to the tube, and the heater is exactly in the middle inside the nozzle.

Soldering Station Control System

To assemble the control system of a home-made soldering station such as a hair dryer with your own hands, you need to place two rheostats in it: one regulates the incoming flow, the other controls the power of the heating element. But usually one is made for both the heater and the supercharger.

Here it is very important to correctly connect the wires so that they correspond with the rheostats.

Then we connect the hot air gun so that the wires correspond to the necessary rheostats and the switch.

Assembling and configuring the soldering station

The power of a soldering station, as we noted above, is usually in the range from 24 to 40 watts. However, if you plan to solder the power rails and, then the power of the device should be increased from 40 to 80 watts.

For more information on how to solder with a hairdryer from a soldering station, see this video.

DIY infrared soldering station

infrared Soldering Station- the tool that is easiest to do with your own hands. The price of soldering stations of this type is simply sky-high. Buying something simpler is not an option, as there will still be limited functionality.

That is why we will tell you step by step how to assemble an infrared soldering iron with your own hands. Let's analyze the stages of assembling a PS for soldering boards with a size of 250 × 250 mm. Our soldering station is suitable for working with TV boards, video adapters for PCs, as well as tablets.

Manufacture of housing and heating elements

For the basis of a self-made IR soldering station, assembled with your own hands, you can take the door from the mezzanine or 10-12 mm, fasten the legs to it. At this stage, it is important to roughly estimate the layout based on the dimensions of the heaters and PID controllers. The height of the "sidewalls" and bevels of the front panel will depend on this.

Aluminum corners are used to form the "skeleton" of the structure. Take care of the "stuffing" in advance, old VCRs, DVD players and the like will come in handy. You can bypass specialized street hawkers.

Now we are looking for a non-stick pan. Yes, exactly what you can buy in a regular store household appliances. Here you can also look after a high-quality soldering iron for a soldering station.

Important! Take a tape measure with you. Your task is to find a baking sheet of optimal width and depth. Dimensions depend on the height of the IR emitters and their number.

Soldering control system

Let's get to the most interesting. On the trading floor, we pre-order PIDs (or proportional-integral-differential controllers), as well as IR - 3 lower IR emitters 60 × 240 mm, and one upper - 80 × 80 mm, do not forget to stock up on two solid-state 40A. At this stage, it is already possible to move on to tin work, namely, to fit the entire structure to the dimensions of our main elements. After fitting the sidewalls and the cover, we cut out the technological holes for the FIDs on the front, for the cooler on the back wall.

Assembly and adjustment of the soldering station

So, after installing the emitters, the cooler and connecting all the wires, the appearance of our soldering station is already taking on an almost finished look. At this stage, it is necessary to test the equipment for heating, temperature holding and hysteresis. We proceed to the installation of the main IR emitter. It's easy to do.

agree.

disagree. It is not the percentage that starts to panic, but the programmer who programmed him did not foresee such a situation. What prevents the programmer from considering such a situation. Moreover, in the controller from the tormentor, this function is implemented-CUT.

what prevents to score the same table in the controller software? For example. The START button is pressed at Tlow.=100gr. The controller checks the following condition: initial step T=20deg, final step T=180deg, step time is 160s. This means that the increase in T at this step is 1 g/sec. The controller must reduce the heating time by 80 sec. But I must also take into account (but this condition is not taken into account in the controller from the tormentor) that if the increase in T at this step should be equal to 1 g / sec, then despite any other factors, namely, the time will increase or decrease, it must heat not MORE and NOT LESS THAN 1gr/sec. Moreover, some time is still needed at least to warm up the emitter. Whatever power is set at this step. And the operator should just do not care with what power the station is currently heating. And the controller must know this from the compiled tables, for example, on such a function as auto-tuning. When the station is turned on for the first time, either automatically or by menu item, station auto-tuning starts. You can specify this in the instructions. Like, first install the board as large as possible, the controller drove it to 100 gr., Which, in principle, is painless for the board, took measurements, then the middle one, then the smallest one, like MXM. And that's it! The controller for itself has created a table about which you write "about furnaces". Further, on the basis of this table, the controller does preheating and at the same time DETERMINES what size the board is installed. He determines this on the reaction of the board to the rise of T from the power applied to the VI. If he "didn't smoke" something, then let him give a signal - it is necessary to carry out auto-tuning. As a result of which one more payment will get to its table. In terms of time, I do not think that this is critical. Because do-it-yourselfers spend significantly more time setting up their homemade products.
ANY soldering controller is just such a device in terms of functionality, even from famous manufacturers. What is a dimer? This is power control by some external influence. In the case of a dimer, this is the potentiometer knob. In the case of a soldering iron, the controller. And what you wrote at the end, I painted at the beginning. There is no time to create a soldering station based on PID and power control. Rather, you can create it, but here you need very clear and deeply thought-out software.

