The Best way to Solder? Hot Plate to the rescue! (DIY or Buy)

[@collinbardini]

To address the lifespan of the pcb heater it might make sense to have the control circuitry on a separate board and make the heater pcb a consumable. It is definitely not as clean, but potentially more practical.

[@greatscottlab]

True

[@MrPala5]

Exactly my thoughts! :)

[@DS-qm3bs]

Maybe even a heating Plate from a 3D printer

[@arshia.sasson]

My thoughts as well, plus having the heater PCB as aluminum-clad to help distribute the heat evenly. These are done with 3D printer heated beds as well

[@daltonschrader8328]

Came here to stay just this.

[@hexablend970]

This project shows just how awesome this community is. There always is someone with a DIY solution. I'll definitely try the DIY version if I win the discount code.

[@greatscottlab]

Great :-)

[@christopherhalsall5744]

The maker community is great! I'm glad to finally be able to contribute to it!

[@jtjames79]

I learned I need to buy the commercial one, so I can make the DYI version. It's like that annoying situation where you need an internet connection to set up an internet connection.

[@benjaminalvarez3459]

​@@jtjames79 nope

[@dannyboahhh9944]

I always loved the EE community as well. We all seem to understand the "Building upon footsteps of giants" principle and love to share. Sharing is what helps us all move forward and quickly. What a wonderful time to be in the EE community

[@oliverpattsch6241]

Keep up the great work. Especially Projects that show what can be done with cheap or DIY equipment...

[@danspratt2]

Hey GreatScott, I used to be a surface mount assembly tech in the UK, just wanted to give some advice on solder paste application using a stencil. Lay the paste down the shortest edge of stencil and using a thin but fairly stiff piece of metal drag the paste "sausage" across the stencil in one go(using firm but steady pressure), the paste should appear to roll as its going. Repeatedly wiping across the same spot as you do in the video is causing excess paste to go through the stencil, which can cause messy joints and bridges.

[@schmirus1372]

I may never be able to use this info, but it's damn good to know!

[@alanjrobertson]

Great to hear, that was my impression too but with much less experience so good to have confirmation! 👍

[@jwshields]

If you don't mind me asking, do you have any pointers for resources of how to do stenciling? I have absolutely no experience in this area and am just exploring the ideas and trying to grok it. To be less vague with my question... What does the general process for designing & producing the stencil that you use to lay down the solder paste on the board? Would it be something simple-ish like a desktop CNC and some thin metal to route out the holes for the paste, or am I not big-brained enough for this and missing something obvious?

[@alanjrobertson]

@@jwshields personally I just took the easy route and ordered a stencil when I was getting my PCBs made - was dead easy based on the gerber files. Only thing I learned was to make sure I didn't have too big a stencil (I found the JLCPCB website was a bit confusing on this bit).

[@jwshields]

@@alanjrobertson gotcha. I figure if you're ordering PCBs, a stencil to come with it would be a typical sort of addon, that's good to hear. I guess I'm more interesting in doing my own PCBs and trying to think out the stenciling for that, you know? Mind, I'm just thinking out loud here, I do appreciate the insight though

[@paulisfrench3316]

For anybody trying to do this, if burning the bootloader sounds daunting, just pre program the atmega while it is still in the arduino, then take it off, that way its is extremely simple and only takes like 1 minute to do.

[@muhammadFikri24]

i plan to do that, it will really work ?

[@paulisfrench3316]

@@muhammadFikri24 yup have done it plenty of times, works great!

[@muhammadFikri24]

Thankyou, still waiting from jlcpcb,

[@paulisfrench3316]

@@muhammadFikri24 Good! Theyre great, have gotten multiple boards from them... Good luck!

[@Mattchu96]

I bought all of the components and got the Atmega separate. I don't own an arduino, do I need on to do the updating?

[@JLCPCB]

Awesome video GreatScott and amaizing project Chris! Maybe usage of our Aluminium PCB's for the heater part could improve a lifetime of product? Separate Aluminium PCB for heater part and standard PCB for controler part. 🙂

[@engineer0239]

100 bucks for this size?! No thanks, I'll just keep using my 20$ camping hotplate!

[@fortheregm1249]

I soldered all my ESP32s onto their expansion boards on a frying pan on the kitchen stove :D

[@fortheregm1249]

@@karlkessler6017 well i could see/know what the temps are but that's not really all that useful. I just picked them up as soon as i saw the solder paste melt. The coupling between a PCB and a frying pan is very poor tho so you do have to crank it. and the temps you need to melt solder will ruin Teflon coating of fancy pans. Now days i put them straight on the stove ( non induction electric stove) .its way faster but risky if you don't have the hang of it and i fried a few ESPs like that. i would start with a small pan/ metallic plate on the stove. Just start off but putting some junk PCB on the stove with some solder paste and see how that goes.

