BGA Rework Station **READ THIS FIRST IF YOU HAVE RED RING**

[CVX]

Here is a link for where I bought my Thermocouples and digital thermometer from as most of them on e-bay are all from China or Hong Kong....this guy 'stocks' them..I got it 2 days after ordering and was recommended by FJK:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Scientific- ... 4837f72ada

If your going to use Thermocouples (which I would recommend), then you should also purchase the Aluminum tape and Kapton tape. The aluminum heat tape is used to hold the thermocouples in place on the board and the Kapton tape is used to secure the thermocouple wire to the board so it does not lay or fall down ontop of your preheater and burn up

Aluminum Tape (McMaster Carr #7631A71) ~$1.50 per roll
Kapton Tape (McMaster Carr #7648A714) ~ $7.50 per roll:
http://www.mcmaster.com/

I will post some pics within the next week or so showing the Thermocouples with before and after pics of the placement and use of the tape, etc. on an actual Mobo with an Aoyue 853A preheater and 968 Aoyue Reflow machine.

[ajdragon]

Hello again.
I finally found a place I could buy the Aoyue 8032A++ hot air gun.
It has cost me 100 GBP for the gun plus the 2 nozzles 3939 & 4141, including shipping.
I have been looking very hard for an electric griddle.

I went with Deary65's suggestion to buy an electric crepe maker from aldi or lidl, but they are sold out

Can someone please advise on a cheap way for preheating the PCB.
which is the cheapest equipment I could buy ( in the UK ).

Please help me out guys.
Thanks

Kind Regards
Ahsan

[Deary65]

Hello again.
I finally found a place I could buy the Aoyue 8032A++ hot air gun.
It has cost me 100 GBP for the gun plus the 2 nozzles 3939 & 4141, including shipping.
I have been looking very hard for an electric griddle.

I went with Deary65's suggestion to buy an electric crepe maker from aldi or lidl, but they are sold out

Can someone please advise on a cheap way for preheating the PCB.
which is the cheapest equipment I could buy ( in the UK ).

Please help me out guys.
Thanks

Kind Regards
Ahsan

I'd try another Lidl for that crepe maker as it is working really well. Apart from seriously burning my arm...
I looked at GoOutdoors for a griddle, but it's not big enough.
This is the problem I had but I walked into Lidl and came out lucky.

[ajdragon]

Hello again.
I finally found a place I could buy the Aoyue 8032A++ hot air gun.
It has cost me 100 GBP for the gun plus the 2 nozzles 3939 & 4141, including shipping.
I have been looking very hard for an electric griddle.

I went with Deary65's suggestion to buy an electric crepe maker from aldi or lidl, but they are sold out

Can someone please advise on a cheap way for preheating the PCB.
which is the cheapest equipment I could buy ( in the UK ).

Please help me out guys.
Thanks

Kind Regards
Ahsan

I'd try another Lidl for that crepe maker as it is working really well. Apart from seriously burning my arm...
I looked at GoOutdoors for a griddle, but it's not big enough.
This is the problem I had but I walked into Lidl and came out lucky.

Thanks for the reply I will try to find it wish me luck.

What should be my air flow settings.
My air gun Aoyue 8032A++ has setting from 15-99 ( not sure what that means,lol)
Plus is this air gun good enough, or should I return it and buy something else?

Is it really important to have a pre-heater, can I reflow without it?
Thanks again for all the help.

Regards
Ahsan

[Deary65]

You can reflow the BGA without a pre-heater but you run the risk of warping your board and causing other damage.
Put the airflow on something around 80. You can feel it over your hand to test anyway. As long as it's not hairdryer speed.

[TXbox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQeanpujmuM

I hope this gives everyone, that doesn't already know, an idea of what is going on when you are "reflowing"/"overheating" your GPU, CPU, etc., etc.

The music was stolen from Sadam's recovered vault in Desert Storm I, I think.

POINT BEING: "Reballing" is the term used here and can also be used in searches to better understand why your GPU so often has problems.

[gzetski]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQeanpujmuM

I hope this gives everyone, that doesn't already know, an idea of what is going on when you are "reflowing"/"overheating" your GPU, CPU, etc., etc.

