Air rework station with Arduino

[microitech]

Hi, I'm doing a rework station controlled with Arduino.
Using a MAX6675 I'm reading temperature from thermocouple, then my idea it's to put an IF on the loop, that check when temperature it's higher than set temperature and send signal to an optocoupler that control a TRIAC and cut the power until temperature go down.
This should work?

Thanks

[LarryD]

In its simplest form, YES.

You may want several sensors.

You may want to add hysteresis.

BTW, these are available and work well.

MHP30

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[anon35827816]

I've got the bottom one; works great for soldering SMD PCB's. Rework is also possible, but an air reflow soldering station is more convenient for that. For the $50 or so one of those costs, I wouldn't even bother Arduino-ing something together.

[missdrew]

Yes, that is how the 'real' hot air stations work, on a simple level. You would need some hysteresis to stop the pulsing that may take place if you have a hard threshold for on and off though. You may need to add current sensing for the coil, to stop run away burnout. Also, If you are powering the heater coil with DC, you could use a MOSFET rather than a TRIAC, making the overall design safer as only low voltage would be exposed outside of the control box.

[microitech]

Thanks everybody for answers, I had found online AC dimmer module for Arduino that use two optocoupler to also manage the AC sync. I think this solution would be more precise than just cut the current with a single optocoupler.