A reflow oven is one of the most useful tools you will ever have, and if you haven’t built one yet, now is as good a time as any. [0xPIT’s] Arduino based reflow oven controller with a graphic LCD is one of the nicest reflow controllers we’ve seen.
Having a reflow oven opens up a world of possibilities. All of those impossible to solder surface mount devices are now easier than ever. Built around the Arduino Pro Micro and an Adafruit TFT color LCD, this project is very straight forward. You can either make your own controller PCB, or use [0xPIT’s] design. His design is built around two solid state relays, one for the heating elements and one for the convection fan. “The software uses PID control of the heater and fan output for improved temperature stability.” The project write-up is also on github, so be sure to scroll down and take a look at the README.
All you need to do is build any of the laser cutters and pick and place machines that we have featured over the years, and you too can have a complete surface mount assembly line!
Wow, that looks fantastic!
Here I am with a toaster oven and a stopwatch. ( ._.)
And here I am with an electric griddle and an hourglass.
A true hacker would of course devise a way to count the falling sand particles.
And here I am with a Fresnel Lens and a sun dial.
I was just wondering how to make the PCB.
I reckon I need a Solder Reflow Oven, with controller – in order to make a Solder Reflow Oven Controller.
Maybe someone like AdaFruit will offer a kit…
The PCB can be hand-soldered rather easily, so that you can overcome the chicken/egg problem :)
Bah. Tenma 700W Air tool, a toothpick finepitch tweezers, a steady hand and some 5x magnifiying glasses is all ill ever need.
Looks nice, good work!
Probably an embedded GUI toolkit like uGFX (http://ugfx.org) would help you to create a nicer GUI.
Thanks! I’ve actually looked into µGFX, but I’m under the impression that it would consume way more code space than my current variant does, and took me too long to get up to speed with.
That looks nicely done. I just in the middle of a reflow build myself using the same LCD. I’m hoping to make it simpler and lower cost by using a MSP430AFE252 to directly measure the thermocouple output and save the need for a MAX31855. Not proven the concept will work yet though. (I’ve got a MAX31855 to check my measurements against, so may just fall back to that.)
Whilst testing if my oven was up to the job, I actually got surprisingly good results using a cheap eBay thermocouple with LCD display and just turning the oven off manually when it got to the reflow temperature. A very cheap reflow oven controller with meat-based PID control!
I choose to use the MAX chip so that I don’t have to mess with the NIST temperature tables and calibration.
I wasn’t criticising. Using a MAX31855 is a standard and very sensible way of doing it. I just thought I’d try doing it differently.
I see that you’ve added some 60Hz support, but what changes do you think would be required to support US/Canada 120VAC? I’m guessing that the relays would have to be changed, since they only either support 100VAC/50Hz or 200VAC/50Hz.
Nope, it should work unchanged, the relays work from much less than 100V AC.
This looks like a very nice job. I was wondering, if you were to use the Adafruit MAX31855 breakout board and just have a socket for it to plug in, you could eliminate the surface mount components.
I’ve been messing around with a project based on an UNO with the breakout board as well and I think I could make this Sketch work with it. I uploaded the .PDE file to my UNO and it loaded OK.
This is really nice work. I was working on the same thing only in Python driven by a PC so I could keep a library of profiles, but I’ve found that chips are remarkably resilient to variations in the reflow profile, so maybe I’ll just build this one instead.
Thank you!
Is there a video of the GUI? Thanks!
i just have to comment complementing the creators proper laying out of the PCB!
Awesome Karl! Once I understand more about electronics I am going to build one as well!
This is not the first reflow oven I see with a fancy LCD interface, and I must say I don’t really understand the benefit of this approach. I think it would be much better letting a PC handle all the GUI and the oven controller should concentrate on its primary task – keeping the temperature profile as desired.
0xPIT, do you have a BOM that includes the capacitors that you used?
I’ve created a BOM: https://github.com/0xPIT/reflowOvenController/blob/master/hardware/bom.csv
Can you please post on you github page the hookup for the display? Also, it is not entirely clear what/how to install the encoder. Thank you for sharing this.
where can i buy the kit so i can hook it up to my udoo?
C1 C2 CXXC10B5 parameter
Can someone help me with this:
I use the max6675 instead off the max31855. I don’t know how to change the code to get it working.
On the arduino pro mini I have connected it like this:
SO – arduino pin 12
CS – arduino pin 3
SCK – arduino pin 13
Is it possible to change the code to use with the max6675?
Is there anyone selling this as a kit with all the individual components and the PCB? I know the creator was selling kits for a while on tindie but he’s stopped. I guess I’m finding it hard to source all the parts from the BOM.
I have an extra PCB and many of the parts that I can sell
I have 4 extra PCBs :
http://imgur.com/a/BP1Gj
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/platine-fuer-loetofen-reflow-oven-controller-board/665119947-168-4814
Yannic do you have any of these pcbs for sale?
Bezt regards kostas
Can someone tell me what wattage are the tht resistors R1, R2, R5 and R6?
Resistors are 1W metal film resisors. Due to switching frequencies, for reduce noise on the board, it may be better to use carbon film resistors instead.
If there are poeple interested, i modify the board with Kicad and a classic linear power supply with its transformer 230V/6Vac 4VA is added. For insure the integrity of analog signals, it is better than switching PSU, The connectors are also changed. I use Phoenix contact like connectors with 3.81 (MCV series) and 5.08mm pitch (MKDS series) and coolers (sk104-PAD) are also changed with a model aviable on Aliexpress.where If found all the components for a total amount of +/- 40€ (included the fiberglass welding dek). I’ve still not test it. A maked proto will be done by eurocircuits. The total amount will turn around 120€ for a reflow oven.
By the way, i can give you the kicad files if you want.