Michael | Sept. 9, 2018

Tim | Jan. 22, 2018

Horrible!

Honestly very disappointed. I thought this was a a solution to a solid state relay. but....
1st: I dont think I received the right power board. My version says v0.6? There are no images, instructions and the wrong number of components. All of the pictures have version 2.2 or higher. The only pictures online of this particular pcb was on easyeda.
2nd: I have 2 screws and terminals that don't match the pcb i was sent.
3rd: This board is thin and seems to look very cheap. I honestly could have hand soldered a better board on protoboards. I am wary of plugging in any amount of power into this device due to the poor labeling and lack of instructions.

I was really hoping this was a quality part but you get what you paid for... or less.

Response from Geppetto Electronics | Jan. 22, 2018

I'm sorry you're disappointed.

There is a documentation link on the lower right side of the product page here on Tindie. It goes to a PDF that has complete assembly instructions.

I'm not sure what you're seeing in the pictures, but they are of the 0.2 board, not 2.2.

The board is thin because it's OSHPark's 0.8 mm service. I chose that specifically because it has 2 oz copper instead of 1 oz, which increases the current capacity of the power tracks on the board.

The kit comes with two 4-40 machine bolts and nuts that are intended to be used to attach the heat sinks to the triacs.

You should have received two each of 330Ω, 360Ω and 39Ω resistors, two ceramic caps, the aforementioned heat sink mounting parts, the two triacs, the two heat sinks, four fiber washers (to go on the pegs of the heat sinks to protect the board from the edges on the sinks), two optoisolated triac drivers, three .25" QC terminals, and a 3 position screw terminal. If any parts were missing, I'd be happy to replace them if you'd contact me,

Cj | April 17, 2016

Easy to build, works great

Can be assembled in a few minutes even by a beginner. Really nice that the silkscreen for the resistors includes their value; can assemble without looking at a schematic or BOM or anything. I do wish the power board had high-impedance logic voltage inputs instead of just being hooked up directly to the isolator LEDs, but that's only an issue if you want to use the Toast-R-Reflow power board with something other than the Toast-R-Reflow controller.

A few extra pieces you will definitely need aren't included, but that's understandable since most hackers would already have these things. But be sure you've got the following, because they don't come-with:
- Thermal grease or heatsink compound for the triacs
- Female QC connectors to attach the heaters to the QC blades on the board
- 4-40 size mounting screws and standoffs to securely mount the power board to something (sheet metal inside the oven, probably)

I documented the complete BOM (including the above) I used in my oven build, and took some photos to show how it comes together. You can see that stuff here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8xVzh0ZgaayNnVhbkFDZXE2QWc

Response from Geppetto Electronics | April 17, 2016

Thanks for your nice review. The trouble with logic level inputs is that then you also need to bring power to the board as well, and I wanted to minimize the number of connections. Including the series resistors on the power board implies a fixed voltage to drive the LEDs. By putting the series resistance on the controller, it means you can design for 3.3 volts or 12 volts or what not by simply changing the resistors there - no need to dig back into the oven.

David | Jan. 26, 2016

Philip | March 27, 2015

The Whole kit Works a Treat [although could do with more]

The Whole kit Works a Treat although it really could do with the ability to store multiple profiles and ideally lean a profile. I did have a number of issues with thermocouple however i believe that was more to do with the probe then the kit its self. Either way. it does what its meant to, SMD reflow solder and it does it well.

Response from Geppetto Electronics | March 27, 2015

Thanks for your review!

The model II controller has multiple profiles, though at present the only way to add more is to edit the firmware source.

Some other profile provisioning mechanism for model II is TBD. The model I controller, however, doesn't have enough free space.

Jean-Philippe | Nov. 19, 2014

very good product

I purchased the item and was very pleased with it. only downside to it is that my oven top heater equals 900w which is too close to the limit so i had to upgrade the triac to 10 amps and decided to purchased the high temperature environment ones (t1010h-6t) which are a very nice update (just make sure you isolate them) and also due to the increase in wattage i upgraded the heat sink ( i've put both of the triac on one cpu heat sink i had laying around and it gets the airflow from the built in fan better) also the hole for the triac being so close on the board have a tendency to short easier so i ended up cutting the trace for the middle pin and putting it closer to the center. But aside from that very complete documentation and easy to put together

Response from Geppetto Electronics | Nov. 19, 2014

Thank you so much for your review.

We chatted a bit over e-mail, and I think you may have run up against the thermal specifications of the board's design. As delivered, the board is rated for up to 8A per channel at a maximum ambient temperature of 50 ºC. That sounds like a surprisingly low temperature for an oven intended to heat to nearly 250 ºC, but the ovens I've modified so far have had areas behind the user controls that are well ventilated to keep the ambient temperatures there that low (probably so that the controls themselves don't get too hot to touch).

The triacs are BTA-20s, and the heat sink supplied has a thermal resistance of 5 ºC/W, for those who wish to figure out where the boundaries are.