Infrared soldering station with MK control. Let's build! Infrared soldering stations: advantages of technology and introduction to the ACHI brand IR soldering stations operating principle

Modern, more advanced equipment, alas, fails no less than older models. And if earlier the question of improving what was familiar was not a question for us, today it is almost impossible to unsolder or solder a part the old fashioned way without “hitting” neighboring chips. That is why craftsmen assemble more modern hot-air and infrared soldering stations with their own hands. In this review we will tell you what soldering systems are, how the control unit works and how to connect it, what is included in the design elements. Only in our review you will find recommendations illustrating the features of assembling and adjusting modern soldering stations.

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What is a soldering station for?

A soldering station, unlike a simple soldering iron, is a more advanced system. It allows you to sleep small parts, such as, for example, SMD components, control heating on the display, program buttons. In addition, thanks to the non-contact soldering system, overheating of neighboring elements is excluded.

The non-contact type soldering station belongs to modern systems rations. For example, heating with a hot air gun helps craftsmen repair household electrical appliances and mobile phones. But with the help of IR systems you can perform installation and disassembly (even in BGA format).

General characteristics and operating principle of the soldering station

The anatomy of a soldering station is quite simple and is most responsive necessary conditions: neat, “smart” soldering of elements. The heart of the device is, inside which there is a transformer that produces two voltage options: 12 or 24 Volts. Without this element, all station systems would be useless. The transformer is responsible for regulating the temperature. The power supply is equipped with a thermostat and special buttons to start the device.

For reference! Some devices are equipped with a special stand that heats printed circuit board during soldering, which helps to avoid its deformation.

Using the control unit, the function of storing temperature and programming buttons can also be implemented. Craftsmen “pump” the device using a processor, which makes it possible to measure temperature during soldering.

Let's look at the operating features of a hot air soldering station: the air flow is heated using special spiral or ceramic elements (they are located right inside the hot air gun tube) and then directed through special nozzles to the soldering point. This system allows you to heat the required surface evenly, eliminating point deformation.

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“The temperature that modern soldering hair dryers, including those assembled by yourself, can provide varies from 100 to 800°C. Moreover, these indicators can be adjusted by the operator.

As another additional element a special infrared heater can be used. Its principle is similar to the operation of a hot air gun; it heats not the joint, but a certain area. However, unlike a hot air gun, there is no flow warm air. Professional soldering stations can be equipped with special accompanying tools, desoldering pumps and vacuum tweezers.

Types of soldering stations by design

There are both simple soldering stations equipped with the classic soldering iron we are used to, as well as more advanced ones. Moreover, there can be a great variety of variations in the combination of components and systems. You can easily combine a contact soldering iron and a hair dryer, a vacuum or thermal tweezers and a desoldering pump in one station. For convenience, we provide a table of the main types of soldering stations.

Contact PS is an ordinary soldering iron that has direct contact with the surface when soldering, equipped with an electronic control and temperature control unit.		Contactless PS - at the heart of the work control unit and special system control elements.
Lead	Lead free Require elevated temperature swimming trunks	Thermal air Provide effective soldering in hard-to-reach areas with simultaneous heating of several surfaces at once. Allows you to carry out soldering of any type, both with and without lead.	Infrared There is a heating element in the form of an infrared emitter made of ceramic or quartz.	Combined They combine several types of equipment in their design: a hair dryer or a classic soldering iron, or, as we have already said, an IR heater and a desoldering pump, for example, a soldering iron and a hair dryer.

Based on the temperature stabilization mechanism and the operating principle of the control units, soldering stations can also be divided into analog and digital. In the first case, the heating element is turned on until the soldering iron warms up to desired temperature, the closest analogy is heating a regular iron. But the second type of soldering iron is different complex system temperature control and regulation. A PID controller is located here, which obeys the microcontroller program. This method of temperature stabilization is much more effective than the analog one. Another classification allows us to divide all substations into installation and dismantling. The first ones carry out soldering of devices, however, they do not have a desalinizer and other elements that allow cleaning and replacing parts.