[@fortheregm1249]

@@karlkessler6017 another thing that will get you afew times is when you pick up the PCBs very quickly sometimes the esp will move a little, which is not a problem when you are using a pan

[@fortheregm1249]

@@karlkessler6017 if your junk PCB isnt flat on the back side, ie has soldering bumps or throughput components sticking out the back it wont work, Good luck

[@fortheregm1249]

@@karlkessler6017 Yeah i have the glass ones and that's the reason i roasted a few ESPs. They ramp up WAY too fast so you gotta have a little experience and have broken afew eggs. But the dial on them isnt just the duty cycle. it actually adjusts the maximum temperature. also worth noting that the ESP expansion boards you find online actually have aluminum core because they have to heatsink the ESP so they heatup evenly. So nowadays i put the stove on the correct setting and the board is done and ready in 10 seconds from start to finish. But I still would have preferred to have the slower heating metallic stove for this application. but i dont and I'm too cheap & broke to buy a PCB oven LOL.

[@fortheregm1249]

@@karlkessler6017 It is Full on. until it gets to a temperature set by the dial. just like how an electric oven works. ( dials are incremented 1 to 6 tho )

[@imdoingityeah4175]

Next time you should make a video (diy or buy) for a hot air gun.

[@secretwebsite]

It's really easy to make a DIY hotplate, just order an aluminium PCB from JLCPCB with one long thin trace winding around it. Use a thermal switch instead of the complex microcontroller system.

[@din-kin]

can you please make the gerber files for this please? @Andrew

[@LC-hd5dc]

i think a thermistor would be better? thermal switches have undesirable characteristics such as only turning on above a minimum activation temp, as well as the repeated on-off cycling doesn't seem like a good way to maintain consistency temperatures

[@CBJ1]

In the beginning I was worried about the durability about the PCB too. But, having used this heatplate to solder 200-250 PCB's, I must say that it still works perfectly fine. The silkscreen is a bit darker than unused yes, but still the heatplate works 100%. Not bended or in any other way damaged. It's still able to reach the temperature in the same curve as new. (I have the Atmega 328 version)

[@polymetric2614]

yeah i was gonna say i'd be pretty surprised if that was that big of a problem. although repeated heat cycles are definitely worse for any material than a single heat up, these boards are really just copper, fiberglass, and whatever material the solder mask is. and that solder mask is totally meant to withstand high heat. i wouldn't be too worried about it

[@amitkumar6784]

Great review bro😊 It help me alot

[@ameliabuns4058]

What temperature do you use? I was thinking of making one too

[@CBJ1]

@@ameliabuns4058 Using 160-170 depending on pcb size, amount of components, amount of groundplane layers etc.

[@ameliabuns4058]

@@CBJ1 oooh I thought low temp solder is still around 180~ that’s nice

[@HackingElectronics]

Instead of this, we can also go the traditional way to fill a pan with sand and use it as the hot plate, we can also easily change the size of pan to accomodate a larger PCB size. Well we do have problems of temperature control but a potential solution for those who do not want to use it too often.

[@jackiec498]

That's a good idea...so How do I heat it? 🙂

[@MAKOS-ky5my]

@@jackiec498 you heat the pan in the kitchen

[@GnuReligion]

Interesting, the sand idea. I was thinking to set a nichrome heating wire in a concrete ... the way some shunt resistors are made. One could embed a glass 100k ntc thermistor in there too.

[@ShahZahid]

@@GnuReligion you can buy ceramic heaters or just use an old cloth iron both of which are isolated

[@a1nelson]

@@jackiec498 Typically with a common, electric hotplate one might use in their kitchen. In the US, they can be found for less than $10. I’ve had good luck using a cheap hot plate, an aluminum pie tin and some fine, sandblasting sand. Some people use irons _ the kind that are intended to smooth out clothing/fabric _ as the heating element, though I’ve never attempted that myself.

[@ornotermes]

I think it would make more sense to make the DIY version as two boards, one control board and one just as a heater. That way you only need to replace the heater board if it gets damaged over time. The heater could also be larger and it might also be possible to have a temperature sensor touching the bottom of the heater if the boards are stacked to get a more accurate temperature measurement.

[@coopercummings8370]

not to mention you could have multiple sizes of heater board and swap between sizes as needed while only needing one controller board

[@CBJ1]

In the beginning I was worried about the durability about the PCB too. But, having used this heatplate to solder 200-250 PCB's, I must say that it still works perfectly fine. The silkscreen is a bit darker than unused yes, but still the heatplate works 100%. Not bended or in any other way damaged. It's still able to reach the temperature in the same curve as new.