Continued for Krievs. In the case of multistage dimers, this software is the operator who monitors the process and, in the case of "something went wrong", makes one or another decision. The only advantage of such a solution is its cheapness. How to write correctly Andy52280, in this case everything goes "on a convex sea eye".
In continuation, I will say that maxlabt found the best solution for makeshift stations. Or rather, he didn’t find it, but he studied the theory as deeply as possible (nickname helped) and in practice chose the lesser of all evils. And most importantly, he shared with all his research. Why should he Thanks a lot. Aries 151 actually costs exactly as much as it can be used, well, maybe a little more expensive. Because of its versatility, it doesn’t quite fit our conditions. Just remember how maxlabt helped one person on a rhombus set up the oven almost online. Damn Hollywood. You open a thread, read the latest messages and wonder, where is the continuation of this fascinating series? So despite all the respect maxlabt for myself, I realized that Aries is not IDEAL solution. Optimal - YES, but not ideal. Therefore, I am not ready to spend money on Aries, despite its cost. Although it is worth it, it is not so expensive. If you compare its cost with the prices of laptop repairs, and specifically, when they charge from 80 bucks and more to replace the bridge, not counting the cost of the bridge itself, then the cost of Aries at 200-odd bucks does not seem so much anymore.
It's better to buy a thermopro then. But this is not my level. I don't need him. I'm much more interested in getting candy from what I have at the moment. And with what filling this candy will be depends on my knowledge, experience and the degree of hand curvature. Good luck to everyone in our hard work!

The continuous improvement of soldering technology is due to the emergence of more complex electronics printed circuit boards. The infrared soldering station (IPS) is designed to work with a new generation of sensitive microcircuits and other radio components. An unusual approach to soldering is based on the use of a light beam in the infrared range as a carrier of thermal energy.

Features and Benefits

A feature of the IR soldering station is that, unlike an induction device, there is no material contact with the radio component in operation, compared to a hair dryer, there is no air flow pressure. The entire soldering process takes place completely in a non-contact mode.

The advantages of IPS include the following:

• unlike other designs, an infrared soldering iron provides quick installation or, conversely, desoldering under conditions of full control of the heating level of the radio component being processed;
• a focused beam of infrared radiation allows you to point the thermal energy flow to the right place on the board;
• IPS makes it possible to set the mode of stepwise increase in the heating temperature in working area;
• infrared soldering reliably restores the broken connection of the microcircuit pad with the printed circuit board;
• the absence of solder and flux in the operation of the station allows you to save workplace clean and do not clog the board with drops of tin and additive crystals.

Types of IPS

According to the type of infrared emitter, two types of IPS are distinguished:

1. Ceramic;
2. Quartz.

Ceramic

An example of a ceramic infrared soldering station is the Achi ir6000 model. The station has a lot of advantages. It has established itself as a reliable, durable and durable equipment. The working temperature in the soldering zone is reached within 10 minutes. In stations of this type, a solid flat or hollow ceramic emitter is used.

Quartz

Unlike a ceramic soldering iron, the quartz station reaches maximum heat in 30 seconds. Quartz stations are very sensitive to frequent on-off cycles.

Attention! If the specifics of the soldering mode require several shutdowns of the equipment within a short period, then it is better to use a ceramic soldering station.

Operating principle

To understand the operation of an infrared soldering station, one must understand the principle of connecting a microprocessor to a printed circuit board. Chips of laptops and various electronic devices do not have output legs. Instead, they have a grid of contact points on their backs. The same grating is on the printed circuit board.