The music was stolen from Sadam's recovered vault in Desert Storm I, I think.

POINT BEING: "Reballing" is the term used here and can also be used in searches to better understand why your GPU so often has problems.

You should buy me that $47,000 rework station, and I promise I will reball every xbox you send me for free.......

Overheating an xbox never really gets it near 230C as it red rings at about 105-110C. So no, nothing even close to what's in the video happens when you overheat.

As far as reballing, its only cost effective for a hobbyist, or in a country where an xbox console costs 6 months worth of salary.

[dkeruza]

Hi guys,
My first successful reball , here are some pictures:




Any question, don't hesitate to ask me!

[CVX]

What type of machine are you using for the reball / reflow when you put it back on the mobo

[dkeruza]

For Reballing I use a station like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-BGA-Reballing-r ... 27aa03f036

This chip is the second one I lifted right out of 6. Its very difficult to lift a chip that will be reusable, at least for me.

To put it back to the mainboard, I have a Aoyue 968, once I try I'll let you guy know how it works but I really don't trust the Aoyue 968 to solder it back as the heat comming out of the nozzle is not even.
I was thinking in buying the Achi Pro or the Achi 3000 but first I'll give it a try with the Aoyue.

Here are a couple of links of the Achi rework stations, let me know what you think.
Achi Pro
Achi 3000

@CVX: I had one of those thermometers you mentioned a couple of post above that I used, but as I said, you put the thermocouple in one side of the chip and it measure on temp, you switch it to the other side and you have 10º~15º difference.
I also tried centering the heating element like 20 times, and I never got even heat, I also replaced the heating element and no luck.
What I did was heat at lower temp for longer time until the chip moved and I lifted it. But I still think the chip is exposed to very high temperatures for more time than it supports.

Hope this help somebody and any suggestion will be very appreciated.

[CVX]

Appreciate the reply post and relating info. You are definitely correct in regard to the uneven temp's on the 968. I have straightened my heating element, but think I may indeed need to get a few more thermocouples so that I can get accurate readings from all 4 sides of the chip, as I am only taking it from one side and in the center under the mobo.

[gzetski]

Hi guys,
My first successful reball , here are some pictures:




Any question, don't hesitate to ask me!

Awesome work! I have that same station. Did you use balls or paste? This station is a nightmare to use with balls.....

Also, good luck on reattaching the thing, make your preheater do the bulk of the work. Take it up to like 195C on the preheater, and tape up your gpu with aluminum tape on top, and I really question the idea of using a 4141 nozzle to reattach. I think the wand in your hand method would prove more reliable as you can kind of try to get all areas of the chip hot enough.

Either way, post your results.

[gzetski]

@FJK
Think my brain child and your labor of love can be used for lifting chips???

@all
I could use some dead mobos (with gpu and cpu on them), If anyone wants to donate one or three, I would be happy to pay the shipping.

@mods
This is not a BST offer - its donating mobos to science - all results will be posted up here for the benefit of the community.

[WorldFormula]

@FJK
Think my brain child and your labor of love can be used for lifting chips???

@all
I could use some dead mobos (with gpu and cpu on them), If anyone wants to donate one or three, I would be happy to pay the shipping.

@mods
This is not a BST offer - its donating mobos to science - all results will be posted up here for the benefit of the community.

Yah, theres a clause in the rules that allows donations of anything. Buying and paying or trading is illegal.

[dkeruza]

Hi,
This is the video I watched to learn how to use the reball station:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOV97Yvy ... tube_gdata

the only difference is at the end, the guy in the video put the chip on top of a hot plate, instead I left the chip in the station after I removed the top part that holds the stencil and use my t-862a ir rework station.
My first attemp was with the aoyue 968 with the 4141 nozzle, but as the heat is not even (I think I mentioned that before, lol) in the 968, half of the chip, the balls didn't melt.
If somebody wanna try, use a very little flux on top of the chip as when the flux melts, it gets very liquid and the balls can move. I also had to re align some of the balls that where moving while I started to heat up the chip as they seem to move.

Hope this help.

Btw, did anybody looked at the achi rework station I mentioned and put a link in my previous post? Thanks