T-962A Reflow Oven

T-962A Reflow Oven
[[|border|frameless|220px|center]]
Manufacturer	PUHUI (?)
Model	T-962A Reflow Oven
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
AKA	Cookie
Obtained	Pledge Drive (Jan 2025)
Location	Electronics Area
Team	Electronics
Induction Required	No
Booking	{{{booking}}}
Status	Defunct
Risk Assessment	Yes, see [[{{{riskassessment}}}|the assessment]]
Tools:   all pages • list • Power Tools • Broken tools     {{}}

As part of the 2025 Electronics Pledge Drive, a T-962A reflow oven was purchased. It hasn't arrived yet, so this page is just a stub.

Process

The machine hasn't arrived yet, so we don't know.

Oven Improvements

There are a number of recommended improvements to make to this oven. We should make some or all of those improvements. Note that this is the "New 2022 Version", which is (unsurprisingly) newer than the "New 2020 Version" - both of these should be better than the original T-962 model. There's a good list of suggested modifications over on Hackaday.io.

• Replace the firmware. Unified Engineering have developed an alternative firmware for this machine, which enables the use of a third thermocouple to measure ambient temperature. Given how much the temperature fluctuates in the space, this is probably worth it. The stock machine will assume that ambient temperature is 20c, and we know that's rarely true! https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T-962-improvements.
  • The firmware supports the use of a DS18B20, using a spare GPIO pin of the MCU. Some instructions for doing this are here: https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T-962-improvements/wiki/Dallas-18B20-for-cold-junction-mod
  • The firmware flashing may need a Windows PC. https://github.com/UnifiedEngineering/T-962-improvements/wiki/Flashing-the-LPC21xx-controller
• Replace the masking tape. Apparently there is some masking tape used to hold down the fibreglass insulation. This starts to burn and causes a nasty smell. A better option is to use Kapton tape. It's possible the 2022 version no longer does this, but we'll check.

There are also claims that the grounding isn't very good. We will check this with the PAT machine and repair if necessary.