On both surfaces, the contacts are covered with fusible balls. During soldering, the microprocessor is heated by an infrared emitter to the melting temperature of the solder. At the same time, the lower surface of the board is heated by the heaters of the station's lower platform. By heating the contact connections on both sides, a quick soldering of the radio component is achieved. Due to the narrowly directed heat flow, heat does not have time to spread to other components of the board.

Important! station using software can carry out various steps temperature regime at certain intervals of time.

Description of the IR soldering process

The infrared soldering process consists of several phases:

1. The printed circuit board is placed on the station platform.
2. It is fixed with side stops and additional rails.
3. Around the mounting area, the plastic elements are covered with adhesive foil.
4. An infrared emitter is installed at a height of 3-4 cm from the microcircuit.
5. A thermocouple on a flexible tube is brought directly to the place of soldering.
6. Using the buttons on the interfaces of the thermocontrollers, the operating modes of the upper and lower heaters are set.
7. A lamp on a steel flexible cord is brought to the place of soldering.
8. Turn on the station by pressing the start button.
9. After the specified time has elapsed, the microprocessor is removed from the board using tweezers.
10. In the same way, only in reverse order, a new microprocessor is mounted.

Design features

An infrared soldering station is a fairly large piece of equipment:

• width - 450-475 mm;
• height - 430-450 mm;
• depth - 420-450 mm.
• the height of the supporting support of the IR emitter is 200 mm.

Additional Information. Dimensions various models stations may differ slightly from the above data. The desktop area is designed for printed circuit boards of the maximum size and any configuration.

Location of controls and moving parts of the IR station:

1. The desktop is a deep platform from a number of heating elements, closed metal mesh.
2. Parallel stops with locks move along the guides. They clamp the printing platform on both sides.
3. The transverse boards are equipped with screw supports that support the board at the desired height.
4. The kit includes rails that additionally secure the board.
5. A rotary mechanism is installed on a vertical support, on which an infrared heater is fixed.
6. The IR emitter can move in a straight line along the tripod rails. At the same time, the soldering iron can rotate around the vertical support.
7. On the front panel of the equipment are:

• power button;
• connector for thermocouple;
• stop button;
• desktop fan switch;
• backlight switch;
• top cooling button;
• thermal controller of lower heaters;
• programmable top IR heater controller.

The temperature of the upper IR heater can reach from 220 to 270 degrees. The lower platform warms up to 150-1700 C.

DIY manufacturing

The high cost of an IR soldering station (60-150 thousand rubles) encourages home craftsmen to manufacture such equipment on their own. With some experience, it is quite possible to make a homemade infrared soldering iron with your own hands. Material costs usually do not exceed 10 thousand rubles. It is necessary to prepare the materials and components necessary for the assembly of the IR station.

Details for a homemade device

To assemble an infrared soldering station with your own hands, you will need the following:

• tin sheet;
• flexible spiral metal lamp tube;
• lever tripod from the old table lamp;
• halogen lamps;
• galvanized fine mesh;
• aluminum profile in the form of narrow rails;
• 2 thermocouples;
• Arduino Mega 2560 R3 board;
• SSR 25-DA2x board Adafruit MAX31855K ​​- 2 pcs.;
• adapter direct current 5 volts, 0.5 A;
• wires.

Assembly

Installation of a soldering station consists of several stages:

1. Thermotable;
2. infrared heater;
3. PID controller on Arduino.

Thermotable

It is advisable to make a thermostatic table with your own hands in an equipped home workshop. The design is a lower heater, consisting of the following components:

• housing, reflector, lamps;
• board fixing system;
• flexible thermocouple tube;
• lamp.

Frame

1. The basis of the thermotable is made in the form of a frame from an L-shaped tin profile. You can bend the strips of metal with a corner. Cutouts are made with scissors and the metal is bent along them, connecting the parts with self-tapping screws.
2. The opening is covered with a metal mesh. So that it does not bend, metal bars are pulled over the grid in the transverse and longitudinal directions.

