Infrared hair dryer from the cigarette lighter. Is it possible to make a soldering station yourself. Making an IR hair dryer from a car cigarette lighter

Solder boards and electronic circuits with an ordinary soldering iron is not very convenient and not always possible. In this regard, even a simple dusty station is a valuable tool. But the cost of finished products is quite high, and if the work is not carried out often, then it will not pay off soon.

There is a solution: do soldering station everyone who is engaged in programming microcontrollers can do it with their own hands. First you need to understand the principle of operation of the device and its main elements.

The reason that modern market able to offer a wide range soldering equipment is the fact that an ordinary household soldering iron has become a tool that can be bought at every corner. But it does not solder all modern devices.

With the help of a soldering station, which you can make yourself, it is possible to repair any electrical equipment, including such complex and high-precision as a computer motherboard.

Before proceeding with the design and begin to describe a home-made digital soldering mechanism, let's consider what a station can be and what types of soldering exist.

Stations can be conditionally classified as follows:

contact type;
contact type without the use of lead;
hot air type;
combined hot air type;
dismantling type;
infrared stations.

The simplest form is contact. Its structure is not much different from the usual soldering iron, however, contact equipment is devoid of many design flaws that soldering irons have.

Contact soldering

The main problem of the soldering iron is excessive heating of radio components, in particular transistors, diodes, thyristors. Because of high temperature, semiconductor elements begin to change their current-voltage characteristic and disrupt the flow electric current in the chain.

That is why it becomes impossible to regulate the temperature of the heating elements, in other words, the traditional soldering iron sooner or later stops "listening" - the temperature either grows indefinitely, or stops growing at all.

Thus, after 400 °C has been reached, soldering can only be safe due to the short-term tip-solder contact.

When starting to create a contact soldering station, or choosing one of the models that are already on the market, it should be understood that it must contain a power supply that includes galvanic isolation in its design. It is this “power-heater” mechanism that guarantees adequate regulation of the voltage and heating temperature. Most often, the most rational heating temperature is 250-350 ° C.

Contactless soldering

Non-contact (hot air) soldering stations are such installations that are great for repairs mobile phones, large and small household appliances. The power of such units is extremely high, they do an excellent job with both lead-containing and lead-free solders.

However, it should be remembered that such devices cannot be used for BGA-type microcircuits. Hot air, non-contact soldering is a symbiosis building hair dryer and a soldering iron, soldering with such equipment is very convenient and fast.

Hair dryer device

It is customary to use a soldering station in the form of a hair dryer in order to melt or soften a plastic product, thin metal or tin. It seems possible to supply high temperature air only after it passes through a highly heated coil. In order to create a soldering iron on your own, you will need to carefully familiarize yourself with its design.

Components of the soldering iron design:

heater (special case-tube);
vane fan or pump that supplies air flow;
handles, switch, temperature sensor.

Sometimes you can also use special nozzles that allow you to change the flow of the jet.

Control scheme

Consider circuit diagram control of the hair dryer, which is powered by a single source. This fact greatly simplifies the operation of the device.

The main element of this circuit is a parametric type stabilizer, which is assembled on a transistor VT1, zener diodes D5, D6, D7 and resistance R1. This device guarantees the stability of the soldering iron voltage when the source voltage may change due to air flow adjustments.

In order to change the fan speed, switch SA1 is used, which has two positions - 8V and 12V.

Zener diode D8 and fuse FU1 protect against extreme voltages. When the voltage rises to 15 volts, the diode opens and the fuse blows.

Let's figure out why in this design it is best to use a parametric stabilizer. Using alternating current, voltage peaks can reach limit values. This will destroy the microcircuit. An example is quite simple. At a voltage of 30 volts (alternating current), the peak will be:

final assembly

The assembly of a homemade soldering station is carried out in several stages. Gather first a heating element. It consists of 5 spirals and a ceramic insulating tube. The ceramic tube can be borrowed from the TV (the delay line contains just what you need).

Then the spiral of the heating element is wound. It is best to wind the future spiral with a drill.

One of the most complex design details is the heater housing. It is customary to collect it from a glass, a pipe and a washer.

Surprisingly, a glass with an outer diameter of 1.65 cm fit perfectly from an old lithium-ion battery. It is in such cases that the chemical filling is enclosed. Before disassembling the laptop battery, it should be completely discharged. For this, low-resistance power resistors are used.

A 1 liter soda bottle can be used as the body of a blow dryer. The bottle was chosen based on the size of the fan.