Such soldering systems are equipped with a special container for removing solder, which, in turn, is sucked out by a special nozzle equipped with a compressor.

For your information! There are combined stations that allow both installation and dismantling work. They are equipped with two types of soldering irons, differing in power.

How to make your own hot air soldering station

Not everyone can afford to buy a soldering station with a hair dryer, although IR stations are still expensive big money, so the easiest way is to assemble it yourself. However, it should be remembered that such air soldering stations have certain disadvantages:

The air flow may accidentally blow away small parts.
The surface is heated unevenly.
Additional attachments are required for different cases.

DIY soldering gun: universal circuit

Hot air gun – special device, which heats the soldering area with a stream of hot air.

The easiest way is to assemble the device with a hairdryer on a fan, and use a coil as a heater.

If you buy a mechanical heater, it is quite expensive. And with sudden temperature changes, it can simply crack. Not everyone can design a compressor on their own. An ordinary small-sized fan can be used as a blower. A cooler from a home PC will do. To get acquainted with the structure of such a device, let’s study the diagram of a soldering station with our own hands.

We will place the fan near the hot air gun. We carefully attach a tube to it to supply warm air. At the end of the cooler we make a hole for the nozzle. On the opposite side, the cooler must be closed to provide the necessary draft.

Now it's time for assembly heating element. To do this you need to screw nichrome wire spiral onto the base of the heater. Moreover, the turns must not touch each other. The turns are wound taking into account that the resistance should be 70-90 Ohms. The base is selected with poor thermal conductivity and good resistance to high temperatures.

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“Some of the parts can be borrowed from a regular hair dryer. In particular, a mica plate is suitable as a base for a spiral with low thermal conductivity.

Let's start looking for parts for the nozzle. A ceramic or porcelain pipe is best suited for this. Leave a small gap between the walls of the nozzle and the spiral. We wrap the surface on top insulating materials. You can use asbestos layer, fiberglass, etc. This will increase the high efficiency of the hair dryer, and will also allow you to take it with your hands without getting burned. We fasten the heating element so that air is supplied to the tube, and the heater is located exactly in the middle inside the nozzle.

Soldering station control system

To assemble a control system for a homemade soldering station such as a hair dryer with your own hands, you need to place two rheostats in it: one regulates the incoming flow, the other regulates the power of the heating element. But usually one is made for both the heater and the blower.

Here it is very important to connect the wires correctly so that they correspond to the rheostats.

Then we attach a hot air gun so that the wires match the required rheostats and switch.

Assembling and setting up the soldering station

The power of a soldering station, as we have already noted above, is usually in the range from 24 to 40 Watts. However, if you plan to solder the power buses and, then the power of the device should be increased from 40 to 80 watts.

For more information on how to solder with a hairdryer from a soldering station, watch this video.

DIY infrared soldering station

An infrared soldering station is the easiest tool to make with your own hands. The price for soldering stations of this type is simply exorbitant. Buying something simpler is not an option, since it will still have limited functionality.

That is why we will tell you step by step how to assemble an infrared soldering iron with your own hands. Let's look at the stages of assembling a PS for soldering boards measuring 250x250 mm. Our soldering station is suitable for working with television boards, video adapters for PCs, and tablets.

Manufacturing of housing and heating elements

For the basis of a homemade IR soldering station, assembled with your own hands, you can take a door from the mezzanine or 10-12 mm, screw the legs to it. At this stage, it is important to roughly estimate the layout based on the size of the heaters and PID controllers. The height of the “sidewalls” and bevels of the front panel will depend on this.

Aluminum corners are used to form the “skeleton” of the structure. Take care of the “stuffing” in advance; old VCRs, DVD players and the like will also come in handy. You can bypass specialized street hawkers.

