Ly ir8500 station good or?

[myth77]

Long on my mind is idea weather or not to buy BGA station...The thing is i repair mostly laptop and some desktop motherboard as a hobby...I never worked on big chips with bga station..all i use is a heat gun and soldering iron..so if i find that maybe some smaller chip or mosfet or capacitor is fallen i try to fix it/replace it...but if i found it is gpu, cpu...i dont because obveusly i dont have that equipment.
So, in short now i have this opportunity to buy bga station from the title for really good price...
What bothers me is this station good for the starter? i know it is infrared station..and i read somewhere that problem is with these IR stations that they can easily fried new chips and even motherboards...and while searching on the internet i didnt find many videos of this station in action... Any recomendations? Anyone use it? ideas?

Thank you!

[momaka]

If it's just for hobby work... just get a gas burner instead and add Triac control to the fan on that heatgun. Those two with some practice will probably let you remove just about any BGA chip. A fellow Romanian member here even built his own BGA station with nothing more than a toaster for the bottom heater - and it worked brilliantly well.

[myth77]

hahaha i understand what you are saying..but i can get this station for a really good price...i believe it will not be a problem to sell it for the same price after...
Only thing i am asking is it good for the work? or i will just lose my nerve and destroy several ic chips because IR stations are not that good ! ?

[sam_sam_sam]

It would depend how well the temperature sensor controller works and where the temperature sensor is located how fast it respond to temperature change

[diif]

I have an IR station. No problems here using it, you won't get the control that the newer 3 zone hot air stations have.

[dicky96]

Originally Posted by myth77

hahaha i understand what you are saying..but i can get this station for a really good price...i believe it will not be a problem to sell it for the same price after...
Only thing i am asking is it good for the work? or i will just lose my nerve and destroy several ic chips because IR stations are not that good ! ?

I bought the LY G720 in November, which is 3 zone hot air semi-auto..... and I am still destroying more stuff than diif is with his IR station

I can say I am impressed with the build quality of the LY BGA stations if mine is anything to go by. I would say if you can get a good price and if you can afford it then why not buy it? As you already said the resale value would get your money back if you decide not to keep it.

Just be sure to have plenty of scrap boards to play with

[momaka]

Originally Posted by myth77

or i will just lose my nerve and destroy several ic chips because IR stations are not that good ! ?

I learned BGA on an IR station, and if anything, it's easier to use.

Both hot air and IR will take some practice and getting used to, but here are the main differences:

Unlike hot air, the nice thing about IR is that your thermocouples will show exactly the temperature of the board to where you put them. With hot air, not so much, because the air nozzle temperature always has to be higher than the temperature you are actually trying to heat the board (that's because air doesn't transfer all of its heat to the board when it exits from the nozzle.) This is one of the things that makes IR much easier to use.

However, the one thing that can make IR a little tricky is the fact that it may not have even heating. This can come from several things. One of them is, of course, the copper tracks layout of the board - and this actually will affect both IR and hot air stations. But the other item is that IR heating depends heavily on the surface you are heating. For example, a black non-glossy surface placed flat under the IR heater will absorb heat a lot more than a glossy light-colored or mirror-like surface. And on top of that, the quality of the IR heating element can also contribute to the uneven heating (so if you get an IR station, you may want to upgrade to better quality IR heaters.) Combine all of these, and you can get very uneven heating. Fortunately, this is nothing you can't go around with a few rounds of practice on some dead/for parts boards.

Like I mentioned, I learned on IR, and I think it's overall easier to learn on and work with. But once you master that, you'll probably find over time that hot air provides more consistent results and generally easier to get better quality control of your rework.

So my final thoughts: yes, if you can get an IR station for a very good price, then go for it.

[dicky96]

....And be prepared to break a lot of stuff learning how to use it

Practice
Practice
Practice
...
...

But you will get a great buzz when you start to do it right

[sam_sam_sam]

Originally Posted by momaka

And on top of that, the quality of the IR heating element can also contribute to the uneven heating (so if you get an IR station, you may want to upgrade to better quality IR heaters.)

Where do you find good quality IR heaters

[sam_sam_sam]

Originally Posted by dicky96

....And be prepared to break a lot of stuff learning how to use it

Practice
Practice
Practice
...
...

But you will get a great buzz when you start to do it right

This is true about most things that you want to learn about that you have never done before

[diif]

Originally Posted by sam_sam_sam

Where do you find good quality IR heaters

Elstein.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by diif

Elstein.

That's what I've been hearing all these years too. Are they really legit German IR heating elements? And that good? Or is it just a name someone invented for some "above-average" Chinese IR elements?

[diif]

Originally Posted by momaka

That's what I've been hearing all these years too. Are they really legit German IR heating elements? And that good? Or is it just a name someone invented for some "above-average" Chinese IR elements?

They are a legit German company http://www.elstein.com/en/
I fitted one of their 400W top elements before turning on my machine so can't comment on how much better it is than the generic Chinese ones however I didn't find any clones on Ali back when I bought it or since that look the same so I'm fairly confident they are proper and I'm still getting consistent results which is the main thing.