{"id":1010,"date":"2009-01-17T12:40:11","date_gmt":"2009-01-17T19:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2022-12-27T17:40:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T01:40:16","slug":"diy-pid-controlled-soldering-hotplate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/diy-pid-controlled-soldering-hotplate\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY PID Controlled Soldering Hotplate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PID<\/p>\n

In preparation for my Arduino-based AVR HV Programmer<\/a> boards coming back, I decided to step up my home lab surface mount soldering capabilities.<\/p>\n

Step one<\/em> was to find a cheap stereo zoom microscope<\/a> on ebay, with 7-32X magnification, perfect for working on surface mount devices.\u00a0 One of my biggest frustrations in the past is that with a cheap magnifying ring light, I can’t actually see what I’m working on – not any more!\u00a0 I’ll post some photos of the microscope<\/a> when it comes.<\/p>\n

Step two<\/em> was to build a soldering hotplate.\u00a0 I like using a hotplate for surface mount soldering because you can actually watch the board as the solder paste reflows, and manually add\/remove\/nudge components around with a set of tweezers.\u00a0 This is great for engineering work where you may still be making component changes and other tweaks to the board.\u00a0 Mass production is probably best left to a reflow (aka toaster<\/a>) oven.<\/p>\n

I posted a few photos of the hotplate<\/a> on flickr, which ended up on Hackaday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hotplate:<\/h3>\n

\"PID<\/p>\n

The heater is a 1\/2″ 500W, 120VAC cartridge heater<\/a> I bought from McMaster-Carr<\/a> for about $25.\u00a0 The hotplate itself is a 3x4x1″ chunk of aluminum that I machined with a carefully sized hole just below the center for the heater to slip into, as shown.\u00a0 A type-K thermocouple<\/a> (top right) measures the temperature and provides a signal to the controller.\u00a0 Ceramic standoffs insulate the hotplate from the bottom aluminum baseplate.\u00a0 For safety, there is also a ground strap, shown on the bottom right.<\/p>\n

This the second PID controlled project I have done, the first was my PID Controlled Solder Paste Fridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The controller:<\/h3>\n

\"PID<\/p>\n

The controller box contains an Omega CN77000 series PID controller<\/a> and an IR\/Crydom<\/a> 240V 40A (overkill!) D2440 Solid State Relay<\/a> (SSR), along with a power switch, fuse, and power connector.\u00a0 The PID controller and solid state relay were both found at a now-defunct Silicon Valley surplus store for a few bucks each.\u00a0 A 3′ umbilical cable connects the controller to the hotplate.<\/p>\n

60\/40 leaded solder reflows at about 185C, and lead-free solder is around 200-230C depending on the alloy.\u00a0 (Wikipedia has a good list of reflow temperatures<\/a>.)\u00a0 The hotplate can easily reach these within a minute or two from room temperature and could get much hotter if necessary.<\/p>\n

It can also be used to cure epoxy and perform any other tasks that require a precisely controlled heater – this could be the world’s most overengineered coffee warmer, if not for the dangers of lead poisioning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> I just posted some more information about the microscope.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In preparation for my Arduino-based AVR HV Programmer boards coming back, I decided to step up my home lab surface mount soldering capabilities. Step one was to find a cheap stereo zoom microscope on ebay, with 7-32X magnification, perfect for working on surface mount devices.\u00a0 One of my biggest frustrations in the past is that … Continue reading DIY PID Controlled Soldering Hotplate<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,443],"tags":[36,501,147,152,20,148,149],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electronics","category-projects-2","tag-diy","tag-electronics","tag-hotplate","tag-microscope","tag-pid","tag-soldering","tag-surface-mount"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/3201234462_c0a761b898_o.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-gi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1089,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/improvements-to-the-diy-pid-controlled-soldering-hotplate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1010,"position":0},"title":"Improvements to the DIY PID-Controlled Soldering Hotplate","author":"Jeff","date":"January 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I posted about the DIY PID-Controlled Soldering Hotplate I designed and built to improve my surface mount soldering capabilities. I mentioned one issue I was having with the hotplate on flickr.\u00a0 Specifically, the aluminum baseplate was getting too hot for comfort (literally) when I set the hotplate to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Improvements to PID Controlled Hotplate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3224112528_54f5f3a154.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1029,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/new-stereo-zoom-microscope\/","url_meta":{"origin":1010,"position":1},"title":"New Stereo Zoom Microscope for my Electronics Lab!","author":"Jeff","date":"January 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Soldering surface mount (SMT) components is tricky, particularly if you can't see what you are doing due to the small scale of most SMT parts.\u00a0 Since I started working with SMTs at home I have suffered with a 10x magnifier ring-light.\u00a0 It works, but it's tricky to use, mainly because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Stereo Zoom Microscope","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3214065384_226b724e8a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1823,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/keiths-hotplate-and-pid-controller-teardown-pics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1010,"position":2},"title":"Keith’s Hotplate and PID Controller Teardown Pics","author":"Jeff","date":"May 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Keith of Keith's Electronics Blog made a PID-Controlled Soldering Hotplate based on the one I fabricated earlier this year.\u00a0 He's already using it to build the stepper controller PCB for the MakerBot CupCake CNC! He also posted a bunch of teardown photos (like the one shown below) of the CD101\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www2.neufeld.newton.ks.us\/images\/electronics\/2009\/05\/03\/DSCN3673_mid.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2079,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/celebrating-one-year-of-hacks-and-projects-at-mightyohm-com\/","url_meta":{"origin":1010,"position":3},"title":"Celebrating one year of hacks and projects at mightyohm.com!","author":"Jeff","date":"July 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow!\u00a0 I can't believe it's been a year! Based on the date of my first post, last Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of my blog. While I pour a toast, here are a few highlights of the past year: PID Controlled Solder Paste Fridge The first project I documented\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"PID Controller closeup","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2706936015_5d8ef1cfd5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3410,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/changes-to-the-mightyohm-wiki\/","url_meta":{"origin":1010,"position":4},"title":"Changes to the MightyOhm Wiki","author":"Jeff","date":"December 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been making some changes and additions to the MightyOhm Wiki over the past few days. To complement the awesome list of surplus electronics shops, I started creating wiki pages for the various projects I have previously documented on the blog. Last night I added\u00a0a list of cheap PID controllers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Resources"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Resources","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/books-and-resources\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"projects:hotplate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/5251955045_dc19735278.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1133,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/heated-stage-for-thermosonic-wedge-bonding\/","url_meta":{"origin":1010,"position":5},"title":"Heated Stage for Thermosonic Wedge Bonding","author":"Jeff","date":"January 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend Tony created an instructable about his Heated Stage for Thermosonic Wedge Bonding, based on my PID controlled soldering hotplate design. Tony is building a home wirebonding station so he can work with microwave MMICs and build very high frequency amateur radio transceivers. Nice job, Tony!","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.instructables.com\/files\/deriv\/FNP\/PMNT\/FQCTITAT\/FNPPMNTFQCTITAT.MEDIUM.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15771,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/15771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}