[@Lumi_nance]

​@@CBJ1do you use 138˚C paste? is 183˚/217˚ paste working too?

[@CBJ1]

@@Lumi_nance I'm using this one: TS391LT10 from Chip Quick. It is thermally stable (does not require to be kept in a cooled place) It is a 138deg melting point. Easy to work with, easy to clean

[@Lumi_nance]

@@CBJ1 thanks, my plan is to use this kind of hot plate with chip quick TS PB 183˚C My experience with chinese 138˚C paste is, that it breaks very easy, not suitable for connectors, large inductors, switches...

[@bobcarter6143]

If the ATMega is in such short supply then why not rework the pcb for an ATTiny1604 or similar which are available at the moment. They basically have a 328 core just with reduced pinout count, and the schematic for this only uses 9 active pins.

[@orhansenglish]

he actually did this with a bit overkill atmega 4809

[@320475123487192]

I've been using this technique for about 2 years using one of the blue "large" hotplates, and actually have gotten pretty good at it, though I do find 0402 and SOT-553 components too small to work well with a stencil. I have a challenge for you @greatscott. While shopping for solder paste, I noticed that the low-temp melt solders come in different temperature ranges, and I thought... this could be used to do double-sided PCBs, which are usually not possible for hobbyists at home. You would first do one layer with the higher temperature solder, allow it to cool, and then do the other side with a lower temperature solder. Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to try this yet, but I think it would be a fun project for your channel.

[@galaxya40s95]

That is really interesting idea. Sounds worth pursuing further.

[@MrZANE42]

(Edited: we did this with oven, not hot plate! Not sure you can get good enough heat transfer with plate method) Actually you don't need two solder pastes for this as the remelt temperature is much higher than the first melt temperature. Have done multiple double sided boards this way.(just do the side with the smallest (best weight to paste area )components first)

[@GrabThatPencil]

I'd think the hot plate would simply melt the PCB. How high of a temperature can the PCB even handle?

[@gutrali]

It seems the coil is the desired resistance only in the heating area, and the heating area is seperated from the control electronics area by the air-gap cut into the circuitboard. The whole assembly is lifted into the air slightly to allow cool air underneath, which surely keeps the electronics section below the solder melt temperature. The circuitboard itself is not going to melt anytime soon. They arent usually made with solder traces --- they are instead chemically etched. the temperature limit is gonna be really up-there and a function of the coatings and board substrate chosen.

[@GrabThatPencil]

@@gutrali I see, thanks for clarifying.

[@Geniusinventor]

Can we all take a moment to appreciate the work this man is doing to educate and entertain us. Man thank you very much 😃😃

[@a1nelson]

Your positivity in the lead for the $50. Best of luck. ;) And you’re certainly right - a lot of work must go into the _long_ series of quality videos.

[@bskull3232]

Please do not use SnBi solder. They create fairly unreliable joints, and as shown in your video, parts tend to shift before being soldered. I won't go through the detailed mechanism here, but just don't use them. Use SAC305 or at least SnPb whenever possible.

[@kjtc1995]

I've seen DIY hotplates made using a clothes iron as well. I would love to see a video converting an iron into a hotplate. Cheers!

[@ollie-d]

This is what I was thinking about. I’ve seen youtubers use irons and they seem great and the surface is much larger than the buy product in this video

[@tiiiooooooo]

@@ollie-d yes, just add control circuit and relay, ive been do this

[@DrakeOola]

Yeah idk why everyone gets fancy with it... Just buy an old iron for like 3 bucks at a thrift store, most of them already have temp sensors built in and of course their own power supply, all you need is a relay and an Arduino. Better for the environment, cheaper, and way more robust and reliable...

[@deadbird99]

You should definitely check Electronoob's reflow hot plate. To me it's the best DIY option and is really cheap: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWjFnY2fnMaUl6M

[@raidmax215]

I like trains.

[@ThePiraguista]

You should add insulation in the other side of the pcb, as its done in many 3d printer beds, to get quicker heating and accurate readings

[@boblewis5558]

Do you mean cover the component side? Tricky as it is all too easy to dislodge SMD components when covering the board. If you mean between the bottom of the board and the hotplate ... That makes no sense!

[@aharkness5657]

@@boblewis5558 I think he means the underside of the hotplate/heater. That's what was (and is) done on the printer beds.

[@allcrafter3747]

Carl Bugeja has his KZbin channel basically dedicated to Hot plate soldering with PCBs and though he tried a lot it always failed.

[@gokux.]