Now we are looking for a non-stick pan. Yes, exactly the one you can buy at regular store household appliances. Here you can also look for a high-quality soldering iron for a soldering station.

Important! Take a tape measure with you. Your task is to find a baking sheet optimal width and depth. The dimensions depend on the height of the IR emitters and their number.

Soldering machine control system

Let's get to the fun part. On trading platform We order PIDs (or proportional-integral-derivative controllers) in advance, as well as IR - 3 lower IR emitters 60x240 mm, and one upper one - 80x80 mm, do not forget to stock up on two solid-state 40A. At this stage, it is already possible to move on to tin work, namely, to adjust the entire structure to the dimensions of our main elements. After adjusting the sidewalls and the cover, we cut out technological holes for the PIDs on the front wall, and for the cooler on the back wall.

Assembly and adjustment of the soldering station

So, after installing the emitters, cooler and connecting all the wiring, the appearance of our soldering station is almost finished. At this stage, it is necessary to test the equipment for heating, temperature retention and hysteresis. Let's move on to installing the main IR emitter. This is not difficult to do.

agree.

I don't agree. It’s not the percent who starts to panic, but the programmer who programmed him did not foresee such a situation. What prevents the programmer from taking such a situation into account? Moreover, this function is implemented in the tormentor controller - CUT.

What prevents you from entering the same table into the controller software? For example. The START button is pressed when Tn. = 100 degrees. The controller checks next condition: initial step T = 20 degrees, final step T = 180 degrees, step time is 160 seconds. This means that the increase in T at this step is 1 g/sec. The controller should reduce the heating time by 80 seconds. But I must also take into account (but this condition is not taken into account in the tormentor controller) that if the increase in T at this step should be equal to 1 g/sec, then despite any other factors, namely, time increases or decreases, it must heat no MORE and NO LESS THAN 1g/sec. Moreover, some time is still needed to at least warm up the emitter. Whatever power was set at this step. And the operator shouldn’t really care what power the station is heating at the moment. And the controller should know this from compiled tables, for example, for such a function as auto-tuning. When you turn on the station for the first time, either automatically or through a menu item, the station’s auto-tuning starts. This can be specified in the instructions. Like, first install the board as large as possible, the controller drove up to 100 degrees, which in principle is painless for the board, took measurements, then the middle one, then the smallest one, like MXM. That's all! The controller created a table for itself about which you write “about stoves”. Next, based on this table, the controller does preheating and at the same time DETERMINES what size board is installed. He determines this by the board’s reaction to the rise in T from the power applied to the VI. If he “didn’t like” something, then let him give a signal - it is necessary to carry out auto-tuning. As a result, another board will be added to his table. In terms of time, I don't think this is critical. Because DIYers spend significantly more time setting up their homemade products.
ANY soldering controller is just such a device in terms of functionality, even from famous manufacturers. What is a dimer? This is some kind of power control external influence. In the case of a dimer, this is the potentiometer knob. In the case of a soldering iron, a controller. And what you wrote at the end, I wrote at the beginning. There is no time to create a soldering station based on PID and power control. Or rather, it is possible to create it, but it requires very clear and deeply thought-out software.

