BGA questions and possible equipment purchase

[Spork Schivago]

Hi guys, hope this is in the right section. I've been scouring the internet for some answers and I'm getting a little confused so I figured I'd just ask.

I want to purchase some equipment so I can remove some chips off of some boards and replace them or replace the solder. The boards I want to work on will be laptop / desktop, XBox 360 and Playstation 3 boards. I don't really want to go much higher than 1,500$ on the equipment. Now on to the questions.

First off, I've seen many video's on youtube on people using rework stations. There seems to be two types of machines, one uses hot air and one uses IR lighting. What's the best one to use?

Secondly, how exactly does the process work? My understanding is you remove the chip, remove the old solder then use a grid of one sort or another to put solder on the chip, heat up the solder till it melts, remove the grid, lay the chip on the board and heat it up. I was playing with an old 360 that I couldn't fix and used a heat gun to remove the chip and the little ICs on the GPU flew off from the air. Wouldn't I have the same problem if I got a hot air rework station?

How do you know the chip is lined up on the board correctly before you melt the solder? And also, can anyone suggest a good system for the money I have? If I need anything more than just the rework station, please let me know. Thanks.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: BGA questions and possible equipment purchase

Well, no one has answered yet. Is this the wrong place to ask this question in? Should I try starting a new thread in another section?

[sasser]

Re: BGA questions and possible equipment purchase

if u business purpose u need the good rework station, reballing station and some tools for rework. rework station some use ir heater and hot air heater just help u to get accurate tempreture when lift and place back BGA. your ask about lined up bga on board when place bga. just put the bga on pad then see when ball underneth melt slowly go on position .

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: BGA questions and possible equipment purchase

XBox and Playstation chips are huge in size, many older equipment does not have the power to unsolder those chips.
You should forget the budget limit and find out the latest system that can do the job.
Recently a local friend find and ordered the proper modern one, but I do not remember brand or model, all that I remember is that is using a team of heat heads, and at the bottom base and also has an head at the top.

[xboxhaxorz]

Re: BGA questions and possible equipment purchase

Working with large mainboards basically xbox ps3 and laptops you need a PROPER bga rework station. There are several options and sometime too many options. The chinese toss out rework machines as if it was candy. The most common are honton and achi.

You can also go this route http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MESE:IT

Then immediately upgrade heaters http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MESE:IT

This will give you a very decent machine. The problem with chinese machines is they put cheap parts in them, they are not terribly bad, if you get the base and change some parts. If you spend over $5000 then the quality is higher but less and you cant expect much as these machines were originally very expensive. I represent XModdz where we specialize in bga repair, since we got into the repair business we got the best machine possible. Take a look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDTrS7wDyNE and this give us extremely high success and best part is we dont feel shitty doing a clients work.

If i was repairing your laptop with a heatgun and griddle i would be bad personally. I know the repair may work but the problem will return.

To respond to you in simple terms view this http://xmoddz.com/hot-air-vs-ir

That will help you choose properly