Just a small tip. Upload the code to Arduino and remove the chip🤷

[@greatscottlab]

Haha also possible ;-)

[@dinithaw]

PRAY FOR PEOPLE IN UKRAINE 🇺🇦💓 LOVE FROM SRI LANKA 🇱🇰 #PEACEONEARTH 🌏

[@lucasmeyers8709]

Can we take a minute to appreciate the quality this man puts into each video. From the research to drawings to high quality video, these videos are amazing

[@sosexyimsexy1673]

*Only for fans over 18 years old* girl in perfect BODY G BUNNYGIRLSS.SITE ❤️ cup milk god & perfect erotic body constriction god Toro face transcendent beautiful sister like a famous model tricks I do not know Megan: "Hotter" Hopi: "Sweeter" Joonie: "Cooler" Yoongi: "Butter So with toy and his tricks, do not read it to him that he writes well mamon there are only to laugh for a while and not be sad and stressed because of the hard life that is lived today. Köz karaş: '' Taŋ kaldım '' Erinder: '' Sezimdüü '' Jılmayuu: '' Tattuuraak '' Dene: '' Muzdak '' Jizn, kak krasivaya melodiya, tolko pesni pereputalis. Aç köz arstan Bul ukmuştuuday ısık kün bolçu, jana arstan abdan açka bolgon. Uyunan çıgıp, tigi jer-jerdi izdedi. Al kiçinekey koyondu wins taba algan. Al bir az oylonboy koyondu karmadı. '' Bul koyon menin kursagımdı toyguza albayt '' dep oylodu arstan. Arstan koyondu öltüröyün dep jatkanda, bir kiyik tigi tarapka çurkadı. Arstan aç köz bolup kaldı. Kiçine koyondu emes, çoŋ kiyikti jegen jakşı dep oylodu. # 垃圾 They are one of the best concerts, you can not go but just seeing them from the screen, I know it was surprising 💗❤️💌💘

[@ImFromIowa]

No! We must admire the dedication and hours of editing to provide this level of quality video research & video sharpness/ High Def videos.

[@arnab_blue]

Stop these spam comments...

[@ImFromIowa]

@@arnab_blue as long as KZbin gets paid, “what spam comments” are what KZbin administrators say.

[@Thomas-vn9ep]

Carl Bugeja made another diy version too but the pcb wasn’t that durable, you should try to see if it’s going to last overtime. Maybe the buy version will last a lot longer and it would make sense just to buy one instead of making one that’s only going to last a few times.

[@archerbob6847]

Did you put solder paste over the entire PCB? Edit: Scratch that, I now understand you use a stencil. Could you make a hotplate with a thermoelectric peltier, as they can go up to 200 C and I think you said your solder reflows at 160 C. Does the MHP30 already use a peltier?

[@k.o.0]

My sons graphics card burnt a mosfet (plus fuse and regulator). I quickly learned, even at 450c hot air reflow station is no match to get anything off the PCB. Normal PCBs bubble at such heat but graphics cards can take way more (just like your aluminum LED board). I wonder, would this be a possibility for such removing? FYI it’s double sided for extra difficulty!!!

[@k.o.0]

@@maxhouseman3129 It a 1000 dollar graphics card, so I had nothing to loose trying. I held 450c (my max on hot air rework station) for 20 minutes. The chip did not budge, but it melted the top plastic but the metal pins were bound beyond anything I have ever seen. The board was completely unharmed nor any surrounding ICs. I understand why not a single electronics repair shop was willing to do this swap for me. Its not your typical clean board fresh install and the super small size of the IOR 3553 is already challenging enough considering all the contact points. Sadly this beast of a card is destined for the landfill.

[@vatterger]

If you don't have a hotplate yet, but you got a heat gun laying around: Just put one edge of the board in some kind of holder, like a vise or alligator clips and heat it from below. This has the same effect as a hotplate. I have soldered like this very often, no damage to the backside of any board yet and you can control the heat intuitively with your hands. Only downside is that the heating isn't as uniform as with the hotplate and large boards will warp a bit because of that. Largest one i have soldered this way was 100x70mm^2.

[@UNVIRUSLETALE]

there are cheap 220v aluminium heater plates that could be controlled by an mcu, ssr and thermistor/k type/pt100 or there's already pid controllers prebuilt, you could also use an old iron but it takes a lot more power (2kW+)

[@nEuDyYT]

I thought these kind of plates before just as a support helper, to bring it to a closer heat Temperatur and then use hotair or the soldering iron finally for easier assembly.. But I was also thinking of re-using a 3D printer heat build plate 🤔

[@bracco23]

most cheap 3d printers don't really go high enough. I used mine to loose the glue while opening a phone (great use), but cheap ones usually stop at like 100-110 C, which is not enough for resoldering. maybe spare parts for higher-end machines like the vorons or the e3d toolchanger might be better.