Continued for Krievs. In the case of multi-stage dimers, this software is an operator who monitors the process and in the event of “something went wrong” makes one decision or another. The only advantage of this solution is its low cost. How correctly I wrote Andy52280, in this case everything goes “to the bulging eye of the sea.”
In continuation I will say that maxlabt I found the most optimal solution for homemade stations. Or rather, he didn’t find it, but he studied the theory as deeply as possible (the nickname helped) and in practice chose the lesser evil of all evils. And the main thing is that he shared his research with everyone. Why should he Thanks a lot. Aries 151 actually costs exactly as much as it can be used, well, maybe a little more. Also, because of its versatility, it is not entirely suitable for our conditions. It is enough to remember how maxlabt I helped one guy on a diamond set up a stove almost online. Damn Hollywood. You open a thread, read the latest messages and wonder, where is the continuation of this fascinating series? So despite all the respect maxlabt for myself I realized that Aries is not IDEAL solution. Optimal - YES, but not ideal. Therefore, I am not ready to spend money on Aries, despite its cost. Although it is not that expensive. If you compare its cost with the prices for repairing laptops, and specifically, when they charge 80 bucks or more for replacing a bridge, not counting the cost of the bridge itself, then the cost of Aries at just over 200 bucks doesn’t seem so much anymore.
It’s better to buy a thermopro then. But this is not my level. I don't need him. It’s much more interesting for me to get candy from what I have at the moment. And what filling this candy will have depends on my knowledge, experience and the degree of curvature of my hands. Good luck to everyone in our difficult task!

Many experts on the issue which soldering station is better, make a choice in favor of infrared soldering units. In this equipment, instead of a stream of hot air, infrared waves are used to heat parts, transmitted through harmless radiation invisible to the eye. Such soldering stations are suitable for working with any components, as they provide local heating of elements even in limited space plat. Modern infrared devices, for example, from companies Achi, Scottle And Jovy, are complex multifunctional complexes equipped with cooling systems, monitors for broadcasting operating parameters, control panels, etc. Compared to hot air soldering stations, they have the following advantages:

the ability to work with complex-profile parts of various types;
no need to select attachments for a specific type of work;
uniform heating of the soldering surface.

Infrared soldering station ACHI IR-6500

The main disadvantages of infrared soldering stations are their high cost and complexity. But you should understand that this equipment is considered professional, and its functionality may remain unclaimed in everyday life.

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Often in their videos, the Sovering TVi channel talked about how they were going to assemble an infrared soldering station. Already almost The final stage before we assemble it completely.

Radio components, IR soldering stations and others in this Chinese store.
Before assembling everything, I bought related materials - a thermocouple to measure temperature. I also bought vacuum tweezers, review later. It is already ready, it needs to be assembled, there was no time. Dimers, these 2 dimers, were also made by a reviewer, anyone interested can watch them on the channel. I also bought these stencils.

I bought universal ones, so I’m still learning to try them, that’s why they are like this. There was also one in the kit, also a review a little later, the material is already there, it needs to be processed and made.
The upper heater was made from an old power supply unit, such a small one was lying around. It unwinds to show you what's inside. I soldered, soldered, and twisted everything. We'll put a dimmer here somewhere so that you don't have to place it on the front panel, but control it directly. Separately controlled with a button with a separate power cord. The lower heater has its own power supply and then, if you don’t like something, redo it. So far everything looks like this. Also redo the box.
It will be screwed here and the rod. Such a leg. A choke, or rather a power supply for a backlight bulb. The backlight is normal, thin. Power supply for it, also additional light. He told me about dimmers, a power button for the bottom heater, one of these. The corners on which the top sheet will rest, let's remove the top sheet and see what's inside, what it was assembled from. Let's unscrew this thing.
Continuation from 4 minutes about a homemade working IR soldering station.

Second part

Infrared soldering station and how to make it yourself

With the advent of microprocessor technology, it became necessary to deal with the resoldering of BGA microcircuits during repairs, which is either extremely difficult to do using conventional methods, or, more often, impossible. Even a hairdryer will not always help cope with the task. That is why making an infrared soldering station with your own hands will be the best alternative and sometimes the only relevant solution.

IR soldering station

BGA (Ball grid array) chips are present in almost any modern “smart” device: phones, computers, TVs, printers. During operation, they may fail, which requires replacing the faulty part with a new one. But carrying out such a procedure without special equipment is an extremely difficult task.

The problem is that manufacturers are inventing more and more new methods for mounting electronic parts. AND regular soldering iron or a hair dryer will not always be able to help solve this problem. After all, contact balls contribute to high heat transfer to the board, as a result of which they cannot melt.

