Infrared Soldering Station. DIY infrared soldering station Computer application

Repairing laptops and video cards, reballing (dismantling and installing a chip with the restoration of solder balls) usually cannot be done without an infrared soldering station. Service centers either do not undertake such work or charge quite a lot of money for such repairs. Meanwhile, such breakdowns are quite common.

A factory-made IR station is a rather expensive device, so it’s more economical to make it yourself. An infrared soldering station can be made in one, maximum two days, by pre-ordering via the Internet and receiving the components for it by mail.

A little theory

At normal temperatures, the peak of electromagnetic radiation occurs in the infrared region. Things that burn emit both more intense and more energetic (shorter) infrared radiation. When it gets very hot, they start to glow red. The hotter they become, the more orange and yellow they become, then blue.

Many organic molecules absorb infrared radiation intensely, which causes the object to heat up. Heat is the kinetic energy of the translational motion of atoms and molecules. The light emitted by an atom has a wavelength. As a result, the heated body also emits light, and the more heated the body is, the shorter the wavelength of the emitted light.

For information. According to Wien's displacement law, it happens that the thermal radiation of objects near room temperature is in the infrared region. This includes light bulbs and even people.

So, infrared radiation is not heat, and it does not (directly) cause heat. It is emitted by the heat of an object at a certain temperature range.

Visual shades of light are determined by the wavelength and its direction, starting with infrared, then red, orange, yellow…. violet and ending with the wavelength of ultraviolet radiation. And back too. Irradiation of a body with light causes an increase in the movement of its molecules, any light, but infrared, as the longest wavelength, is most effective.

A DIY IR soldering station is an infrared heater that releases heat into the environment through infrared radiation.

DIY infrared soldering station

Bottom heating

The heating housing can be made from an old Soviet suitcase made of aluminum, or from a computer system unit. But the suitcase will fit better, because its working position is horizontal. As a last resort, you can look for a similar building at the nearest flea market.

It is necessary to cut a hole in the housing with a grinder for ceramic heaters. From an aluminum cutout, make a support for heaters with legs from ordinary bolts and nuts. The entire structure will be supported on the substrate.

The bottom heating consists of four ceramic heaters purchased on AliExpress. The price for them is reasonable, the seller provides fast delivery.

Each heater (dimensions: length - 24 cm, width - 6 cm) has a power of 600 W. Four heaters make up a 24x24 cm2 heating panel. This is enough to heat up a computer motherboard, not to mention a laptop motherboard, which is even smaller. Even large top-end video cards can be placed on such heating. For comparison, a standard factory Chinese station has such a heating area of ​​150x150 cm2, and it is not cheap.

From the bottom of the lower heating, each heater is connected to a terminal block, preferably of Soviet production. The block is made of a special material that does not melt at high temperatures. Connection of heaters in series-parallel:

  • the first and third are connected in series;
  • the second and fourth - also sequentially;
  • the first and third with the second and fourth - in parallel.

This scheme is used to lighten the wiring a little. If you connect all heaters in parallel, the final load will be 2850 W:

  • bottom heating – 600x4=2400 W;
  • upper heater at maximum load – 450 W.

If there are also electrical equipment working in the room (several light bulbs, a computer, a soldering iron, a kettle), then the 16-amp circuit breaker will trip.

The series resistance of the load is calculated using a special formula. As a result, the bottom heating represents a load of 1210 W. It is easy to calculate that the entire IR station will consume 1660 W. This is not much for such equipment. In time, the board is heated by the bottom heating to 100 0 for about 10 minutes.

On top, when work is being done, you can put a metal grill from the refrigerator on the body with the heater. But it is better to use glass ceramics that match the size of the case, and make a convenient thermal table for board repair.

Top heating

The upper heating can be made from a Soviet photographic enlarger UPA-60. The model is suitable for a homemade soldering station. A ceramic heater measuring 80x8 cm fits perfectly onto a photo enlarger. In this case, you can adjust the height of the heater and the motor in any direction. It is convenient to attach the tripod to the table itself, and move the lower heating if necessary. The heaters are large enough to heat large chips and sockets for processor sockets.

All used parts can be bought on the Internet through the bulletin board, ceramic heater - on AliExpress.

Control block

A ready-made plastic box can be purchased at a special store for making electronics yourself, or you can make a case from a regular computer power supply. The control panel contains:

  • switches for lower and upper heating;
  • dimmer 2 kW.

It should be noted that there are quite a lot of internal wires in the case, so you need to choose a rather large box.

The holes for bringing out the controls to the front panel are cut with a jigsaw with a special metal file. Usually this does not cause difficulties if you have practice with a similar instrument.

PID controller REX-C100 can also be ordered on AliExpress. Included with it, the seller supplies a solid-state relay and a thermocouple. That is, the controller reads what temperature the ceramic heater reaches. Until the temperature reaches the desired value, the solid-state relay is in the open state and passes electric current to the ceramic heater.

When the device reaches the required temperature, the solid-state relay is activated and turns off the current supply to the ceramic heater. The dimmer is controlled manually. Usually it is set to maximum so that the top heats up faster.