[@fiordhraoi1]

If only I had a hot plate to reflow the solder paste on this PCB-based hot plate. :D

[@greatscottlab]

I knew someone would comment this. But literally the first comment👍 Love it🤣

The component count is not that high, and it might also possible to do the reflow with a cheap heat gun. Though I'm also subscribed for a ready made product; I'm not that adventurous.

[@smithbrian6937]

11 days ago are you on Mars guys

[@ShahZahid]

it can be hand soldered or just use the pan and sand method, it works pretty well

[@fiordhraoi1]

@@ShahZahid The comment was meant to be tongue in cheek, there's definitely ways without a plate. 🙂

[@arshia.sasson]

I've handsoldered plenty of low profile connectors, and it's definitely a pain but doable with patience. I've been wanting to try hot plates, especially the ironing plate that is suggested. The only issue with hot plates is that you can't do both sides of the pcb, so you may have to tweak designs featuring a high/low density sides

[@mr_gerber]

Wrt hand soldering fine pitch - agreed! But as it was shown in the video, it's not surprising that it feels troublesome. I'd probably choose a soldering iron with a smaller tip, but at the very least a much thinner solder! The one seen in the video is way too thick to solder that pitch properly.

[@lilmatt1914]

i love the prospect of utilizing pcbs as heating elements. carl bugeja has done some great videos on not only pcb heating elements but pcb stators.

[@reddot8701]

I think buy doesn't win, 100$ for a small plate like that is quite expensive. DIY is a much better option, also you can improve the design by using an external heater that will support a lot of charge/discharge cycles. Over all thanks for the video, like Always super interesting 👌😁

[@davidjohnston4240]

I have the small plate and it's great when it works and doesn't occupy lots of bench space which I appreciate. If I had a big board full of 0402s I would be paying for manufacture, so it seems to be enough for my purposes. I'm not doing aluminium boards though where a bigger plate seems like the right thing.

[@oleurgast730]

Actually the project reminds me of the first heated bed develloped by Prusa for DIY 3d-printers. The same principle. As I tinker a lot with 3d-printers, I have a lot old controller boards - some years ago cheap printers from creality used soldered allegro drivers and 8 bit controllers, so one of the first upgrades was to swap the board. So I have some of these creality board, which are practicly an Arduino Mega with Mosfets, conectors for temp sensors, display etc. So I think it would be best just to adapt the software for the Arduino Mega and the I/O-Ports Creality (and others) use for bed-heating and just make a PCB for heating. With controller being seperated from the heating PCB, it is also possible to make it more easy to solder bigger PCBs aerea by area, if you use sinking screws for mounting the heating PCBs, as you can keep the controller out of the way. Also I always like to reuse old obsolete hardware instead of buying new one.

[@-_YuvrajSingh_-]

Can't we change the material of the heating plate for the pcb?? I think there might be materials that can withstand more heat for a shorter duration of time or maybe a moderate temperature for longer duration

[@rozwell69]

It's 2022 and we're still waiting for @GreatScott! to discover this magic substance called "flux"... It was rather painful to watch him solder that connect at 0:35 without it.

[@greatscottlab]

The solder I use comes with a flux resin core that handles this job.

[@rozwell69]

​@@greatscottlab That is the bare minimum, which usually isn't enough and doesn't really handle that job. You can see joints at 0:38 look bad, oxidized, especially these 4 bridged on the right. One can literally solder the entire connector with a single swoop without any shorts, but you need a proper amount of flux to do so. Here is a good example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6bMo6KNd9CXfLs Or check @LouisRossmann channel, maybe ask him about "proper amount" ;D

[@stan110]

for mp30 I recoment using a custom firmware like ironOS.

[@Nono-hk3is]

GreatScott, Electronoobs, and Carl Bugeja need to collaborate on a hot plate design.

[@rraygen]

Bumping this. A collab would be nice and make for a nice project

[@f1lab535]

Hello, can you please make a larger pcb heater and test its lifetime? Thank you

[@Purple431]

Nice!! I've been wanting to learn how to solder properly like a professional. In the past, I had little success with soldering so this is the video to watch if you want to learn how to solder like a pro :D (Well surface mount soldering)

[@greatscottlab]

You can do it!

[@cavemaneca]

These options seem great for low temperature solder paste, but what about for higher temperature lead-free solder? A lot of them require temperatures of over 220°C to properly reflow.

[@galaxya40s95]

.

[@ShahZahid]

these hotplates and reflow ovens are good an all but i just love to hand solder even the most tedious components just for the fun of it, ngl its kinda relaxing

[@fortheregm1249]

Its really is, and the majority of people here understand that. But every now and then you come across an aluminum PCB that needs a ground plain soldered. And god forbid if its a small component. Its basically Impossible to hand solder a 0603 on some PCBs.

