Controleo3 Reflow Oven Build Kit

After a double check on my order from Whizoo support(Impressed), 1 x Controleo Reflow Oven Build Kit and 1 x convection oven build kit, it appeared all was shipped without issue, tracking number was sent.
I forgot all about it until Whizzo sent me a request to review, at that time it appeared the package had been doing laps of California with USPS until it finally made the plane heading for Sydney Australia.
Yay it made it to Sydney, from there it went through the usually slow customs process and finally made its way to me in the beautiful Blue Mountains 19 days after ordering, usually it would be between 5 - 10days USA to AUS, but hey, who cares, I've got some building to do ;)
BTW both packages look great and seem to be complete, let's see how the build go's.

Needed a reflow oven to up my surface mount game. I've got big boards, so I need a solution that has good temperature uniformity. This is for development work on a tight budget. It's shocking to me that in this day and age the only entry-level options are either to modify a toaster oven, or buy a T-962 oven and modify that too. Either way, it costs more time than I'd like. Griping aside, I bought the Controleo 3 kit because I thought it was the best option for my current requirements.

The Controleo3 support, documentation and kit completeness is good. It will get you where you want to go. You will have to put in mental and physical effort, your own tools and some extra parts. The thing you are paying for is the convenience of not having to create and order the BOM yourself, and the controller hardware/software. The controller is the stand-out for me and goes a long way to justify the price tag - it has a very nice UI, intuitive, good test functions to make sure you've set up your heating elements/servo correctly. The ability to change the code and create your own profiles is well documented and easy to follow.
I've soldered about 10 smaller boards across various parts of the build plate and they all work and the soldering looks good. Yet to test the bigger boards that will take almost all the oven.

There are some niggles which take the shine off. It's lot of small things, which add up after a few days build. These include:
- the kit is pretty stingy when it comes to the insulation parts. I modified a 9L oven, and wish that there was about 10% more insulation (ceramic wool, reflect-a-gold, nomex tape). I think supplying the customer with a bit of surplus wouldn't break the bank and keep the customer happier
- There was also not enough spade terminals to connect to the SSRs if you daisy chain wires (which you will probably have to do because of limited wire)
- Some Wago style snap connectors would have gone a long way
- A lot of different hole sizes specified, and also not enough of the bolts/nuts, especially the ones with the toothed washer-nuts. Again, a few spare would have been nice.
- BOM consolidation. Get rid of all the different types of screws that comes in the kit - I don't need all the little screws and things that come with the servo for example. I don't want to have to worry about whether I should be using them or not
- Positioning of the SSR plate away from the chamber wall to insert the ceramic wool is not specified - you have to work that out for yourself
- The instructions aren't made to blindly follow step by step. You have to read the whole thing, work out how you need to adjust it, and decide if you want to do some of the optional things. Sometimes you have to ignore things that they tell you are out of date. I would have liked to have done zero thinking, IKEA style. I just want to be told what to do. I understand that absolute zero thinking is not possible here because each oven is different, but I think the level of required thinking could be reduced much further
- The way the servo opens the door using a bracket attached to the door handle did not work for me, because of the position of the door handle. I bent the supplied aluminium bracket and attached it directly to the servo, with a tang on the bracket underneath the door. This was right at the end of the build, when I really had lost all patience and didn't want to drill any more holes.
- I couple of different grommet sizes would be good
- A switch to isolate the mains would also be good

These issues didn't stop the thing working, but it certainly frayed my patience by the end.

I'm also not convinced by the comment in the instructions 'One thermocouple is good; more is unnecessary.' I believe more information is always better, it's just what you do with that information that is the tricky part. I would have liked the option to have multiple thermocouples in the oven to check for temperature uniformity, and then perhaps select one thermocouple as the controlling element. I also believe that having some fan element must improve temperature uniformity, if done in the right way - the option to add one would have been welcomed.

I would get the kit again, and would recommend it to people in a similar position, as I still think it's the best option at my price point. However, I think there is room for improvement (the above points), though admittedly my standards are high. My biggest wish is that a good entry-level reflow at this price point existed off the shelf. Maybe Whizoo could mass produce it?

I took my time with the build, and had a great time of it. My reflow oven works great, and looks very cool.

A lot of thought clearly went into the retrofit steps and firmware, and it shows in the results.

Pro-tip; keep an eye on the back end of the tube of high temperature goop. If you're squeezing hard, the back end can fail, leading to a mess. Not a game-killer, but easy to avoid. :)

Mine works perfectly, I used the mainstays oven for $20. The shape is really not conducive. I needed to buy some more insulation, and really get nothing for it.

That said, the oven works perfectly and got a 90% score, so their methods, controller, etc are fantastic. Now I can do some small batch reflows. I’m pretty happy about that. I’ve run one board, and the oven worked great. (The solder paste stencil, or rather the human technique using the solder paste stencil on the other hand…)

This oven is the real deal! Is it easy to assemble? No, it's not. But the operation of the oven gives me great confidence that I'll be successful reflow soldering the nearly 250 2" x 3" boards that I'm putting together.

The parts in the kit are very good. I used my own metric screws with hex allen heads wherever I could ... my personal choice. But everything fits, everything arrived in perfect condition, everything that needed to be there, was there.

Although I found the instructions less than clear, the support from Whizoo could not have been better! When I made a configuration error last weekend, an email to the support address brought me a solution in no time at all.

All in all, I recommend this kit for skilled electronics DIYers: anyone looking to make their own boards probably has the skills, tools and patience needed.