1. The old halogen lamp is dismantled, freeing the reflector from the lamps. It is cut along the inner perimeter of the body.
2. Lamps are returned. The heater is inserted into the support frame from below.

Board fixing system

The aluminum rail is cut into several pieces. Mounting holes are drilled in them.

Two sections of the profile are fixed on the wide sides of the body, in the grooves of which the screw clamps of the transverse rails will move. Everything will become clear from the bottom photo.

Flexible thermocouple tube

A spiral metal tube is installed in one of the corners of the frame, thermocouple wires are pulled through. The length of the tube must provide access for the thermocouple to the entire working area of ​​the station.

Lamp

A cartridge with a five-volt light bulb with a reflector is fixed at the end of the flexible tube. The base of the metal hose is attached to the corner of the frame in the same way as in the previous case.

Top heater

The infrared emitter consists of two elements, these are:

1. Ceramic plate in the case.
2. Holder.

Ceramic plate in case

The plate can be purchased on the electrical market or ordered on the website of the online store. The main thing is to make a durable case in which a free flow of air would be provided. How to do this, you can see in the photo.

Additional Information. A computer cooler mounted in the upper plane of the IR plate housing will help protect the radio component from overheating.

Holder

The two-piece table lamp bracket is ideal for the holder. The base of the bracket is attached to the frame of the station. The upper swivel joint is connected to the body of the upper heater.

PID controller on Arduino

A do-it-yourself IR station is necessarily equipped with a control unit. For him, you need to make a separate case. An Arduino board and a PID controller are placed inside. An approximate diagram of the layout of the parts of the station control unit is visible in the photo.

The Arduino Mega 2560 R3 microprocessor platform controls the heating modes of the ceramic IR emitter and the thermal table platform. The wires of the fans (upper and lower), the PID controller, thermocouples and the lamp are connected to the Arduino board.

The soldering station is programmed through the controller interface. Its screen reflects the current heating process of the PCB on both sides.

Tester

Thermocouples act as a tester. They are ultimately sources of information about the state of the heating level of the back side of the printed circuit board and the top surface of the microprocessor.

Work in practice

Before starting work, it is important to correctly set up the IR soldering station.

Setting

After fixing the printed circuit board on the thermal table and bringing the IR emitter to the microprocessor, they proceed to setting up the station. This is done using the keys of the interfaces of the thermal controllers of the upper and lower heaters.

The display of the lower heating controller shows the current temperature at the top. The buttons on the bottom line set the final value of the degree of heating of the printed circuit board.

The programmable top heating controller has 10 options (thermal profiles). The thermal profile reflects the dependence of temperature on time. That is, heating can be programmed in steps. Each step sets a certain time during which the temperature does not change.

Difficulty at work

Mass-produced infrared soldering stations are easy to operate and easy to understand. Difficulties in the operation of the station may arise due to a discrepancy between the actual characteristics of the station and the data in the accompanying documentation. The equipment manufacturer is responsible for this under warranty.

For people involved in the repair of modern electronic devices at home, a homemade infrared soldering station is the first necessity. It makes sense to purchase professional equipment for workshops where there are large volumes of repair work.

Video

With the advent of microprocessor technology, it became necessary to deal with the re-soldering of BGA microcircuits during repairs, which is either extremely difficult or, more often, impossible to do with the usual methods. Even a hair dryer will not always help to cope with the task. That is why making an infrared soldering station with your own hands will be the best alternative and sometimes the only relevant solution.

IR soldering station

BGA chips (Ball grid array) are present in almost any modern "smart" device: phones, computers, TVs, printers. During operation, they can fail, which requires the replacement of a faulty part with a new one. But to carry out such a procedure without special equipment is an extremely difficult task.

The problem is that manufacturers are inventing more and more new methods for mounting electronic parts. And a regular soldering iron or hair dryer will not always be able to help in solving such a problem. After all, contact balls contribute to high heat transfer to the board, as a result of which they cannot melt.

If you try to raise the temperature to the required temperature for their melting, then there is a risk of overheating the microcircuit, as a result of which it may fail. Due to overheating, the possibility of damage to nearby parts cannot be ruled out. Especially if their bodies are made of fusible materials.