[@GiovanniIgorCesarotto]

true, until you get to QFN packages or similar xD

[@greatscottlab]

No shame to hand soldering. I love to do that too from time to time.

[@williamhazelwood8288]

Hot plate soldering is really good for not burning plastic latch type PCB connectors. Also interested on the cycle life of aluminum substrate PCB's vs conventional FR4.

[@alphaprot2518]

Just as an advice to proper usage of hot air soldering stations: make sure you keep the nozzle at the same height, but keep it moving (e.g. circular). This way your components will encounter less thermal stress compared to keeping it static at one point.

[@RestoreTechnique]

Very nice video. That "Buy" one was so tiny though 😮

[@JeSuisNerd]

I've only used JLCPCB once so far, but found out about them from their sponsorship of a ton of DIY electronics youtubers like you. And man, I was *impressed* I needed a little ~1.5x2.5 cm board for some LED lamps I was making. Because of the way they charge, I was able to tile together 50 of them, get it in red just for fun, shipped like 2 days later, for EIGHT DOLLARS TOTAL. And!! There was an issue with the first files I uploaded, I mistakenly left a trace going across a drilled hole that would have made it useless. They sent me an email with screenshots of the circuit and a little indication where I had made a blunder, so I could upload the corrected file. Absolutely will be going back for my next project.

[@BRUXXUS]

I have to agree! I'm still fairly new to the world of PCB design and assembly, but I've got a few board from JLC and been super happy. This year I started a company which depends on custom PCB hardware, which I designed and had assembled by JLC and they've been fantastic. Something really magical about seeing your design on the screen, then holding that finished product in your hand like a week later. :)

[@piratsik7691]

I've been using an electric skillet. It's big, heats up quickly and does a good job overall. There's no reflow curve control or anything so it's not ideal but it's cheap and practical.

[@ranaharsh365]

Instead of doing heat soldering, make a project that uses ultrasonic sound to solder. Make it a handy tool like SMD testing multimeter. Every like will be appreciated, I have a project ready in my PC. But can't afford even 2$ + shipping or chemicals to make etched PCB😌

[@johntoe6127]

Here in America, we have an antique electrical device called a 'clothes iron'. These were used in the old days for removing wrinkles from clothing (back when people cared about such trivia). It consists of a temperature controlled heated stainless steel plate about 4 x 10 inches. Perfect for reflowing solder.

[@nickgur7133]

No shit bro

[@safetyinstructor]

Every tool is a hammer but hammers are specialized tools. Your iron is a tool but not a hammer.

[@electronique_et_creation]

Very interesting as a project, thank you for the video 👍

[@viniciusnoyoutube]

A good addition to the design would be make in two parts separated. One part only the high current inputs and the hot plate for easy changing when the hot plate wear. Other part would be nice if vou have the holes for using a Arduino and the place for the micro-controller, this part connect to the other through jumper cable. You can have different sizes of hot plates too :)

[@MiguelSilvaFX]

you can install a a thin aluminium piece on top of the hot plate . say 2mm / 3mm to avoid wear of the hot plate. Great job! btw, where can i find the schematic ? (i only found the PCB layout )

[@mornmorn8425]

For 60€ you get a used 3d printer with more than 200x200 square hotplate with aluminum extrusions, very usefull to build a reflow plate or oven. Control board included. Some you can control over usb directly or use wifi. All have a screen. You can modify marlin or klipper to use it in any possible configuration. Very usefull. I just use klipper and an old mcu with debian which was lying around. Perhaps someone wants to take some snippets from marlin and creates a standalone firmware than its a quite professional bit kit. 230 degrees celsius is possible with most hotbeds for some seconda so you could even solder leadfree or use a hot air gun for the rest 50 degree. nice for double sided pcbs...

[@strangejmaster]

Awesome, I love the Diy or Buy series!

[@greatscottlab]

More to come! ;-)

[@raxathor]

Carl Bujega, Electronoobs also have Hot Plate Projects, I feel the Small Commercial Hot Plate is too expensive when you can kinda make you're own.

[@felipemakara5067]

If the temps envolved are so "low", another option to build a bigger heating area is to use a 3D printer bed heating PCB. They usually are 22x22cm, but there are bigger options. This would also solve another previous comment about separating the PCB from the heater

[@bbowling4979]

I was wondering about this. I typically don't drive my printer build plate above 100C. I wonder if it could get to the 160C needed here.

[@felipemakara5067]

@@bbowling4979 With enough power and thermal insulation, anything can be done (including burning the electrical insulation :P), but unless you can "pump a few more volts" from your printer's power supply, I agree that would be pretty hard to reach.

