ICMYI, Carl Bugeja created a PCB that reflow solders itself and then self-propagates, RepRap Style!
bald.ee/6fth5a
@baldengineer That's a super cool idea. I assume you put solder paste in approximately the right places and then just feed power to the heating element?
It would be *really* wild if the heating element could also be snapped off after it does the reflow. Something like this: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/473037/how-to-design-a-snap-breakable-pcb-module
@north If you watch Bugeja's video, one layer is a serpentine trace. That trace heats the entire board.
The circuit itself is a controller to get a proper reflow profile.
So you manually manage the power on the first one. After that, you have a controller for the following boards.
He's using SnBiAg solder paste, which melts at 138C.
@baldengineer I saw a similar sort of serpentine trace layer on a different board, but that was for use as a hotplate and had no components on it.