Thermocouple Board Success (sort of)

[Gary Graham]

Sounds like I have about the same equipment. The RS soldering iron, is that the one that comes with an assortment of tips including an exacto knife and the tiny dentist pick shaped tip ? Thats the one I used... about the right size for each leg on that amp IC.

ahhh. Flux. I used flux core wire and probably cooked all the flux out of it trying to load the tip with a tiny bit of solder to make the connections.
It may be Ok...

I just cant tell at this point because my HM Mega chip is on the slow boat and due to arrive sometime in mid-August. I ordered another one from ebay that may be here next week.

There is one more soldering job I need to do - the jacks for the probes.
I want to use the thermocouple for my heat transfer tube and will not be controlling the pit with this probe.

Should I put the thermocouple on meat probe 1, 2 or 3 ?

 

[RalphTrimble]

Should I put the thermocouple on meat probe 1, 2 or 3 ?

In the Config for each probe you can select what type of probe it is to use, including a thermocouple, so if you don't want your thermocouple to control your pit you can use any food probe (1-3, NOT Probe 0 or "Pit Probe").

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Any chance of getting these boards with solder paste applied to the pads ?
If the solder paste was on these, anyone with tweezers, a magni-visor and a toaster oven (and really steady hands) could probably make one.

If they shipped with solder paste on the pads, they certainly wouldn't have any solder paste on them when they get to where they're going. It wipes right off if it isn't melted. "Reflow" is a bit misleading because it isn't actually re-flowing, it is primary flowing. You probably could get off the shelf solder to melt if you put it in a toaster oven but that's not going to produce a different result than what you've got if things are bridged. The magic of reflow (where solder comes together in just the right places) only happens if you have just the right amount of solder paste. It is pretty easy to bridge the thermocouple amp leads even with reflow if you put too much paste down. I found that braid is the best way to get rid of bridges, although I'm not great at it, it is almost foolproof if you work at it long enough.