If you try to raise the temperature to the level necessary to melt them, there is a risk of overheating the microcircuit, as a result of which it may fail. Due to overheating, the possibility of damage to nearby parts cannot be ruled out. Especially if their bodies are made of fusible materials.

An infrared station can be an excellent solution. It allows you to replace even large GPU controllers. And with the widespread use of computers, laptops, motherboards, video adapters and other complex equipment, such repair work is performed quite often. And if earlier it was possible to use hot air stations to replace large microcircuits, now, when manufacturers use non-contact soldering methods, the only optimal solution is an IR station that can efficiently cope with the replacement of any microprocessor part.

Operating principle

The main problems when resoldering microcircuits and controllers are either underheating of the contact material to the melting temperature, or overheating of the replaced part and its failure.

This is how the idea came to heat the board itself to a temperature of 100–150 degrees Celsius. After that, solder the parts. This allows you to qualitatively reduce the heat flow to the PCB board, which makes it possible to lower the “upper” temperatures. This means that the part itself will be less subject to overheating.

You can also heat it with a hot air gun, but it is preferable to use an infrared soldering iron. After all, the IR station allows you to do this in a controlled manner, that is, monitor and maintain the “bottom” and “top” temperatures or use the recommended soldering thermal profile.

Design features

Any IR soldering stations consist of three main parts. Everything looks quite simple, although each of them is an independent complex mechanism, combined with general installation. So, any station includes:

Depending on the model and manufacturer, IR soldering irons may differ only technical characteristics. Some make the job easier, while others, on the contrary, require additional attention and labor from the user.

This also affects the cost of equipment. Therefore, when choosing a station, you need to pay attention not only to the price, but also to the technical data, so as not to overpay for unnecessary functionality.

DIY making

For industries or individuals involved in the repair of complex electronic equipment, it is quite possible to purchase a factory-made IR soldering station for work. But for amateurs or those who need such an installation occasionally, you can create it yourself. And the price speaks in favor of this, first of all. Even Chinese-made devices cost from 1 thousand dollars. High-quality models of European brands cost from 2 thousand dollars and above. Not everyone can afford such an expensive pleasure.

Regarding the homemade infrared soldering station, everything looks much more optimistic. According to average calculations, such an analogue of an IR soldering iron will cost around $80, which looks incomparably more reasonable than the prices of factory devices.

Any person involved in the repair of complex equipment has enough knowledge to invent and construct an IR station on their own. Due to this electronic part, appearance and some features may vary. And here the basic design will remain the same in any model. That is why there is no single ideal scheme that can be cited as the only correct solution. But in order to understand the very principle of creating an IR soldering iron, any model will do. And based on personal knowledge and preferences, you can remove or add certain parts.

First option

This option will use a two-channel controller.

The first channel is used for a Pt 100 platinum thermistor or a conventional thermocouple.
The second channel will be used exclusively by the thermocouple. The controller channels can operate in automatic or manual mode.

The temperature can be maintained between 10 and 255 degrees Celsius. Thermocouple or sensor and thermocouple via feedback control these parameters automatically. In manual mode, the power on each channel will be adjusted from 0 to 99 percent.

Controller memory will contain 14 different thermal profiles to work with BGA chips. Seven of them are for lead-containing alloys, and the other seven are for lead-free solder.

In the case of weak heaters, the upper one may not keep up with the thermal profile. In this case, the controller will pause execution and wait until the required temperature is reached.

The controller also very conveniently performs a thermal profile based on the preheating temperature of the entire board. If for one reason or another it was not possible to remove the chip, then you can restart it at a higher temperature.

The power unit shown in the diagram has a transistor switch for upper heating and a seven-storage switch for lower heating. Although it is acceptable to use two transistor or triac ones. The area marked with a red dotted line may not be collected if the use of two thermocouples is calculated.