[@FoxMccloud42]

Nice project. But un my case I would be using a sollid state relay and 230v 300w heatplates, because I have two of these lying around.

[@Azraelfromgamefax]

I have a really small design suggestion for the DIY version: If you remove as much of the border as possible on two or even three sides, it would be possible to place 2, 4 or even more next to each other, creating a bigger platform. Maybe a niche use-case, but you can see how expensive the large reflow surfaces can get. Actually, that ties in with Collin Bardini's comment about making the control circuitry separate.

[@simplemechanics246]

That tiny one was complete money waste. By same money you can get the professional one from china and much bigger. This time sorry, DIY sucks. Result was terrible

[@erincooper1132]

I couldn't justify the cost for the MHP-30, but these DIY options look really good! Thanks for the useful info and great video as usual :)

[@tomat228]

One option would just use a smal full arduino and a shield instead of waiting for just the "ATmega328p" to come back to stock, its alot bolkier but easier to get hands on, or is that a bad option?

[@marsgizmo]

great project! 👏😎

[@timsonsuperman]

Who dafuq are you? 😊

[@mjmeans7983]

I've used a kitchen electric ~22" griddle for about 50 USD and a thin sheet of aluminum as an additional heat spreader when woring with large boards. I check the temperature with an IR non-contact thermometer. Works great.

[@RocRizzo]

Very good video. As usual, quite informative. I would like to try to build this one.

[@DumahBrazorf]

I don't understand. You can buy hot plates as simple aluminium plates with ptc heater stuck underneath for few bucks. I expected you to got one and control it with arduino, a temperature probe and some mosfets.

[@robertneumann9352]

Perfect timing as always! I looked up some DIY HotPlate projects with old Irons. Maybe i can use the code and transfer it to my project. Also Carl Bugeja would be interested in Chris‘s project. 😉

[@mollago]

I still prefer the stovetop frying pan method. Gets the job done and as a bonus the PCB will be bacon scented.

[@harkrits.nagpal6505]

I had created a similar project a couple semesters ago for my industrial instrumentation and control course. However, I used an old broken portable iron and a ss relay along with the Arduino and OLED display. It worked great for soldering PCBs and also used pid control. Turned out so good that my teacher had me make 2 more for the lab to use instead of the commercial ones with full sized irons 🙂🙂. So I greatly recommend using that for the heating surface and the rest of the pcb heater as control. Only problem is that since mains electricity is involved, only experienced people should try it 🙏

[@joysticksalami1892]

9:03 Isn't the bootloader already burned since the ATmega is from an Arduino? So this step is not necesarry and the sketch could be also written through the Arduino.

[@akhurash]

Interesting video. I watched couple of videos of PCB based hot plate and this one looks promising as a product. A slight disadvantage is you will need a lower melting point solder but shouldn’t be an issue for hobby projects. Didn’t know JLC started offering 3D printing. Will have to give it a try next time I order PCB’s from them.

[@Bodenlanham]

The red wire said to the black wire "Why are you so sad?" The black wire replied "I've been grounded"

[@micultimy91]

I also recommend you using a halogen reflector above the PCB, also controlled by the temperature probe. Usually in the industry a pyrometer is used, but for the average DIYer a pyrometer is way too expensive to be purchased.

[@galaxya40s95]

I presume the reflector is for additional heating from the top side?

[@Pro_Swayamjit]

Is hot plate soldering any better than frying the PCB on sand with a pan? Just curious. If u are curious too then like this comment

[@Slimecraftgaming1]

​@greatscottlab sorry can you please update the aliexpress links they aren't working anymore. Thanks .

[@Chocoffee_battery]

Hey scott, why not make a hot plate using a recycled flat clothes iron next? The space depends of how big the iron is

[@hismastersvoice2729]

why you used COMIC SANS in "DIY"? this font triggers alot of us!

[@pacesteam8279]

Couldn't you build an induction heater hotplate? So that instead of resistive heating of the PCB you could instead use the space for a coil and then heat up iron sheatmetal with a small distance to the PCB below which could potentially fix the life span issues as you can cool the PCB from below the PCB aswell. This might also be an interesting project for you in the future.

[@galaxya40s95]

Won't induction be potentially dangerous to the parts? I mean it could induce some current in the circuit no?

[@tony_mfg7597]

I like this idea, I have an extra 3d printer motherboard and some aluminum frames that I could use to make a diy one, all I need now is a good heat plate setup and I'm good. This gives me a chance to use my old 8 bit ender controller board that hasn't been in use since I replaced it with skr e3

[@nathanproudfoot56]

If I win the discount code I'm going to build something crazy.... Guess what

[@superbrain3848]

i know a few people who used the heated bed on a 3D printer to reflow solder PCBs (they used high Temperature beds that can reach the needed temperatures) quite a intresting aproach i guess.

