What is it?

This is a DIY, low cost PD powered reflow hotplate that uses metal ceramic heater (MCH) instead of PCB hot plate for heating. It features a USB type C input port that can be powered by a 60W (65W) PD power supply at 20V 3A. This hotplate can automatically reflow normal temperature solder paste like Sn63Pb37. What you need is press and hold the START button for 5 seconds and wait for the reflow process to finish.

Technical Specification

Quick Start

1. Power up your reflow hotplate with 60W or above PD charger (PD power bank works as well)
2. After the MCU boots up, the yellow LED should blink slowly, indicating it is ready
3. Place your PCB to be reflow on top of the white MCH module
4. Press and hold the START touch button until the yellow LED start fast blinking
5. Wait until the hotplate automatically complete the reflow process. After the reflow is done, you will see the red light blinking slowly.
6. Carefully remove the completed PCB away from the MCH module. Press STOP to reset the hotplate and it is ready for the next reflow cycle.

The following are the LED status in the automatic reflow process.

After stage 6 is completed and you have removed the PCB from the hotplate, press STOP once to reset the stage to 1. You can also press STOP anytime you think it is suitable, including early stopping if your PCB is small and do not require that much temperature in the reflow stage.

Desolder Mode (since v6)

You can use the desolder mode to remove reflow soldered components from your PCB. Press and hold START and STOP button until the yellow LED start blinking. The hotplate will enter desolder mode and keep at reflow temperature (210 - 215 degree C) for 5 minutes. You can put your PCB to be desolder on top and remove components from the PCB for reworking.

Why did you make it?

My next project involve a ton of SMT soldering with tiny packages ICs. I was looking for a budget reflow hotplate online that can do automatic reflowing but with no result. So I decided to make one with MCH module (a type of expensive DC powered heating element that is usually use in scientific equipment) as heater with PD support.

What makes it special?

• USB type C PD Powered (no special power adapter or dangerous AC power required)
• Budget & High quality heating element
• Open Source
• Fully automatic, just hold and press "START" and wait for the reflow to complete

This should be the first DIY open source reflow hotplate that uses MCH as hotplate, as it generally require custom order and with high MOQ. However, as a manufacture I know just have the right spec MCH modules lying around and (after some bargaining) they are willing to provide me the module with a MOQ of 50 pieces. So I decided to print a few more PCBs and sell the remaining MCH as a budget & high quality reflow hotplate on Tindie.

Change Log

• v6-65W: 65W version of the hotplate, able to reflow PCB with size larger than MCH heater area
• v6: v6 of the automatic hotplate added "desolder mode" (i.e. acting as a normal hotplate). Hold "START" + "STOP" together to activate desolder hotplate mode. By default, the hotplate will shutdown after idle for around 5 minutes for safety reasons.
• v2 (Original): v2 introduce the automatic reflow mode. Hold "START" for 5 seconds and it will automatic reflow your board following the "soaking" then "reflow" process.
• v1: Engineeing samples only

Buyer Notes

• All hot-plates are shipped in mostly assembled packaging. You will ONLY need a screw driver to fix the PCB assembly (with hotplate and sensor already soldered) onto the 3D printed base.

• The PCB contains a 2.54x4 pins labeled with 5V, D+, D- and GND. There are another 2.54 x 3 pins. It is for direct programming the CH552G. If you want to re-program the reflow hotplate, bridge the two left most pins (the two pins closer to the LED) of the 2.54x3 and connect the USB pins to your computer.

• Version that is labeled as "Engineering Samples" are hand soldered, pre-production units that is slightly cheaper than production units. They work identically as the production versions but might come with uglier solder joints or soldering residues on boards that can be cleaned with organic solvents.

• If you encounter issues with yellow LED not light up when powered up / unstable touch buttons / lower than expected peak reflow temperature, please make sure you are using a high quality PD power supply and cables that is designed for 60W or above.

• The reflow temperature is intentionally set higher than the expected temperature of 230 degree celcius to make up for the lose in heat to the surrounding. You can perform early-stopping if the reflow is completed but the hotplate is still heating up.

• Some minor sticky residue might be visible on the heater element due to the calibration process. It won't effect the reflowing process. But if it is visually unpleasant, you can clean it up with some organic solvent.

• 3D Printed parts color are shipped out randomly (Mostly white, grey or black)

• All units are tested before shipping.