Recently, I started making electronic circuits as a hobby and now
I want to do more complex stuff like FPGAs.
For that I need to solder BGAs. I'm considering buying a hot air
rework station. So far I'm looking at either
Aoyue 968
http://www.aoyue.com/en/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=359or
Aoyue 99∗
http://www.aoyue.com/en/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=375 The first one has a digital display and a soldering iron while the
other one has a manipulator.
I already have a good quality soldering iron. Do you think the
manipulator would be more useful ?
The goal is to be able to build prototypes with BGAs (maybe up to
500 pins). I only need to build like two boards a year for myself,
and I am not concerned about the time it takes, as long as I can be
reasonably sure that it will work.
Or maybe, I should make a temp controlled toaster oven and
dispense with the rework station already.
Could someone with more experience share their advices ?