Infrared soldering station

Repairing complex circuits and motherboards (especially those with BGA components) will require infrared station. Chinese products are of very low quality, and good infrared installation is quite expensive. The solution is obvious: there is nothing difficult in assembling a soldering tool with your own hands.

When assembling such a soldering device, you can invest up to 10 thousand rubles in the budget. Despite the low cost, the station performed well during the repair work associated with the mounting of microcircuits.

Design description

The device consists of the following components:

control controller;
heating of the lower type;
top type heating.

The controller must be 2-channel type.

The first channel is connected to a thermocouple or platinum-type thermistor. The second should simply be connected to a pair. Both channels have automatic and manual modes. The first allows maintaining temperatures up to 255 degrees using feedback from a thermocouple or thermistor.

Manual mode allows adjustments within 99% ranges. The controller memory contains fourteen various types thermal profiles: seven lead-type profiles and seven lead-free solder profiles.

For lead-free solder maximum temperatures profiles start at 225°, and then every 5 to 250°.

In cases where the upper heating element simply cannot cope and heating cannot be provided, the controller element enters the “pause” mode and waits desired temperature. This allows the microcircuit to be adapted for heaters so weak that they are not able to follow thermal profiles.

The controllers are also used as soldering station temperature controllers, for example, if drying or baking is required. solder masks. Such devices are great for maintaining temperature.

The simplest installation from the cigarette lighter

The cigarette lighter, which is controlled by a 12 volt car battery, is capable of producing temperatures that allow soldering BGA controllers and various SMDs.

Many designers believe that such a station provides a heating ring (the so-called "ring"), which will repeat the projection of the heater. However, the test on paper showed absolutely uniform heating, without rings. This means that the refinement of the cigarette lighter makes sense.

During the test, it was seen that the color of the paper evenly colors the sheet from the center towards the edges. Clean infrared heating plus convection without any blowing - and the cigarette lighter turns into an excellent soldering device.

Soldering stations from the cigarette lighter, compared to soldering hot air guns, are quiet, do not give any jets and returns, soldering is calm. Ten volts of AC, which is supplied from a suitable transformer, is quite enough to remove a 100-socket processor from the motherboard at a distance of 1-1.5 cm.

The second contact of the spiral must be brought out into the housing tube and fixed with a high-temperature sealant. During construction, soldering with brass is required. It can be done with a gasoline burner, a strip of brass and borax. The distance at which soldering is carried out reaches a maximum of 1.5 cm. This design has proven itself very well.

If you come up with a handle, case and holder, and this is quite simple, given the cigarette lighter case, then this device will be many times better than regular soldering iron Chinese production.

Assembly kit

There are special kits for assembling soldering stations. One such kit proposes to assemble a digital station based on the Atmega 328P controller.

Parts list:

Atmega328p controller;
LCD with dimensions 16x2;
OU: LM358;
optical isolation: MOC3063;
mosfets IRFZ44N (2 pcs.);
triac: BT138;
stabilizer;
potentiometers 10 kOhm;
trimmer resistors 10 kOhm.

The kit also includes two LEDs, a 16 MHz resonator, SMD resistors and a 1 microfarad capacitor. Incomplete will be soldering work without switches, GX16 sockets 5 and 8 pins, a 24-volt switching power supply.

Schematic and PCB

Thus, with knowledge of the laws of radiophysics, making a soldering station with your own hands will not be difficult. Moreover, with the selection of high-quality components, excellent results can be achieved.

Soldering iron, contact station and others homemade appliances will serve for a very long time and, unlike Chinese counterparts, will work in that temperature regime which is needed.

I will remember the infantry and my native company
and you for what you gave me at smoke
Let's smoke comrade one by one
let's smoke my friend
(K. Shulzhenko)

What SMD components are advancing rapidly, no one has to convince anyone. Yes, and not just step on, but on the throat. I decided for myself a long time ago that it was time to quickly switch to surface mounting. It is both beautiful and compact, and even cheaper now. Microcircuits in DIP packages are more expensive than in planar ones. And many modern chips are not produced in DIP version at all. But they are very functional, and do not require a lot of "strapping". No sooner said than done. I read articles on the Internet and began to acquire a tool. Thin solders, liquid fluxes, thin tweezers, lenses, holders, etc. And of course a soldering station. There is no cheap aggregate. I decided to solder first with an ordinary small soldering iron, only the regulator made it simple. With a certain skill and straight hands, soldering is very good.

