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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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)

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. 🙂

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

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.

GreatScott's videos basically taught me soldering and helped on so many DIY/student projects. Thanks for all the content over the years!

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

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.

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.

This looks incredible! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. I've been wanting a hot plate for such a long time, though i didn't like how massive they are built to be. I love the small compact design. Though, the heater board needs to be separate from the other electrical components. I would anticipate this board to need replacement every year or two, and a standalone drop in replacement would be a VERY nice addition to lower maintenance time/cost. I hope the developmer(s) are looking through all these comments, as there is great tips being shared!

Purchased the SolderReflowPlate PCB project as soon as it was available and it did not disappoint! About two weeks of use and testing without any issues!