An infrared station can be an excellent solution. It allows you to replace even large GPU controllers. And with the widespread use of computers, laptops, motherboards, video adapters and other complex equipment, such repair work is performed quite often. And if earlier hot air stations could be used to replace large microcircuits, now, when manufacturers use non-contact soldering methods, the only optimal solution is an IR station that can qualitatively cope with the replacement of any microprocessor part.

Operating principle

The main problems when soldering chips and controllers are either underheating to the melting point of the contact material, or overheating of the part to be replaced and its failure.

So the idea came up to heat the board itself to a temperature of 100–150 degrees Celsius. After that, already solder the parts. This allows you to qualitatively reduce the heat transfer to the PCB board, which makes it possible to lower the "upper" temperatures. This means that the part itself will be less subject to overheating.

You can also heat with a hot air gun, but using an infrared soldering iron is preferable. After all, the IR station allows you to do this in a controlled manner, that is, to monitor and maintain the "bottom" and "top" temperatures or use the recommended soldering thermal profile.

Design features

Any IR soldering station consists of three main parts. Everything looks quite simple, although each of them is an independent complex mechanism, combined with a common installation. So, each station includes:

Depending on the model and manufacturer, IR soldering irons may differ only technical specifications. Some make the work easier, others, on the contrary, require additional attention and labor costs from the user.

This also affects the cost of equipment. Therefore, when choosing a station, you need to pay attention not only to the price, but also to the technical data, so as not to overpay for unnecessary functionality.

DIY manufacturing

For industries or persons involved in the repair of complex electronic equipment, it is quite possible to purchase a factory soldering IR station for work. But for amateurs or those who need such an installation occasionally, you can create it yourself. And in favor of this, first of all, the price speaks. Even Chinese-made appliances cost from $1,000. High-quality models of European brands from 2 thousand dollars and more. Not everyone can afford such an expensive pleasure.

Regarding the homemade infrared soldering station, everything looks much more optimistic. According to average calculations, such an analogue of an IR soldering iron will cost around $ 80, which looks incomparably more acceptable than the prices for factory devices.

Any person involved in the repair of complex equipment has enough knowledge to invent and design an IR station on their own. In this regard, the electronic part, appearance and some features may differ. And here the basic design will remain the same in any model. That is why there is no single ideal scheme that can be given as the only correct solution. But in order to understand the very principle of creating an IR soldering iron, any model will do. And already based on personal knowledge and preferences, you can remove or add certain parts.

First option

This option will use a two-channel controller.

1. The first channel is used for a Pt 100 platinum thermistor or a conventional thermocouple.
2. The second channel will be used exclusively by the thermocouple. Controller channels can work in automatic or manual mode.

The temperature can be maintained between 10 and 255 degrees Celsius. Thermocouples or sensor and thermocouple via feedback control these parameters automatically. In manual mode, the power on each of the channels will be adjusted from 0 to 99 percent.

Controller memory will contain 14 different thermal profiles for working with BGA chips. Seven of them are for lead-containing alloys, and the other seven are for lead-free solder.

In the case of weak heaters, the upper one may not keep up with the thermal profile. In this case, the controller will pause the execution and wait until the required temperature is reached.

Also, the controller very conveniently performs a thermal profile based on the preheat temperature of the entire board. If for one reason or another it was not possible to remove the chip, then you can restart it with a higher temperature.

The power unit shown in the diagram has a transistor switch for upper heating and a seven-storey switch for the lower one. Although it is acceptable to use two transistor or triac. The red dotted area can be omitted if two thermocouples are being calculated.

To remove heat from the keys, you can use a radiator with active cooling from any equipment. The main thing is that it fits the design of the simulated apparatus. The lower heater will consist of nine 1500W 220-240V R7S 254mm halogen lamps. You should get three parts of three lamps connected in series. It is better to use high-temperature silicone wires for 220 volts.

The body is assembled from fiberglass or any other similar material and enhanced aluminum corners. You will also have to buy a vacuum pump. For a more aesthetic appearance, you can use IR glass on the bottom panel. But here there are several negative points at once: too slow heating and cooling, and the whole structure heats up too much during operation. Although the presence of glass not only makes the device more attractive, but also convenient, since boards can be placed directly on it.

