A USB-controlled Solder Reflow Oven

[Joel] of [Helion Microsystems] is at it again with his USB controlled solder reflow oven.  You may remember him from his crazy twitter-enabled Ewok model. Although these two projects are quite different, they both use the HU-320 USB breakout board that he’s in the process of getting funding for via [Pozible], or Australian Kickstarter for Yanks.

The reflow oven works using a thermocouple-enabled RS-232 voltmeter to output the temperature to the HU-320 board. [Joel] has been nice enough to provide us with the C# code to interface with many multimeters if you want to implement a similar project.  Temperature is controlled with a mechanical relay for what would appear to be a poor man’s PID controller.

Sadly, Fluke meters don’t seem to be listed, but your place of work probably wants their meter back anyway!  For another toaster reflow oven implementation, check out this [HAD] article.  Be sure to check out the video after the break for a video of the setup! (heat treat engineers may find the “recipe” format humorous).


[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syUO3RcDsQw&w=470&h=315]

Comments

  1. Pup says:

    Are you still trolling us with that ‘ewok’? It’s a jawa, dammut. D:<

  2. Joel says:

    Sorry, no go on the fluke DMMs. I believe they use a more… shall we say, sophisticated protocol.

  3. Steve-O-Rama says:

    Not trying to rain on any parades, but haven’t a lot of guys here said they kinda gave up on the toaster oven controllers, and just kinda turned it on & off manually?

    Note that my memory isn’t the bestest around.

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