Reflow oven and Solder paste?

Out of curiosity: what size PCBs / panels do you want to be able to handle?

Probably only max 10cm x 10cm

@Roger,

It has been a few years since I have worked with thermocouples, but I designed the dual-EGT monitor for a Rotax engine in a friend’s Europa experimental aircraft. Sensors made for EGT are serious, such as:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EGT-Thermocoupl … 0938569825
And have a nice metalic braid/cover.

You can often find these at custom automotive parts shops.

Ray

Thanks Ray.

I did notice some others like that, but the internal arrangement in the oven seems to be that the thermocouple end gets dangled into the middle of the oven, ie hangs down about 5cm, and if I used anything but probe or the type they used, then the end of the thermocouple would be a lot closer to the top of the oven, and the temperatures probably read a lot higher than where the PCB is at the bottom.

I think my best bet would be to go for the long probe type and stick it in as far as I can manage, without fouling the PCB.

i.e Its unlikely I’m going to be soldering a PCB that has components higher than about 1/2 inch or 1 inch at the most, so it probably makes sense to get the probes as low as possible.

Actually

It looks like its worth me getting a 2 of these to test, as they look similar to the ones you linked to

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-3M-Stainle … SwPcVVzGWv

Image

RogerClark wrote:Actually

It looks like its worth me getting a 2 of these to test, as they look similar to the ones you linked to

Thanks Ray

I’ll take a look, but I”m not sure if any of the eBay vendors have that information.

I’ve already ordered a variety of thermocouples last weekend; mainly some of the simple ones with what looks like blob of solder (I know its not solder) on the end. They were relatively cheap, so I thought it was worth a gamble.

But its going to take a few weeks before they arrive.

RogerClark wrote:
<…>
I’ve already ordered a variety of thermocouples last weekend; mainly some of the simple ones with what looks like blob of solder (I know its not solder) on the end. They were relatively cheap, so I thought it was worth a gamble.
<….>

RogerClark wrote:In case anyone is vaguely interested

I eventually coded a I2C slave to interface with the Maxim thermocouple chips (which are SPI) using an Arduino Pro mini.

RogerClark wrote:In case anyone is vaguely interested

I eventually coded a I2C slave to interface with the Maxim thermocouple chips (which are SPI) using an Arduino Pro mini.

Sorry @ChriD

I ended up just using an Arduino Pro mini as it was easier.

I don’t have time at the moment to merge the old I2C Slave code with the existing code, but you could take a look to see how similar the version with the slave functionality is, to the current code

i was browsing back for some other reason, read about you using long probes.

thought 5 or 6mm wire mesh, 19-25mm up from board, and use the wire ones for any points of interest?
ok first thoughts were peg board, metal, inertia, heavy duty, wire coat hangers, weaving, weave probe wire to ‘fix’ position

srp

mrburnette wrote:@Roger,

It has been a few years since I have worked with thermocouples, but I designed the dual-EGT monitor for a Rotax engine in a friend’s Europa experimental aircraft. Sensors made for EGT are serious, such as:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EGT-Thermocoupl … 0938569825
And have a nice metalic braid/cover.

You can often find these at custom automotive parts shops.

Ray

I now have various new probes, but I dont have time to install and test them

Perhaps I may get time over the Christmas holidays

RogerClark wrote:Sorry @ChriD

I ended up just using an Arduino Pro mini as it was easier.

I don’t have time at the moment to merge the old I2C Slave code with the existing code, but you could take a look to see how similar the version with the slave functionality is, to the current code

RogerClark wrote:Sorry @ChriD

I ended up just using an Arduino Pro mini as it was easier.

I don’t have time at the moment to merge the old I2C Slave code with the existing code, but you could take a look to see how similar the version with the slave functionality is, to the current code

It was easier for me to use an AVR Arduino Pro Mini, as I2C slave works (if you modify the AVR core a little)

So.. I didnt use the STM32 for this.

RogerClark wrote:It was easier for me to use an AVR Arduino Pro Mini, as I2C slave works (if you modify the AVR core a little)

So.. I didnt use the STM32 for this.