Thanks Richard, great videos in this channel , I’ve learned a lot from you and Sorin, both of you are exceptional guys with the best channels on KZfaq

Appreciate all the time and effort you put into your videos.

As a teen back in the 70s building kits it was emphasized not to keep the soldering iron too long at the component in case the heat damaged it, especially ICs. Watching yours and other peoples work shows how unnecessary that caution was. I'm still amazed at how you can solder and use heat guns and rework connections and everything is always fine. I really love watching your videos. You have developed great skills and knowledge. There really is no substitute for experience and watching you work your way through all sorts of faults is great viewing and education. Best regards ,Kieron.

My new balling station just arrived today and this video will be handy

Always love seeing that you posted a new video. Going to enjoy this. Thanks

Great video for those of us who are starting out, thank you very much! What about part 3?

One of the things that's overlooked concerning BGA is that often, you'll want to bake the boards (and possible replacement chips, especially those with plastic packages) at around 100C for several hours (24h is recommended) in a special oven. This is to drive out moisture, which is what causes boards and chips to "popcorn": any latent moisture absorbed into devices tries to escape quickly as they're heated, and so as they get into reflow temperatures (>250C) bubbles suddenly "pop" up.

Funny that you mentioned Mr. Sorin inspired you to start this channel. I think you do a better job of teaching this stuff and I watch his channel too, sometimes.

With 21 years experience on microBGA and bga reworking i can tell you a few things. Use an air preheater like the 853 and throw away the amtech flux, try the Warton metals Future HF rework jelly from UK and also get an aoyue 852 based hot air station (or the newer models) which has a diaphragm pump instead of that little fan pistol you have. They are much more effective. The soder wick you are using is the best in the category i don't use anything else.

For budget reballing, use 100W-200W 12v halogen lamps. You can even reball the main chip, which quick hot air CANT DO, and not just ram chips. I trust you would do part 3 with lamps and get it more mainstream, since not many people know this method. Have been doing it for years and its the HOLYGRAIL for reballing in a tight budget.

31:10 - It’s amazing what IPA can do to the heat in your finger!

I haven't done a lot of work that required a pre-heater, but I had some good experiences with a simple PTC element from Aliexpress (12x7cm, 400W). It doesn't have any temperature control, but it self-regulates to about 250°C, which is good enough for me (with the inevitable losses, you end up below the melting point of solder). And it only cost 4 Euro. It even allowed me to solder to the printbed of my 3D printer which is basically just a big aluminum heat sink with some solder pads on it. Even if you had to buy several to cover bigger boards, it wouldn't be an expensive solution.

In case you needed the encouragement: I'm very much looking forward to the next videos in this series!

Great job testing what works Richard. Just as you mention hot plates, I think I recall someone using a clothes iron with a small custom pcb and solder paste. It's surprising at how much better the job is using a hot plate. And how much there is less chance of damaging the pcb. Thanks again for all the interesting content.

Ok I had a go at a 1cm square bga chip on an old modem board that is quite thick, probably 3 or 4mm, but only around 10cm square. I set up everything just like you did, with a temperature probe on the board, liquid rosin flux on the chip, and using a hot air station similar to your cheap one set at 350C without a nozzle and maximum air flow, board sitting flat on a silicon mat. I spent about 3 minutes gently warming up the board with the nozzle around 5cm off the board and drawing wide circles around the chip. Once it was holding around 120C, I put the nozzle down 1 or 2cm off the chip, drawing small circles over it, and after around a minute the board temp was reading 250C and the rosin began smoking. Just after that the solder melted and I found the chip was floating after tapping it with my tweezers, so I lifted the chip free of the board and cleaned up the rosin. I bought myself the andonstar microscopes for Christmas that you did a video on a couple of months ago, so I was able to do an inspection of the chip and the board and found no damage. The chip has tiny balls; at least a hundred if not more.

Another good learning experience waiting for part 3

5:04 - By ‘how good’ do you mean temperature range and control for the pre-heater, air flow control, nozzle choices for the hot air station? If so, what are the correct parameters for each need I be seeking?

awesome bit of testing Richard :)

Quick on Richard, what temp you tend to use on the iron when cleaning? what temp AND airflow on hot air station when removing BGP, I've also got a quick

You don't necessarily need a BGA rework station, a preheater and an adapter for a good hotair Station and a holder to do it, but you need a lot of experience to do it well

Great informative upload - Thank you.

hi there i used a yarboly 8586d to rmove some fairly big gpu and apu chips also southbridge etc from consoles and worked very well comes of clean however you do need half dozen or so boards to practise on first to develope your technique as i had to do but once you sus it out you can do it fairly easy

If you will start do to some beginners graphic card or console reballing testing/practice, most probably you would want to get your first pre-heater and rework station second hand. You can get them WAY cheaper than new equipment if you keep watching the right channels/yellow page sites. Ofc, once you get used to do it, and want to start doing it comercially, get the proper and warranted tools for your work. Never play&hack on your customer's property.

