21
PSA: Hot air rework stations are worthless without a thermocouple mod
I spent three months chasing cold solder joints on a batch of 20 LED drivers. Factory hot air gun said 350C but I stuck a thermocouple on the board and it was barely hitting 200C. Drilled a tiny hole in the nozzle, fed a K-type wire through, and hooked it to a cheap meter. Now I actually know what temp the board sees. Anyone else run into this gap or is it just me?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
patricia_wright4d agoTop Commenter
EXACT same problem with my cheap station. Total game changer.
2
tessawebb4d ago
Stick a thermocouple right on the joint you're heating, because the air temp reading is just a rough guide. I've seen the same thing with my station, set to 380C and the board barely hits 230C after 30 seconds. Makes a huge difference when you're trying to be consistent across a whole batch of boards.
1
kevin_murray884d ago
Heard a tech at a repair meetup mention something similar with lead-free solder.
-1