Joe,
When developing profiles I recommend using a board that is populated the same way as the reflow will see in actual production, no more components, no less.
My company manufactures ovens and part of our QC Procedure is to make sure the thermal energy transfer is uniform across the width of the belt. In order to verify we run profiles using a bare board so that the thermal mass of the test board is uniform. These profiles are saved into the computer so that the customer can see the uniformity of the oven. When our customers have tried to use these profiles for their populated production boards they usually find the temps a little low (all depending upon how populated their boards are). If you have large components or a crowded PCB I would definately recommend profiling with populated board.
I agree with Earl, try to find a scrapped board to make your test fixture out of.
Brian
| Hi, | | Has anyone found any significant differences on profiling using populated and unpopulated boards? Is it worth sacrificing a board to the profile gods? | | Joe |
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