actual soldering :-)

this morning i did a last test-run with the tweaked Felder ISO-Cream profile:

yeah… at the top i thought it is in the cooling step already and opened the window – with ~3°C cold air from outside it dropped fast..
then i found it is in the middle of the reflow – sorry… and closed the window again – until it really switched to cooling..

the old left-over pcb i use for these is done now.. i comes from my LEDBoard_4x4_16bit project – and if i remember correctly i backed it with the assembled board in the oven multiple times back then..
now grilled it again ~4-7 times. it smells very bad – is super dark discolored.. i think that is ok with about ~12 times solder cycles..

and then started to assemble a simple board to really test the profile 🙂

placed

then reflowed:

i added a paper-lid to have stable air inside..

reflow was successful 🙂
my profile is just a little bit to long for my right angle touch switches:

they melted away 🙁 – lesson learned – have a look in the datasheet and you know that they are very heat sensitive!

in general i have the feeling that my heating elements get a little bit to hot – the pcb also slightly discolored at on place…
so will keep an eye on this and improve it..

Open Points

  • add housing
    • i would like to have class at the top for a good view what is happening inside..
  • metal frame for heating-elements
  • quite 5V fan with PWM control for cooling
  • add second temperature sensor
  • spring thing to hold board down
  • way to fix sensor position on board
  • more heating elements for bigger working area
    • switchable configuration for long or more square pcbs?!
  • bigger / second power supply ?! (~750W)