It turns out to be soldered well, but to solder it is quite the opposite. The shamanism begins. Threads, nozzles, irons, ovens, industrial hair dryers..... There are many ways. As they say: the need for inventions is cunning. At first, you put up with these inconveniences, cursing, then you get annoyed, then you swear and get angry (when you break the conclusions of the detail you need so much right now). I toiled, collected some money, and bought a soldering iron and a hairdryer from a Chinese soldering station, and assembled the control unit itself according to the scheme of a wonderful guy from Pskov. I solder, solder, enjoy the process. And then, somehow, a familiar radio amateur "focus" showed: he took the cigarette lighter, unscrewed the heating element, screwed the wires to it, connected it to the car battery, disassembled the USB flash drive, smeared it with liquid rosin, warmed it up with this cigarette lighter and removed a rather big multi-legged chip. And I am absolutely sure that he did not overheat it and did not burn it. Rosin after this process remained clean and transparent on the handkerchief, only darkened a little. And it starts to boil somewhere around 250 degrees. So, according to its condition, one can judge the degree of "vandalism" in relation to soldered parts. I got hooked on this "focus". This is what is called - cheap and cheerful. So I decided to experiment a little with the cigarette lighter. I took the circuit of the simplest PWM controller, a powerful field worker, and built a simple cheap device with a controlled outlet temperature. It turned out to be such a hybrid of a cigarette lighter-soldering iron.<<ПРИКУЯЛЬНИК>> damn. The results made me very happy. In my opinion, it is much more pleasant to work with him than with a hair dryer. Try it too. The cigarette lighter is easy to find, a handful of inexpensive parts, a little fun in the manufacturing process, and you will see how simple and convenient everything is. Here a small video on how I solder and solder the details.

SCHEME: And I tried several schemes. I started with a PWM board on a microcontroller. With a vision for the future. I planned to make a remote control using an IR thermometer and feedback with temperature maintenance working area. But that's all in the future. I also made a PWM regulator circuit common on the Internet on the NE555 (or domestic 1006VI1). But the PWM controller circuit on the UC3843 turned out to be the most successful of all. Here she is;

Why is it better? PWM duty cycle adjustment range from 0% to 100%. Briefly, the principle of operation: the sawtooth voltage generated in the microcircuit, the frequency of which is set by R1C1 through the Q1 repeater and the divider R3, is fed to the internal comparator, where it is compared with the constant voltage set by the divider R5 R6 R7. As a result, a PWM signal is formed with a constant frequency and a filling that depends on the rotation angle R6. Since the microcircuit is designed to work in power supplies with powerful field-effect transistors, additional matching circuits (so-called drivers) are not required. The current through the field effect transistor in the open state is about 8A. Open channel resistance 18mOm. Therefore, in static mode, the power dissipated by the transistor is 150mW. Miser. But since the circuit still works in dynamics, it dissipates a little more. A transistor without a heatsink is noticeably warm to the touch.
This version of the circuit requires a little adjustment. The tuning resistor R3 is set to such a position that p resistor R6 to provide the entire range of PWM control. I performed this procedure using an oscilloscope. Who does not have an oscilloscope, try replacing the trimmer with fixed resistors, as shown in the diagram in the rectangle. Holes for this case are provided in the board. When using elements with the values \u200b\u200bspecified in the diagram, this should ensure normal work. Well, more about the "values". When using elements with the ratings indicated in the diagram, the PWM frequency is in the audible range. Something around 3kHz. Because of this, the circuit "sounds" under certain modes. By reducing the capacitance C1, you can bring the frequency out of hearing, but at the same time, the heating of the power field increases. Not to critical values, but still a radiator is required. Or vice versa, increase the capacitance, and make it work at frequencies below 20 Hz. Need to try.

And this is the second version of the circuit on the timer 1006VI1. Or according to imported NE555.