There is a video on KZfaq somewhere of a person doing BGA rework on an XBOX360 using an upside-down shopping trolley and electric fan heater. It worked but they were pretty skillful. 🤣

Hello Sir, could you tell us what is the midel of your BGA Rework Station? Also, I If you please could you make a video about the proper use of a BGA Rework Station?

Added you with my fav channel sorin, alex, rossboss I did start with a quick 700w and bbq a lot of boards before i upgraded

Heya, that shows that a good set of tools makes your work easier

Good stuff. That Chinese AMTECH knock-off flux is not quite as good as the original, but I've chosen it as my standard flux as well. It works really well and I use it everywhere.

Part 3 reballing?

Well it will work faster if you remove the nozzles of the stations (cheep one and more expensive one). you are using too narrow nozzles trying to hot rather wide area compared to the nozzle size. Without the nozzles it will happen much faster. Try that in the next episode.

Hi Richard, love your channel. I am watching this video, wondering if I can use my Georg Forman Grill. It has a top and bottom hot plate which just clip off in1 or 2 seconds and beneath that is a sizeable hot plate, maybe approx. a tad smaller than A4. There is also a temperature control dial. It actually also has a hot lid. I can easily modify the hot lid not to be hot and have that top pate as a spare in case something happens to the bottom plate. I have had this Forman grill for maybe 15 years and used it no more than half a doz time, so it would be a cheapie if I can use it as a hot plate. I cannot yet find my infrared temp sensor to see how hot the plates go on each dial setting. Cheers CJ

Been watching ur vids and I want to get into soldering just for fun really. Thinking about getting some kits to practice on. Did you ever end up making a part 3 to this. I couldn’t find it

When trying to use the cheap hot air, you have the thermocouple on a huge ground plane -- of course that's going to cool quickly as the heat dissipates in the ground plane. You didn't do that in the first example using the Quick, so it's not a very fair comparison. It also sounded like you had the air speed up way higher on the Quick. I don't have much trouble with my cheap station, and have compared it to the quick. I didn't see much difference in my own tests, and I find the Quick's large plastic hose annoying as it attracts every bit of dust in the workshop. Just my 2 cents.

Hi Richard excellent videos,I need to send you my graphics card for you to fix if you can do it 👍

I ever removing ram chip from gt210 just only use atten st-8800d + flux. Idk if any pad missing.

Isn't there like a grill/mold/ stencil that's made to fit the particular chip so that the ball grid can be made quickly and efficiently?

If you purchase a BGA chip new, does it come "pre-balled" and ready to reflow?

another brill vod

for using Pre-Heating, what if using some 'Shape' to Direct-the-Heat to some-Chip-only (as-to NOT Heat some other-Area) ...

well-done 😁

Could a kitchen oven set at 100-120°C do as a makeshift pre-heater?

Perhaps someone can figure this one out for me. I have broken surface mount aluminum electrolytic capacitors. they have 3 numbers (line 1) a square followed by 64k (line 2) 10 (line 3)50v. next one (line 1) A square followed by 46k (line 2) 100 (line 3) 6.3v trying to find replacements but can't figure out the numbers. Guessing the first one is 10uF second one is 100uF?

I’ll be doing this in the next week with the gear I have, just gotta get a board to trial it on, very inspiring video series, hopefully there are more, as soon as I do mine, I’ll let you know on here mate, keep up the great videos dicky 🤙🏼🇦🇺 P.s what’s with the use by date on the flux? Is it ok to order the same ?

Hi Rich, I had a go at removing a ram chip, do you use a narrow nozzle on your hot air or a wide nozzle? My chip came off and I got it back on, not sure if it still works! I think it got a bit too hot, it looks a bit damaged

Using a pre-heater is always better right ??? makes life at least easier

Putting the graphic card on a heatsink is probably not the best idea if you want to heat said graphic card.

Don't do it.