Toaster Oven Reflow

I know that toaster oven reflow machines are old hat. What's different about this one is that you will make it yourself as part of this class. Assuming that anyone wants to take the class, that is.

The board is designed as an Arduino shield for a Sparkfun Artemis Redboard. That keeps the class design work phase more manageable by not having to put down a processor and related parts.

Of course, I needed to make a proof-of-concept prototype for the class or else things could get embarrassing pretty quickly. To make this design a bit more interesting, I added one of those cheap Chinese TFT LCD displays so that the controller could display its temperature profile in living color during the soldering process. I also added a couple of buttons so that the display and buttons could serve as the basis for a user interface for projects that did not necessarily require melting solder. Hardware reuse is great!

I decided that this board could be called the "Mullet Board" because like the hairstyle, it's "business up front, and party in the back!" Here is what the 1V0 prototype looks like as per the JLCPCB Gerber viewer:

I shouldn't have to tell you which is the front and back.

I like how the board layout turned out. The Redboard shield form factor provides a ton of space, so the layout was easy. That said, I just can't resist optimizing a layout so that it has minimal vias and nice-looking traces. Sometimes I have to slap myself and then just submit the design. You can always make 1 more change, but at some point you just need to commit.

OK, time to write some software while I wait for the boards to come back.