TBK R-2201 for CPU socket replacement

[elisest]

I have some intel socket motherboards that require new sockets and I'm contemplating purchasing a TBK R-2201 to carry out the works. but I can find hardly any information about it especially reviews for the unit.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of this machine, it looks suitable for socket replacement but is it?? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

this is the website for it :

TBK220Intelligent Thermal Infrared Imager Analyzer BGA Rework Station

[stj]

i cant imagine replacing cpu sockets without something like a vapor-phase oven.
of course if you have nothing to lose then heating the board from the underside with a slow ramping profile may work.

[piernov]

You're not gonna replace a CPU socket or any large BGA with this. This is made for very small boards with small ICs (i.e., phones, as written in the description), not sure what's the point.
If you want a good success rate, you need a real BGA rework station with sufficient power, preferably 3-zone heating, and configurable profile. Bottom heater bed should be at least as large as the board you are working on. Optical alignment is a plus (may not be useful for sockets though).
Zhuomao has a selection of BGA rework station with varying feature set (and price, of course) which should be good. Honton also has several models, not sure how it compares.
I don't have a recommendation as I don't own one of these, too expensive.
I have a IR6500 and I can tell you that it is not suitable for this job at all. The cheap stuff never is.

[elisest]

Thanks for the replies, I'm currently now researching the Honton R690 and have asked Zhuomao for a quote on ZM-R7220a (looks expensive though!)

Piernov I have seen "Black Horse Repairs" on youtube having some success replacing Intel & AMD sockets using an ACHI IR6500, but he did need to apply some light modifications to get accurate temperatures and then he got some successful results.

[piernov]

A couple of successes shown on Youtube doesn't tell your the dozens of failures beforehand (and even after).

I've had to apply a few modifications to the bottom heater of the IR6500 for it to be somewhat usable. In the end I even got rid of the IR top heater, I just couldn't get it to do what I wanted, programming the PID controller was a nightmare and you can't have one profile fit them all with it, and if ever something didn't go quite right during the process you'd have to start all over again (instead of being able to raise the temp a little bit or go for a little longer). Instead I'm using a Quick 861DW with a BGA nozzle as a top heater, controlled manually, and while it's a pain too, I can get it to work. So in the end I'd be better off just using a standalone heating bed than the IR6500.
Generally the main issue I have is board deformation, because the bottom heater is way too small and hard to control. This is especially a problem with ATX boards as they are much larger than the heating element, and they can be heavy too. Heating the board causes the PCB substrate to be more flexible and expand.
In any case I haven't had success with socket replacement, I only tried and failed a handful of times. I haven't had many boards that needed rework on the socket, it's mainly large BGA ICs issues that I get.
With large BGAs, I've had successes but also a lot of failures, not everything can be attributed to the rework process though as getting good ICs can be a challenge. But let's say that the rework process goes decently well only half of the time. Sometimes the IC bends too (like with Intel mobile U CPUs).
I know I'm bad at this stuff and some people have a higher success rate (maybe they are more lucky…), but it's not just the operator at fault, the equipment is garbage too.

[harp]

"Generally the main issue I have is board deformation, because the bottom heater is way too small and hard to control".................. I see some system with rather small heating area... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BqmlVT5zYvQ ... it claim to can lift any common size bga. Regard deforming, I think that is from moisture inside pcb (even plastic absorb moist over time) and that large board must be low heat (say 100 C) threated a hours and hours ago before start bga soldering work.

[piernov]

Moisture in PCB and components causes popcorn to the substrate, that's another problem that can happen and that absolutely destroys the PCB or the component. I found that with a longer profile and always reballing to leaded solder (so lower maximum temperature) prior to soldering does a lot in preventing that from happening. Soldering leaded is always easier anyway. When desoldering of course you need higher temperature, but damaging the component is often not a problem (as you are replacing it), if you are desoldering a good component from a donor then you need to be very careful.
Otherwise yes baking can be a solution, especially for the components, and if high humidity is a problem where you live. For the PCBs it depends, if it contains liquid electrolytic capacitors, they will get damaged.

As for the video… yes, random older boards without a lot of thermal mass and with "small" ICs aren't necessarily a challenge to work with. Modern boards with many layers, huge ground/power planes, small weak pads and traces very close together, very large (sometimes not square) and very sensitive ICs with sometimes thousands of much smaller balls are a different piece of work.

[mon2]

Hey! We just bought one of these It is cool to remove small parts. Met the manufacturer at the HK trade fair in October. I can share a really good support contact if you are interested. We also have the mentioned Seamark BGA station (automatic) for rework. Have not yet attempted anything as large as the CPU devices.