[@butterybread4162]

Maybe an aluminium PCB as the hotplate and the control circuitry as a regular board seperated by standoffs would work. The plate can be switched out (with different sizes for different boards?) and the control board is at less risk of heat damage.

[@sosexyimsexy1673]

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[@TecSanento]

I don't expect the DIY PCB hot plate to have any kind of reduced lifetime as lots of 3D printers have PCB hot plates as well and functions for thousands of hours without any problem

[@skyguardian18]

But in 3D printer use case, they rarely go beyond 100°C tho ...

[@TecSanento]

@@skyguardian18 but do you think it's a difference?

[@arshia.sasson]

Those are professionally designed, with the control electronics on a separate board, and usually as an aluminum-clad board to help with heat distribution

[@Rynstick]

Hey scott i would love to win this prize ive been very recently working on a 2 wheel robot with a kinect and trying to go from a breadboard to a true pcb which would finalize my project (university project)

[@EDISON_SCIENCE_CORNER]

You are great! you gave full creadits to the author... Nice video

[@greatscottlab]

Of course. He was the one who approached me.

[@colby7027]

omg the breath out and in is annoying! also why do you always retrace every letter you write

[@a1nelson]

Chris’s project is awesome. I was surprised to see a diode for input reverse polarity protection instead of a P-channel MOSFET, for this _relatively_ high power design. It makes it less robust and wastes power. I wonder why. Maybe there’s an obvious reason I’m missing. Given the beginner-friend;y source code, maybe this diode design is intended to make the electronics easier to understand for novices. Regardless, the project as a whole is great stuff.

[@a1nelson]

@@maxhouseman3129 OK. My experience has been different, for products that use >1A or so. I’m not sure if that comes from working with industrial electronics, or if it’s just pure (bad?) luck. In any case, there are often several ways to solve problems. Thanks for your response.

[@Morlev44]

A hotplate? I just use a pan on induction stove, lmao

[@kornshadow097]

The whole time I was just thinking... Why not just buy a ink bird pid controller, SS relay, 100k ntc type thermistor or maybe K type thermocouple (I prefer thermistor) built into a silicone heat pad... Done. Likely $50 build and you could make the work area as large as you want (with enough power). I did something similar to build my lab mantle.

[@OMGWTFBBQSHEEP]

Just thinking about this myself, absolutley an easier solution! And might be better, although that custom pcb was really neat as well:D

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

This is actually what I did with my old 3D printer heated bed :) I just wonder, are there certain temperatures and durations that should be avoided in order to not damage LED's and special components like capacitors?

[@galaxya40s95]

There definitely are limits. Although parts can withstand way more punishment when the circuit is not powered compared to when it is. You can sometimes find info in the part documentation. As a general rule, light preheating should be fine. (Around the max working temp of the part.) When using soldering iron, be as fast as reasonable. (The preheat helps with this a lot.) But, I'm not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt.

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

@@galaxya40s95 Yes, thanks a lot. I expected them to take less damage when hot but not powered. I use the heated bed not to solder but to help put heat into the objects I'm soldering on, so I only need a little more heat from the soldering iron.

[@Spencer-wc6ew]

I was thinking about this. When he showed the trace on the diy plate, I thought it looked just like the underside of my printer's heated bed

[@vladoportos]

MHP30 seems bit too expensive for such a small plate, and I mean it.. its microscopic .... look for second hand Proskit Hot Plate, I got mine for around 50Eur second had.. its 100x100mm (not huge but its enough) and works great.

[@Evergreen64]

Scott. What is the little microscope that you are using in this video?

[@gundula4874]

Nice DIY hotplate and board layout. Thanks for your test - its impressive to see how "easy" it is to create such a hotplate by your own. Another idea could be a sheet of aluminium with drilled in heating pipes from 3D Printers. As a solution in between I am using the ET-10 Heat Table, which I bought for around 40 bucks. It's heating area is 10x10 cm. Heating time is not the fastest but it's doing well. Thanks for your GreatJob! :)

[@CrazyLabs]

I made one with a heat bed 3D printer. Works very well.

[@dartred]

Maybe I can use an hair straightener... or Scott solution!

[@crazyedo9979]

Who remembers the old black metal plates from 80's kitchen stoves? One of these, a household dimmer and a barbecue thermometer and you can reflow whatever you want.😁

[@tafsirnahian669]

Another great project. ❤️ from Bangladesh

[@jeredek9901]

Just as i bought my own hot plate Your timing is always impeccable lmao

[@Demathatwatt]

Kleiner Tipp am Rande... Ne heiße Herdplatte funktioniert genauso gut ;)