Tester

This device is needed to work in order to read information about the temperature near the chip. A regular thermocouple is connected to it, the end of which is placed near the chip. The tester display will show the temperature directly near the chip.

Important! The wire from the thermocouple is wrapped with heat-resistant tape, because the wire braid burns at high temperatures.

As a result, a hastily assembled homemade IR soldering station will cost about ten times less than a finished product. The device can be modified and gradually improved.

Work in practice

The operation of the device will be described using the example of repairing a laptop board. One of the board's malfunctions is the breakdown of the video chip. Sometimes it is enough to warm it up with a hot air gun, and the image appears on the screen. Most likely, in this case, the crystal falls off the PCB. Changing the chip is quite expensive. But if you warm it up, you can extend the life of the laptop. Using the example of such banal heating, a homemade infrared soldering station can be used.

To begin with, prepare the board for heating, remove the parts:

  • films, because they begin to melt at high temperatures;
  • CPU;
  • memory.

It is better to remove the compound with tweezers after preheating it with a hot air gun. The hairdryer is set at a temperature of 1800, medium air flow.

Important! The entire surrounding area around the chip must be covered with foil so as not to heat the board elements. Just in case, you should also close the plastic memory connectors.

For information. The use of fluxes facilitates the soldering process and prevents oxidation of the metal of the soldered elements.

The board in this form is installed on the lower heating grid of the soldering station. A thermocouple is placed near the chip. Another thermocouple is located close to the heaters, its task is to read the temperature of their heating. Turn on the bottom heating on the control unit. Operating parameters appear on the tester and PID controller.

When the bottom warms up, you need to wait until the temperature around the chip is at least 1000, depending on the solder material. If the solder is lead-free, then it is advisable to heat it to 1100.

The distance between the chip and the upper heater should be about 5 cm. The center of the chip should be strictly under the center of the upper heater, because the maximum temperature goes from the center to the sides. The top heater is turned on when the temperature near the chip rises to 1100. The bottom usually warms up for 10 minutes, then the top is turned on, which should heat up to 2300. On the PID controller, the top value shows the current temperature, the bottom - the temperature that needs to be reached.

When the desired temperature is reached, the upper heater is turned on, which is controlled by a dimmer. When the temperature comes closer to 2300, the power of the dimmer needs to be reduced. This is done to prevent heating too quickly. It is recommended to maintain a minute at a temperature of 2300 and then turn off the device. The temperature will drop.

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Digital heating systems "TERMOPRO" are designed for uniform and gentle heating of printed circuit boards during repair and production. They can also be used for reflow soldering of solder paste along a thermal profile in small-scale or single production of printed circuit assemblies.

Areas of use:

  • heating of printed circuit boards when soldering BGAs as part of an infrared soldering station;
  • preheating of printed circuit boards when soldering SMD;
  • preheating during repair of printed circuit boards;
  • heating ceramic components before soldering;
  • heat curing of glue;
  • preheating of silicon wafers;
  • preheating of boards on radiators.

Advantages:

  • Uniform heating. The TERMOPRO board heater allows for uniform and gentle heating, thereby minimizing the likelihood of damage to components. Since printed circuit board elements are extremely susceptible to temperature changes, this avoids the significant cost of rebuilding or replacing them.
  • Versatility. The TERMOPRO board heater is suitable for working with almost any printed circuit boards up to 400 mm wide. This allows you to perform a wide range of tasks without the need to purchase additional equipment.
  • To heat the board, you can fix it in a special holder and select the optimal mounting points. This also allows for bottom heating of the boards at the required height from the heater surface.

Still have questions?

Bottom heating, also known as an infrared heater, is used for uniform heating during dismantling and installation of BGA components and microcircuits.

Why do you need bottom heating?

In the picture below we see a BGA chip that is located on a printed circuit board. If you blow hot air onto a microcircuit, then the microcircuit will only warm up from above. The solder balls and PCB will be cooler than the chip itself. As a result, the microcircuit may overheat and fail.

The situation changes dramatically for the better if you heat the board with the microcircuit not only from above, but also from below using bottom heating.

In this case, both the board and the microcircuit will warm up from all sides: both below and above. The solder balls and PCB will already be hot, as will the chip. As a result of this, the solder balls on both the bottom and top will melt at the same time, which reduces the risk of tearing off the printed conductors on the PCB itself.

There is also a second advantage of bottom heating. When we heat it with a hairdryer without bottom heating, the board gets very hot in some places, but not in others. Due to the expansion of the substance under the influence of temperature, in places where we fry with a hairdryer, the board will expand and can lead to dire consequences. It will swell and break the connections between the layers, since the boards of mobile phones and computers are made multilayer. With the help of bottom heating, the board is heated evenly over the entire area, therefore, sad consequences can be avoided.

How to work with bottom heating

My bottom heater looks like this


Here we have four clamping bolts with which our patient is clamped


Basically, I set the temperature on my bottom heating platform to 200 degrees. To do this I press the button


and turn the wheel


We fix the patient and wait five minutes. When our board warms up, we begin dismantling the SMD component.

Where to buy bottom heating

On Ali, where else)


You can look them up at this link.

