A launched Kickstarter,
An Arduino-compatible smart outlet designed to instantly turn your toaster oven into a reflow soldering station.
Maybe someone has a $135 (+ shipping) use for one of these?
Just going through Kickstarter tech projects looking for what might be good.
Hi,
You have too much free time on your hands.
Tom.... 
Too much time and not enough money but to be frank, it's not all fun like that.
Don't get hurt, don't get sick, don't get old. I'm now into part 3 of that leaky-bucket list.
However.....
I LIKE a fair number of surface mount parts but only have an occasional observation into what it takes to mount them. My hands shake enough that plain soldering is a challenge, forget fine work so I don't even try SMT and have to look for what boards I can get. It's fun finding them when the price is right but it would be a lot more fun to make my own!
Knowing this, liking the Make, I saw what MIGHT be a good thing that could help someone do what I can't. And maybe some day I'll be all happy at some product made.
But at $135 for a toaster controller I can also see that some Makers just use their toaster/frying pan and their Mark I eyeballs and tend to get it right even on small production runs. Other made for reflow ovens I see run $180 and up may be more worth the monet but I don't know.
21 views, 1 reply. As a short survey, this gadget doesn't seem to rate well at all.
These days, Kickstarter projects seem to be based on what is made in the maker community, put a nice box around it and launch it as your own original idea.
There's tons of people who use toaster ovens as a reflow oven, now someone is trying to get some cash from it.
Nothing wrong with that but I would never back it.
I only back something (Sometimes) if it is a truly original idea and I see potential. This? Far from original and It feels too expensive as well.
They're not selling the toaster oven. They're selling a controller for a toaster oven.
The price seems pretty high to me too, but I don't know enough to say for sure.
I only paid $20-some for my Stahl temperature control soldering iron (/kid's toy?). The price was cut some because as shipped, they don't work! The repair was simple, the heater needs to be moved into contact with the tip.
My iron costs that, there are people here who've spent $50+ for better irons (to be sure) and feel they're well worth it, maybe the price of a real reflow oven is worth it and this less expensive home device is not?
Sparkfun used to carry one
I don't think it cost $135 when it was available. Look at the schematic, it's a pretty simple design
I don't even use a controller, just a J-K thermal probe and a multimeter.
Crank the heat on my old Sears Kenmore 4-element toaster oven, back it off & hold for 90 seconds ~125C, crank it up & hold for 90 seconds around 190-195C, then cool down.
@Crossroads
I hope your controller doesn't use interrupts: phone rings, bathroom call, supper time, . . .
Whatever they are, they can wait 5 minutes - this is a blocking reflow controller!
Actually it's two-person - MrsCrossroads runs the 90 second timer on the kitchen stove, and we both peer thru the toaster oven window to confirm the solder actually reflowed, typically in the last 5-10 seconds of the 2nd countdown.
we both peer thru . . .
Don't push your noses against the window 
.
Hey guys,
Julian here, co-founder of Reflowster. Thanks for all the feedback. We don't charge shipping on Reflowsters to destinations within the US, but I see now that that wasn't clear from our store. I've added a large banner indicating such.
We've discussed the price of Reflowster (my cofounder and I) a lot and we've found that given the cost to produce these, it seems that compared to the industry average, even the $135 mark was a little low to make Reflowster truly sustainable to manufacture. Fortunately, because we run a pretty tight ship around here (read: operate out of out of our garage), our operating costs are low and we're not in it for the money, so based on your feedback, we've dropped the price of Reflowster down to $110.
Regarding whether or not Reflowster is Kickstarter worthy, we certainly don't claim any credit for the idea of reflowing circuit boards in a toaster oven.. but when doing our research we found no products available that were simply plug-and-play. Most solutions out there require busting open your toaster oven and soldering into high-voltage wiring. We figured that there was a valid market for Reflowster for people who didn't want to hack apart a toaster oven themselves and didn't want to spend the $250 (cheapest we found) on a dedicated reflow oven.
Regardless of whether of not any of this changes your opinion on Reflowster, thank you for the feedback and happy reflowing!
Julian
Reflowster
Nobody remembers the ControLeo project?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1471240030/controleo-an-arduino-compatible-controller
I cloned it a while back on a solderboard for kicks:
CrossRoads:
I don't even use a controller, just a J-K thermal probe and a multimeter.
Crank the heat on my old Sears Kenmore 4-element toaster oven, back it off & hold for 90 seconds ~125C, crank it up & hold for 90 seconds around 190-195C, then cool down.
I'm pretty sure that those temps are within Peltier wafer range, KWIM?
Suppose you could target heat to spots on the board through metal shapes on a heat sink face, then crank up the wafer(s) to heat, reverse to cool?
You could be spending that time setting up the next board.
