Heat probe for localizing defective devices?

An old soldering iron with 1N4006 and selection of droppers in power line and a calibration chart ? Also a small accurate localised thermometer probe can be just a 1N4148 and diode function of DVM, again calibrated with pan of heated water or whatever.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Thanks, but I'm looking for something a little more professional that's easy to use and reproducible temperature-wise. Something like you describe would be temperature dependant on thermal load - a larger device would cause the tip to become cooler and a smaller device hotter. I'd like to be able to apply a precise temperature to devices from a SOT-23 to a TO-220. I spent an hour or two doing some additional searching, and found this:

I've got a request in for pricing and availability, Hopefully it won't be much more than $500 or so...

What about somethng like this

Ron

Sorry I read the original post incorrectly

That only measures temperature. I've already got plenty of instruments that do that. I'm trying do deliver controlled heat to a device, not just measure it.

Thanks though.

NIGHT VISION GOGGLES ???

Supposed to see the heat difference between bkgrnd and a human body ! Go talk to the local fire department ?

Yukio YANO

Theres one on Ebay # 380069209309 $557

A similar function, obviously less controlled, but somewhat cheaper would be to use a SMD hot air rework station with a fine outlet, eg.

There is a tip available 2.5mm

You may be able to extend the small outlet for a cooler airflow and recalibrate the readout temp to correspond to the blow temp.

I have a similar unit which I have, as a last resort, used to fault find temp sensitive faults, but I didn't need to know the air temp precisely to generate the fault condition.

JC

Just use your soldering iron - carefully!

When it fails, troubleshoot and replace the bad part? Search for 2 hours on the Internet? Did you land a big contract to evaluate the thermal design of the UUT?

Old trick with freeze spray, hold can upside down and press just hard enough to develop one drop on the end of the pipette. Takes a little practice but you can control it well.

I use a soldering iron to heat components like capacitors. Usually just a touch in the middle of a PC mount style or on the solder side. These are both techniques that need a little practice but can be valuable once you get the hang of it.

Meat Plow wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.alt.net:

spray coolant onto Q-tip swab,press swab against suspect component. repeat as needed.

If a soldering iron and a can of freezer spray is not "professional" enough, there is a machine called a thermostream, but it is about 3ft x 2ft x 4ft in size and fairly expensive, and needs compressed air supply. It can do -40 to +150 degrees C easily. There are various nozzles available but somehow I think you would be better off with maybe a hot air reflow system.

Chris

Back when I was doing a lot of repairs, I made up an adaptor for my heat gun consisting of a thick silcon tube (model aeroplane engine tuned exhaust coupling tube), which fitted over the nozzle of the heatgun and a length of smaller bore silicon tubing with a handle on the end made from an old ivory knife handle. Silicon bath sealer can withstand the levels of heat involved and this can direct the heat down to a small jet maybe 4 mm in diameter as it leave the nozzle.

Perhaps not prfessional enough for you, but it cost very little to knock up.

Another tool I used was my Weller gas powered soldering iron with the hot gas blower nozzle and a small heatshrink sleeve tool like a curved 'shoe' you can hold the shoe on top of a suspect ic to get it sweating.

Or you could just use a soldering iron !

Ron

That would work. I was thinking of a dry ice stick. How about a thermal electric stick ? You could also make a TE air stick. Works in either heat or cold mode.

greg