Best BST-863 Improved Control Board

Presentation video

Why I made this improved control board

This station is very good for the price but the firmware that comes with it is very disappointing. As soon as you turn it on it screams right into yor ears for 2 continuous seconds, to know the set values you have to press the set key as they aren’t displayed at all while the station isn’t heating, if you want to change them it will continuously scream while very slowly increasing/decreasing degree by degree until reaching the desired value. I was used to a station with potentiometers which allow to set the values very fast, so changing to this was a nightmare… Even though it has 3 buttons to store configs I still found that I often needed to change the blower and temperature between more values and it always annoyed me so much that I finally decided to design a board and firmware from scratch keeping the original functionality (even the touch interface) but making it way less annoying and adding the two potentiometers that I missed so much.

What are the advantages over the original control board?

• Instant bootup without a 2 second long scream (none at all actually)
• Touch interface is now faster to use and less annoying (small beeps at reasonable volume)
• Don’t like beeps at all? No more need for hot glue in the buzzer hole! Turn buzzer completely off by long pressing the “Set” key
• Set values are always displayed, no need to press “Set” key just to know the current config
• The two potentiometers allow you to set the desired temperature and blower speed in a much faster way than through the touch interface
• Ability to calibrate the temperature by long pressing the ºC/ºF key, calibration value = (actual temperature comming out of the nozzle) – (temperature read by the station)
• Change between ºC and ºF whenever you want and be greeted by the same unit again the next time you turn the station on
• Connect the station to your computer with a microUSB cable and serial print the temperature and blower or any other value to overlay on your videos or streams with OBS, no more people asking what temperature you used to remove that BGA. (Long press any of the arrow keys to enable/disable serial prints)
• Open source code
• 32 bit microcontroller with most pins broken out so you can expand it to control something else, let’s say you would like to have an RGB led changing color according to the temperature, sure, do it!
• Should the thermocouple stop working, an easy to understand error is displayed on the screen and the blower is enabled at full speed as a safety measure.

What tools do I need to install this board?

• If you bought the kit, you will need a soldering iron to solder the included components to the board
• Philips screwdriver to open the station, disconnect the AC wires from the screw terminals and remove the original board
• Flush cutters to cut the LCD pin headers in order to connect to the new board (the pin headers should be long enough to use as-is after cutting, if there are solder blobs on the pins you will need a soldering iron to remove said blobs, pin headers are included in case you need to replace them, the board I designed has female sockets)
• Drill with 7mm drill bit to make the holes for the potentiometers (no need to measure anything, just glue the provided sticker, X marks the spot, start with a smaller drill bit)
• 10mm wrench to secure the potentiometers or a 3d printer to print a tool for that
• 2x Standard potentiometer knobs

What is included?

• Board fully assembled or as a kit with all the components
• 2x Potentiometers
• 2x Knobs
• Sticker for the potentiometers
• Spacers to secure the board
• 2x 6 pins male headers (these are for the LCD but might not be needed)

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