To remove heat from the keys, you can use a radiator with active cooling from any equipment. The main thing is that it fits the design of the modeled apparatus. The bottom heater will consist of nine halogen lamps with a rating of 1500 W 220–240 V R7S 254 mm. You should get three parts of three lamps connected in series. It is better to use high-temperature silicone wires for 220 volts.

The body is assembled from fiberglass or any other similar material and is reinforced with aluminum corners. You will also have to buy Vacuum pump. For a more aesthetic appearance You can use IR glass on the bottom panel. But there are several negative points: Heating and cooling are too slow, and the entire structure becomes too hot during operation. Although the presence of glass not only makes the device more attractive, but also convenient, since the boards can be placed directly on it.

The stand is made of aluminum channel for stands. Vacuum tweezers and a tube for it, a thermocouple and stands are prepared. It is recommended to make the upper heater from ELSTEIN SHTS/100 800W. When all the parts are ready, they need to be placed in the case and you can proceed to configuration.

Heaters are installed at a distance of 5–6 centimeters from the boards. If the temperature run-out is more than three degrees, then it is worth reducing the power of the upper heater.

Second solution

As a second option, we can propose a design that differs only in internal components. And first you should prepare everything required components:

The main thing is to immediately decide on the type of case. Naturally, a lot depends on availability suitable material. Therefore, this is what you should start from when it comes time to place the components inside.

Now you need to take a halogen heater. It may be possible to find an old one, since it needs to be disassembled and reflectors and halogen lamps removed. There is no need to disassemble the lamps themselves. Now all this will need to be placed in the prepared housing. Only 4 lamps of 450 watts are used, connected in parallel. It is preferable to use the same wires with which they were already connected. If for some reason you cannot use them, you will have to buy additional heat-resistant ones.

You will immediately have to think about the fee retention system. It is difficult to give specific recommendations here. After all, it all depends on the body. But it would be good to use aluminum profiles, into which bolts and nuts are not rigidly inserted so that they can subsequently clamp printed circuit boards and, at the same time, be able to adjust the different sizes plat. It is better to pass thermocouples that control the set temperature circuit in the lower heater into the shower hose. This will provide mobility and convenience during operation and installation.

The role of the upper heater will perform ceramic with a power of 450 watts. This can be purchased as a spare part for IR stations. Here you also need to take care of the housing, since it is this that ensures correct and high-quality heating. It can be made from thin sheet iron, bending as necessary, depending on the shape and size of the heater.

Now you need to think about mounting the top heater. Since it must be movable, and move not only up or down, but also at different angles. The stand from table lamp. You can secure it in any convenient way.

It's time to tackle the controller. It will also require a separate housing. If there is a suitable ready-made one, then you can use it. Otherwise, you will have to make it yourself, all from the same thin metal. Solid state relays need cooling, so it is worth installing a radiator and fan for them.

Since there is no automatic setting in the controller, the values of P, I and D will have to be entered manually. There are four profiles, for each you can separately set the number of steps, the rate of temperature rise, the waiting time and step, the lower threshold, the target temperature and the values for the upper and lower heater.

IR soldering station

The problem is that manufacturers are inventing more and more new methods for mounting electronic parts. And a regular soldering iron or hair dryer will not always be able to help solve this problem. After all, contact balls contribute to high heat transfer to the board, as a result of which they cannot melt.

If you try to raise the temperature to the level necessary to melt them, there is a risk of overheating the microcircuit, as a result of which it may fail. Due to overheating, the possibility of damage to nearby parts cannot be ruled out. Especially if their bodies are made of fusible materials.

An infrared station can be an excellent solution. It allows you to replace even large GPU controllers. And with the widespread use of computers, laptops, motherboards, video adapters and other complex equipment, such repair work is performed quite often. And if previously it was possible to use hot-air stations to replace large microcircuits, now, when manufacturers use non-contact soldering methods, the only optimal solution is an IR station that can efficiently cope with the replacement of any microprocessor part.