But it’s better to take a closer look at soldering platforms that combine not only bottom heating, but also a soldering iron and a hair dryer in one set. Such a soldering platform will be even more convenient than buying everything separately


Sooner or later, a radio mechanic involved in the repair of modern electronic equipment is faced with the question of purchasing an infrared soldering station. The need has arisen due to the fact that modern elements are massively “throwing their hooves away”; in short, manufacturers of both small and large integrated circuits are abandoning flexible leads in favor of patches. This process has been going on for quite some time.


Such chip packages are called BGA - Ball grid array, in other words - an array of balls. Such microcircuits are mounted and dismantled using a non-contact soldering method.

Previously, for not very large microcircuits it was possible to get by with a hot-air soldering station. But large GPU graphics controllers cannot be removed and installed with a thermal air blower. Maybe just warm it up, but warming it up doesn’t give long-term results.
In general, closer to the topic.. Ready-made professional infrared stations have exorbitant prices, and inexpensive 1000 - 2000 green ones do not have enough functionality, in short, you still have to add them. Personally, for me, an infrared soldering station is a tool that you can assemble yourself and to suit your needs. Yes, I don’t argue, there are time costs. But if you approach the assembly of the IR station methodically, you will get the desired result and creative satisfaction. So, I have planned for myself that I will work with boards measuring 250x250 mm. For soldering TV Main and computer video adapters, possibly tablet PCs.

So, I started with a blank slate and a door from an old mezzanine, screwing 4 legs from an ancient typewriter to this future base.


Using approximate calculations, the base turned out to be 400x390 mm. Next, it was necessary to roughly calculate the layout based on the sizes of the heaters and PID controllers. Using this simple “felt-tip pen” method, I determined the height of my future infrared soldering station and the bevel angle of the front panel:


Next, let's take on the skeleton. Everything is simple here - we bend the aluminum corners according to the design of our future soldering station, secure it, and tie it together. We go to the garage and bury our heads in DVD and VCR cases. I do a good job of not throwing it away - I know it will come in handy. Look, I’ll build a house out of them :) Look, they build from beer cans, from corks, and even from ice cream sticks!

In short, you can’t think of a better way to use cladding than equipment covers. Sheet metal is not cheap.


We run to the shops in search of a non-stick baking sheet. The baking tray must be selected according to the size of the IR emitters and their number. I went shopping with a small tape measure and measured the sides of the bottom and the depth. To questions from sellers like: “Why do you need pies of strictly specified sizes?” He answered that the inappropriate size of the pie violates the overall harmony of perception, which does not correspond to my moral and ethical principles.


Hurray! The first parcel, and it contains especially important spare parts: PIDs (what a scary word) The decoding is also not simple: Proportional-Integral-Differential controller. In general, let’s understand their setup and operation.


Next is the tin. This is where we had to work hard with the DVD covers so that everything would turn out smoothly and solidly, we’re doing it for ourselves. After adjusting all the walls, you need to cut the necessary holes for the FIDs on the front wall, for the cooler on the back wall and for painting - in the garage. As a result, the intermediate version of our IR soldering station began to look like this:


After testing the REX C-100 regulator designed for preheating (bottom heater), it turned out that it is not entirely suitable for my soldering station design, because it is not designed to work with solid-state relays, which it is supposed to control. I had to modify it to fit my concept.


Hurray! A parcel has arrived from China. Now it already contained the most basic wealth for building our infrared soldering station. Namely, these are 3 lower IR emitters 60x240 mm, the top 80x80 mm. and a pair of 40A solid-state relays. It was possible to take 25 amps, but I always try to do everything with a reserve, and the price was not much different..


The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing. I try not to forget this old truth, just like about chicken, one grain at a time... What we have in the end - After installing the emitters in a baking tray, installing the solids on the radiator, blown by the cooler and connecting everything, we got something more or less similar to infrared soldering station.


Once the preheating thing started to come to an end and the first tests on heating, temperature retention and hysteresis were done, we could safely move on to the upper infrared emitter. It turned out to be more work than I initially expected. Several design solutions were considered, but in practice the last option turned out to be more successful, which I implemented.


Making a table to hold the board is another task that requires heating the skull. It is necessary that several conditions be met - uniform holding of the printed circuit board so that the board does not sag when heated. In addition, it was possible to move an already clamped board left or right. The board clamp should be both strong and give a little slack, since the board expands when heated. Well, the table should also have the ability to secure boards of different sizes. Not yet fully finished table: (no clothespins for the board)


Now the time has come for testing, debugging, adjusting thermal profiles for different types of microcircuits and solder alloys. During the fall of 2014, a decent number of computer video cards and television Main-boards were restored


Despite the fact that the soldering station seems complete and has proven itself to be excellent, in fact, several more important things are missing: Firstly, a lamp, or a flashlight on a flexible leg, Secondly, blowing the board after soldering, Thirdly, I initially wanted to make a selector for the lower heaters..

Of course, I didn’t write everything I wanted, because during assembly there were a lot of little things, problems and dead ends. But I recorded the entire construction process on video and now this is a full-fledged training video course:

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