The rack is made of aluminum channel for racks. Vacuum tweezers and a tube for it, a thermocouple and racks are being prepared. The top heater is recommended to be made from ELSTEIN SHTS/100 800W. When all the details are ready, they need to be placed in the case and you can proceed to the setup.

Heaters are installed at a distance of 5-6 centimeters from the boards. If the temperature run-out is more than three degrees, then it is worth lowering the power of the upper heater.

Second decision

As a second option, we can offer a design that differs only in internal components. And first you need to prepare everything required accessories:

The main thing is to immediately decide on the type of case. Naturally, a lot depends on the availability suitable material. Therefore, it is from this that it is worth starting when it comes time to place the components inside.

Now you need to take a halogen heater. It may be possible to find an old one, since it needs to be disassembled and the reflectors and halogen lamps removed. The lamps themselves do not need to be disassembled. Now all this will need to be placed in the prepared case. Only 4 lamps of 450 watts are used, connected in parallel. It is preferable to use the same wires with which they have already been connected. If for some reason it is not possible to use their capabilities, then you will have to buy additional heat-resistant ones.

Immediately you have to think about the system of retaining fees. It is difficult to give specific recommendations here. After all, it all depends on the body. But it would be nice to use aluminum profiles, in which bolts and nuts are not rigidly inserted in such a way that later they can clamp printed circuit boards and, at the same time, there is the possibility of adjustment under different sizes boards. Thermocouples that control the set temperature pattern in the lower heater are best passed into the shower hose. This will give mobility and convenience in the process of work and installation.

The role of the top heater will perform a ceramic power of 450 watts. This can be bought as a spare part for IR stations. Here you also need to take care of the case, since it is he who provides the correct and high-quality heating. It can be made from thin sheet iron, bent as needed, depending on the shape and size of the heater.

Now you need to think about mounting the upper heater. Since it must be mobile, and move not only up or down, but also at different angles. Perfect for a table lamp stand. You can fix it in any convenient way.

It's time for the controller. It also needs a separate box. If there is a suitable ready-made one, then you can use it. Otherwise, you will have to make it yourself from the same thin metal. Solid state relays need cooling, so it is worth installing a heatsink and a fan for them.

Since there is no automatic setting in the controller, the P, I and D values ​​will have to be entered manually. There are four profiles here, for each, the number of steps, the temperature rise rate, the waiting time and step, the lower threshold, the target temperature, and the values ​​\u200b\u200bof the upper and lower heaters are set separately.

The soldering iron is good. Good for DIP parts, well, for those for which holes are drilled in the boards. No doubt, the soldering iron is great for SMD components, but for this you need to have a black belt in this discipline. But how, once a year, to solder, and then solder a many-legged smd microcircuit without special skills and equipment? Well then, read on...

I was always frightened by multi-legged smd microcircuits, in terms of installation, and not appearance, in QFP cases and various SO-shki, I won’t even stutter about BGA. Was once bad experience, did , and put the controller in the SO package into the design. In the process of debugging, something went wrong and I had to solder it. The board and controller conditionally survived the first dismantling, but after the second, the board and controller went to the trash can. As a result, I installed a microcircuit in a dip package and my torment was over. That's all for what, somehow rummaging through the Internet, I accidentally got into the forum.easyelectronics.ru forum thread, from where I was redirected to radiokot.ru. After visiting the radio cat, I got the idea to make a “Prikuyalnik” (® by radiokot.ru). It is the cigarette lighter as a soldering iron that will be the source of infrared radiation.

Fumbling in the bins, I found a transformer from an uninterruptible power supply, which I once gave. This transformer worked in the conversion mode of 12 - 220 V, which means it will work in the opposite direction.

There is a power source! And that's half the battle. It remains to find a cigarette lighter, and he was found at the local market for a symbolic price. Any cigarette lighter is suitable, even from a Mercedes, even from a Zhiguli. By the way, the Cossacks did not have this very important device. I decided to connect the emitter to the transformer through a PWM controller, as it later turned out to be for good reason. I chose a circuit on a common NE555 chip. According to the experience of other users, it is less capricious.