I called the second circuit less successful because the PWM filling adjustment range is from 10% to ~ 95%, and not only the duty cycle, but also a little frequency depends on the position of the R1 engine. work is not reflected. But it is assembled on inexpensive common parts, and does not require adjustments and settings. starts working immediately, and as predicted. The operation of such a scheme is described on the Internet many times. But in short, then: the saw is formed on the capacitor C1 by charging and discharging circuits. Charging circuit R2,D1, left arm R1, discharge circuit right arm R1,D2, Discharge input. The timer monitors the voltage on the capacitor C1, which removes from the output THRESH (THRESHOLD - threshold). When it exceeds the 2/3 VCC threshold, the internal trigger switches to discharge and the capacitor discharges. And when the voltage on it drops below 1/3 VCC, the discharge will stop and the charge of the capacitor C1 will begin. By turning R1, we change the charge and discharge time, and therefore change the duty cycle of the PWM. The scheme has been repeatedly painted on the Internet, and therefore I have not focused much attention on it. Transistors T1 and T2 are a kind of<драйвер полевика>. They provide a short switching time of the field-effect transistor and, consequently, its low heating.

Now about how to make the "radiating" head itself.

The soldering process itself takes from 2 to 6 minutes. This is if we work with a conventional two-sided board. I did not try to work with multilayer ones, there was no need. I think the time will be a bit longer. Try it yourself. Immediately, I simply screwed the heating element of the cigarette lighter with a screw to the fiberglass, I thought that it would withstand. But it was not there. After a short time, everything stink, turned black, and a black liquid began to stand out, probably resins from fiberglass. So the conclusion from this is the following: a "thermal barrier" is needed. As such, I successfully used a soft steel wire twisted into a spring, with a diameter of about 1-1.5 mm. Such a house was lying around. I think that the variations with the "thermal barrier" can be varied. Who has enough imagination. The only thing I do not recommend is using copper wire. It has a high thermal conductivity and oxidizes quickly. The designs of cigarette lighters are very diverse, so you need to figure out how to attach them to the device yourself, based on the materials you have. This is either a bolt with a nut, or a clamp, or another crimp. Everything is too small for welding, too hot for soldering.

The resistance of the cigarette lighter coil is about 1.8 ohms. And if someone uses ingenuity, ceramics (or maybe even just baked clay), hot melt glue and nichrome with such resistance, he will be able to make a different emitter that will be more suitable for his tasks. The usual cigarette lighter successfully copes with small things and small planar cases. More than enough for the needs of the "average" radio amateur. I soldered and soldered an ATmega 16AU in a TQFP44 package without difficulty. I think TQFP64 will also pull. The current flowing through the cigarette lighter is 8A. This imposes certain requirements on the power supply and wires. If you use a transformer, then its power must be at least 100W and secondary winding should provide a current of 8A. The device is powered by constant voltage. Therefore, for transformer power, it is necessary to use a rectifier consisting of a diode bridge and a capacitor with a capacity of 5,000 - 10,000 microfarads. During operation, the diode bridge KVRS3510 noticeably heats up, even with an attached aluminum radiator. Observe polarity when connecting. If the amount of work is small and is required infrequently, it can be used as a feeder car battery. I'm also going to experiment with electronic transformer for powering halogen lamps. But it also requires a bridge rectifier with Schottky diodes and a capacitor. Once again, I remind you of polarity. There are no protections, and in case of errors, the microcircuits quickly emit "fairy smoke" and become silent forever.

The desoldering-sealing process itself is simple: we smear with flux, heat, remove (well, or set). Everything looks great in the video. And about the nuances in the process, I will say the following: do not spare rosin. This both speeds up and facilitates the process. Rosin begins to boil at 250 degrees. Try to avoid its abundant boiling and "smoking". At first I controlled the temperature of the board using a thermocouple and a tester, but I won’t say that it is convenient and effective. Just watch the soldered part. You will definitely see when the solder starts to melt. When soldering or soldering, cover "delicate" microcircuits with a small piece of fiberglass the size of a case. There is an opinion that the part of the visible spectrum of infrared radiation is actively absorbed by the black case of the microcircuit, and warms it up more. Close if necessary aluminum foil that part of the board that is undesirable to heat. The device is very compact. And it is quite convenient to use it, holding it in your hand, and directing the radiation to the desired point. Or fixing it on some kind of stand. The photo above is an example of how I use the device. Do not leave the device in full power mode for a long time.

The idea of using a cigarette lighter as a heater for an IR station is not mine, it was first brought up at easyelectronics, then it was cast in granite by "Radiocat", where there was an excellent article on the topic. What is especially good, "included" with the prikuyalnik from the "Radio Cat" was a good PWM-regulator circuit on the UC3843 with a minimum of parts. Google knows that there is a prikuyalnik and gives out "Radio Cat" as the first link.

Undertook to implement.

Auto Parts:

Do you have a cigarette lighter head?

Here, assembled...

How about a separate head?

