I am going to convert a cheap toaster oven I bought into a SMD reflow oven. My (mis)adventures will be documented here, along with mockups and code snippets.

The toaster oven I will be using is this one here. The oven will be controlled with an ATmega328 via a solid state relay. Two K-type thermocouples will be used to monitor temperatures in the oven. The system will have a Noritake graphic VFD for the display, with a rotary switch and two buttons for navigation. Hopefully, the SSR comes in soon and I can start on the project!

This should be a valuable topic. I've been wanting to make one of these for a long time, for the Wireless gCn project and for other SMD projects. Which oven are you going to use? Why the complexity of a VFD instead of a nice simple hd44780-compatible display?

I believe I linked the oven above, but it's a Rival 4-slice 1000W oven, it typically sells for around $20 bucks and is all mechanical. I went with a VFD because I have one lying around and it's controlled over serial.

Ah, that's quite handy on both counts. What made you choose that particular oven? Would you recommend it as a good choice for reflowing?

Honestly, I just chose the oven because of it's price and simplicity. Any oven will usually do, but some may need more insulating than others.

I am intending to make one of these...just a little less fancy. A thermistor hooked up to a arduino hooked up to my pc spitting temp data over serial once it hits temp adjust the dial by hand >.>

I foresee a bunch of dead boards in your future

To elaborate, you need to have something approximating PID control for the most accurate temperature adjustment. In other words, it's not just the current temperature that you need to account for, but the change in the temperature, and often the second derivative (change in the change in the temperature) as well. That way you will get to the target temperatures as fast as possible without under- or over-shooting.

I knew what he meant and yeah I will probably take the time to do it right I have all the required stuff already minus the thermistors. That's a project for once I actually have something I will be re flowing though


Ended up buying a hot air rework station. Seems I can use that for all my re-flowing which I like the idea of better. For some reason baking my boards seems like a bad plan