The NE555 microcircuit, in accordance with the datasheet, is powered by a constant voltage in the range of 4.5 - 16V. You can also consider a slightly more capricious scheme on the UC384x. they are quite common in switching power supplies, computer ones are no exception.

I decided not to make a printed circuit board, too great an honor for three wires. Assembled on a breadboard.

I had to invent a rectifier. The diode bridge is assembled on Schottky diodes, which were torn out of a burned-out computer power supply. Just in case, everything is seated on a radiator, we are not Chinese, we do not mind. Burnt computer power supplies are just an excellent thing, a source of cases and all sorts of details with radiators!

Having connected the diode bridge to the transformer and measured the open circuit voltage, I felt a little sad. No, the voltage was sufficient, even too much, 20 V at idle. Too much for my PWM controller. If I had known, I would have made a board on the UC3842, it starts working from 16V and above. But I got sad and okay, I added KREN8A (KR142EN8A, an analogue of L7808 ....) to the power supply, I also hung a cooling fan on it.

As always, I have a minimum, but I want a maximum. I'll probably do the bottom heating. Let's go budget. The lower heating will be based on a halogen spotlight, the station is not for permanent use. For a halogen lamp, you need a power regulator, otherwise it will burn everything in the world, it's checked. I thought about ordering a thyristor regulator in China, but time. Buying in the city means overpaying. On occasion, I went to a local shop of manufactured goods, there is a lot of all sorts of nonsense. And I noticed a lighting dimer on the counter. Against the background of all other electrical installation products, it was distinguished by its nondescript appearance and price. The declared power of 600 W pleased me. I bought it for only 35 UAH ($1.3).

Let's see what he has inside. An uncomplicated design, assembled on two BT136 thyristors connected in parallel. Excellent redundancy and power reserve. But why with such details and only 600 watts?

And now you can see why. I look and think... The potential in our country is huge, but the hands...

I had to wash the board, solder everything again, strengthen the power tracks and change the radiator. In the photo below, visible under the orange toggle switch, the new dimer heatsink is visible.

A couple of pictures of how it was placed in my case from a computer PSU. Of course, there are too many radiators, they are somewhat redundant.

The front panel is made of a piece of polycarbonate (plexiglass). I did not remove the white protective film, this gives the feeling that the plexiglass is white, and not transparent. And the giblets do not shine through.

And in this photo the top cover is already installed. And here for the first time the hero of the occasion himself appears - the prikuyalnik itself.

The cigarette lighter is screwed to a burnt soldering iron. All the insides of the soldering iron are dismantled.

The heating element is fastened to the base through annealed steel wire wound in the form of a spiral to improve heat dissipation. It heats up, be healthy and melts the wire insulation, so screw it copper wire it's not worth even trying.

Bottom heating. Here special design features No. A halogen spotlight acts as a lower heating. Stability spotlight give three legs with a rubber base. As you know, a structure on three legs will never rock, it is proved in geometry that only one plane can be built through three points. The glass is covered on top with copper foil with the remnants of textolite, once torn off from the old board. A 150W lamp has been installed.

Here is the soldering station ready.

After playing around a bit, I can draw some conclusions. The soldering iron itself can solder microcircuits without bottom heating, but it takes a little longer. You can dismantle small smd-shki (resistors, capacitors) using only the lower heating, in the event that you no longer need the board itself. The fact is that there is no thermal stabilization here and over time the board starts to overheat, the dismantling of a large number of elements can take a long time. During the experiments, when dismantling on the lower heating, I overheated the board, and it swelled up. This swelling was accompanied by a good bang, as they say, I almost “pissed” from surprise. For one-time jobs, you can't imagine better.

And in order to show that it still works, I suggest looking at the following photos.

An old motherboard was chosen as a victim. A chip is selected on it, around which a large number of small components are located, which makes it difficult to work with a familiar tool. In the next photo, the chip is soldered.

I want to draw a line under the above. The prikuyalnik has the right to be. He certainly does not claim to be a "professional" tool, but he copes with his tasks. And with today's board architecture, for an amateur, it is simply necessary.