Cartridge? And for what car?

For any, not for me for a car

Eeeee .... well, for example, 106 rubles
- I take!

The heart of the cigarette lighter is the cigarette lighter.

Its power is about 120 watts or a little more. After exfoliation unnecessary details- glasses, springs, decor - in the hands there is a cylindrical horseradish with a heater at the end. The heater shell has one outlet, the upper aluminum tube - the second.

A piece of tape with holes is put on the shell and tightened with an M2 screw - this is one current lead. The second is a horizontal "stick" of a pair of fiberglass strips - at the same time a holder for a soldering iron, a current lead, and a holder for a power adjustment resistor. The heater is compressed with four M3 screws.

Special thanks to my colleague Sasha for two very important details: a tripod from something, with a heavy base and a firmly driven vertical pin, and a plastic clamp. These two parts were made for each other, and their combination allows you to firmly hold the heater with all related parts on a tripod, while at the same time allowing movement along the vertical and horizontal axes, that is, adjusting the heat spot and the heating intensity of the board.

The electronic regulator is assembled on a KA3843B and an IRFZ44n transistor - all according to the canon. The transistor is flanged to the current lead and thus the drain is connected to the cigarette lighter, to which a constant "plus" is already connected.

The board did not immediately work, as it turned out, one of the breadboard patches (3 legs) was separated from the neighboring ones, but I overlooked it. As soon as I restored this place, everything worked. The trimmer sets the heating control width. During operation, a squeak is heard, which is not surprising, because the pulse frequency is about 3 kHz. But the sound is well defined heating.

The handle of the variable resistor is the same cigarette lighter, its plastic holder with a slightly drilled mounting hole.

I tried to solder, the conclusion is this: you need to adapt. Massive boards take a long time to warm up, but I removed all sorts of soics and QFNs. Soldering is also ok, I smeared the soldering points with flux, put it under the heater and the part instantly jumps into place.

I will remember the infantry and my native company
and you for what you gave me at smoke
Let's smoke comrade one by one
let's smoke my friend
(K. Shulzhenko)

The fact that SMD components are rapidly advancing no one has to be convinced. Yes, and not just step on, but on the throat. I decided for myself a long time ago that it was time to quickly switch to surface mounting. It is both beautiful and compact, and even cheaper now. Microcircuits in DIP packages are more expensive than in planar ones. And many modern chips are not produced in DIP version at all. But they are very functional, and do not require a lot of "strapping". No sooner said than done. I read articles on the Internet and began to acquire a tool. Thin solders, liquid fluxes, thin tweezers, lenses, holders, etc. And of course a soldering station. There is no cheap aggregate. I decided to solder first with an ordinary small soldering iron, only the regulator made it simple. With a certain skill and straight hands, soldering is very good.

It turns out to be soldered well, but to solder it is quite the opposite. The shamanism begins. Threads, nozzles, irons, ovens, industrial hair dryers ..... There are many ways. As they say: the need for inventions is cunning. At first, you put up with these inconveniences, cursing, then you get annoyed, then you swear and get angry (when you break the conclusions of the detail you need so much right now). I toiled, collected some money, and bought a soldering iron and a hairdryer from a Chinese soldering station, and assembled the control unit itself according to the scheme of a wonderful guy from Pskov. I solder, solder, enjoy the process. And then, somehow, a familiar radio amateur "focus" showed: he took the cigarette lighter, unscrewed the heating element, screwed the wires to it, connected it to the car battery, disassembled the USB flash drive, smeared it with liquid rosin, warmed it up with this cigarette lighter and removed a rather big multi-legged chip. And I am absolutely sure that he did not overheat it and did not burn it. Rosin after this process remained clean and transparent on the handkerchief, only darkened a little. And it starts to boil somewhere around 250 degrees. So, according to its condition, one can judge the degree of "vandalism" in relation to soldered parts. I got hooked on this "focus". This is what is called - cheap and cheerful. So I decided to experiment a little with the cigarette lighter. I took the circuit of the simplest PWM controller, a powerful field worker, and built a simple cheap device with a controlled outlet temperature. It turned out to be such a hybrid of a cigarette lighter-soldering iron.<<ПРИКУЯЛЬНИК>> damn. The results made me very happy. In my opinion, it is much more pleasant to work with him than with a hair dryer. Try it too. The cigarette lighter is easy to find, a handful of inexpensive parts, a little fun in the manufacturing process, and you will see how simple and convenient everything is. Here a small video on how I solder and solder the details.

