I’m slowly converting to surface mount components in my electronic tinkering. It makes things easier in so many ways, but soldering little things is hard! The humble toaster oven or hot plate helps, but only when paired with a reflow oven control system like the Rocket Scream Tiny Reflow Controller (v2).
I designed a 3D-printable adapter to mount the Tiny Reflow Controller in a standard 2-gang electrical box behind a “decora” wall plate. I have a hotplate and a toaster oven, so I wanted my controller to be external, but tidy. With this system I can plug either appliance into the onboard outlet and get soldering quickly and safely. Everything is self-contained.
WARNING: Lethal voltages ahead. You’ll need to deal with AC line voltage to make this useful. See reflow oven guides for wiring diagrams.
Materials required:
- This 3D-printed adapter
- Short piece of clear 1.75mm filament (for light pipe)
- Tiny Reflow Controller v2
- 2-gang electrical box
- 2-gang square cover
- knockout connector for flexible cable
- Grounded AC cord
- Decora receptacle
- 2-gang Decora wall plate
- SSR (sized to handle the current draw of your toaster oven)
- Small 5v power supply that can fit in the electrical box
Notes and Caveats
- I mounted the SSR to the back of the electrical box.
- The reflow controller is intended to be USB powered, but a USB plug wouldn’t fit into the electrical box. Instead I traced the USB power tracks on the PCB and tacked my own wires onto convenient places. There’s a small 5v power adapter stuffed into the electrical box, so the controller is always on when the box is plugged-in.
- I removed the 4 OLED screws from the front of the Tiny Reflow Controller and inserted the board into the back of the mount, then replaced the screws so they hold the whole thing together. (The button caps go in between.)
- The thermocouple wire exits the front face at a 45d angle, hopefully keeping it out of the way.
- The controller LED is recessed quite a bit, so I provided a hole in the adapter for piece of 1.75 mm clear filament to act as a light pipe. Works great.
- OpenSCAD file (with comments) is included for your hacking pleasure. You may need to adjust things to make the dimensions perfect.