SCHEME: And I tried several schemes. I started with a PWM board on a microcontroller. With a vision for the future. I planned to make remote control using an IR thermometer and feedback to maintain the temperature in the working area. But that's all in the future. I also made a PWM regulator circuit common on the Internet on the NE555 (or domestic 1006VI1). But the PWM controller circuit on the UC3843 turned out to be the most successful of all. Here she is;

Why is it better? PWM duty cycle adjustment range from 0% to 100%. Briefly, the principle of operation: the sawtooth voltage generated in the microcircuit, the frequency of which is set by R1C1 through the Q1 repeater and the divider R3, is fed to the internal comparator, where it is compared with the constant voltage set by the divider R5 R6 R7. As a result, a PWM signal is formed with a constant frequency and a filling that depends on the rotation angle R6. Since the microcircuit is designed to work in power supplies with powerful field-effect transistors, additional matching circuits (so-called drivers) are not required. The current through the field effect transistor in the open state is about 8A. Open channel resistance 18mOm. Therefore, in static mode, the power dissipated by the transistor is 150mW. Miser. But since the circuit still works in dynamics, it dissipates a little more. A transistor without a heatsink is noticeably warm to the touch.
This version of the circuit requires a little adjustment. The tuning resistor R3 is set to such a position that p resistor R6 to provide the entire range of PWM control. I performed this procedure using an oscilloscope. Who does not have an oscilloscope, try replacing the trimmer with fixed resistors, as shown in the diagram in the rectangle. Holes for this case are provided in the board. When using elements with the ratings indicated in the diagram, this should ensure normal operation. Well, more about the "values". When using elements with the ratings indicated in the diagram, the PWM frequency is in the audible range. Something around 3kHz. Because of this, the circuit "sounds" under certain modes. By reducing the capacitance C1, you can bring the frequency out of hearing, but at the same time, the heating of the power field increases. Not to critical values, but still a radiator is required. Or vice versa, increase the capacitance, and make it work at frequencies below 20 Hz. Need to try.

And this is the second version of the circuit on the timer 1006VI1. Or according to imported NE555.

Now about how to make the "radiating" head itself.

The resistance of the cigarette lighter coil is about 1.8 ohms. And if someone uses ingenuity, ceramics (or maybe even just baked clay), hot melt glue and nichrome with such resistance, he will be able to make a different emitter that will be more suitable for his tasks. The usual cigarette lighter successfully copes with small things and small planar cases. More than enough for the needs of the "average" radio amateur. I soldered and soldered an ATmega 16AU in a TQFP44 package without difficulty. I think TQFP64 will also pull. The current flowing through the cigarette lighter is 8A. This imposes certain requirements on the power supply and wires. If a transformer is used, then its power must be at least 100W and the secondary winding must provide a current of 8A. The device is powered by constant voltage. Therefore, for transformer power, it is necessary to use a rectifier consisting of a diode bridge and a capacitor with a capacity of 5,000 - 10,000 microfarads. During operation, the KVRS3510 diode bridge heats up noticeably, even with an attached aluminum heatsink. Observe polarity when connecting. If the amount of work is small and infrequently required, you can use a car battery as a feeder. I'm also going to experiment with an electronic transformer to power halogen lights. But it also requires a bridge rectifier with Schottky diodes and a capacitor. Once again, I remind you of polarity. There are no protections, and in case of errors, the microcircuits quickly emit "fairy smoke" and become silent forever.

The desoldering-sealing process itself is simple: we smear with flux, heat, remove (well, or set). Everything looks great in the video. And about the nuances in the process, I will say the following: do not spare rosin. This both speeds up and facilitates the process. Rosin begins to boil at 250 degrees. Try to avoid its abundant boiling and "smoking". At first I controlled the temperature of the board using a thermocouple and a tester, but I won’t say that it is convenient and effective. Just watch the soldered part. You will definitely see when the solder starts to melt. When soldering or soldering, cover "delicate" microcircuits with a small piece of fiberglass the size of a case. There is an opinion that the part of the visible spectrum of infrared radiation is actively absorbed by the black case of the microcircuit, and warms it up more. If necessary, cover with aluminum foil that part of the board that you do not want to heat up. The device is very compact. And it is quite convenient to use it, holding it in your hand, and directing the radiation to the desired point. Or fixing it on some kind of stand. The photo above is an example of how I use the device. Do not leave the device in full power mode for a long time.