Ironos: Miniware MHP30 HotPlate Firmware Support

[Vinigas]

What about supporting MHP30 ? From the feature side it is very similar to ts80p. Externally it is basically the same iron (A B buttons, one OLED screen, type c pd and hotplate_vs_tip ), just in hotplate form factor.

It's menu is also very similar to default firmware for TS80P and TS100 (including menu icons).

What do you think about it ? @Ralim

I have it in hands, can send more info. Maybe pics of internals. Etc.
Personally I could sit down to coding this, but that would be in mid-summer sadly.

PS.
Official hardware page: http://www.miniware.com.cn/product/mhp30-mini-hot-plate-preheater/
Official MHP30 firmware: https://www.minidso.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=4385&extra=page%3D1
TypeC PD 20V/60W (Max); Meanwhile on 65W PD supply, display shows 59W on cold-start.
100'C-350'C; Through it could definitely work in wider low-temp range.

[Vinigas]

Pics of insides (2 screws total):

[DjordjeMandic]

Was it worth?
What are the performances compared to proper IR preheater?

[Ralim]

Hmm this is an interesting little unit.

I hadn't looked into it much up until now.

Definitely looks like it could be supported, feels like controls would be very similar with just all the motion based stuff turned off.

Main issue is figuring out what parts they have used and how they are connected. Have had it easier in the past as they have released schematics.

I'll email and ask but unsure if they will be willing to release them yet 😂

If we can get schematics happy to look at adding support

[DjordjeMandic]

@Ralim i bet they will release it at least to you or just send you pin map and explanations. Your firmware also gets them more customers. I bought TS80 just because you supported it.. :) Huge respect!

[Vinigas]

@Ralim Looks like it has motion sensor (for tilt & drop protection). If I tilt it 50degrees while in soldering-mode, it starts beeping and red blinking with "/!\Warning" on display (and cuts off temperature). Then bringing it back, it goes back to main-menu. Oh and forgot to tell, it has volume regulated beeper and 1 RGB LED. It probably should be using different code-strategy for MHP30 motion sensor in IronOS.

@DjordjeMandic I bought it to preheat PCB near-melting point so it would be easier to solder with soldering-iron, because melting-point is relatively-lowered. Especially for lead-free solder which normally has higher melting-point. --- Too early to tell if it was worth it, I have nothing to compare it to, but it does feels high-quality. Also it has silicon cap, so hotplate doesn't scratch then not in-use.

[Ralim]

So my feelings on this are that it could basically run a variant of IronOS; and we could just have an extension to the current accelerometer code to detect tilt (rather than activity).

Most of the things that we would want on something like this i feel already exist in this firmware, with mostly just some changes to how movement is used; and adding support for a buzzer.

I'm interested in this little one for reflowing on BGA packages. I have a few projects that use the Recom RPM5.0-6.0 dc/dc convertors and it would make doing qfns a bit simpler when i dont want to setup full on reflow.

I did reach out to my contact at Miniware but so far:

1. Not giving me schematics or pinouts 😢
2. This unit has bootloader as part of main firmware rather than as seperate

(1) is a bit of a pest as without schematics we would need to trace out all the connections on the board.
(2) is no big deal at all, as we can at the least flash a dfu bootloader to the first 8k :)

I noticed there are test points labelled A/B/C/D/E/F/G.
Guessing by the looks that:

• B&C are I2C
• A/D/E might be SWD for debugging
• F/G are a good guess, but might be IRQ lines from accl and fusb

Would be ideal to confirm if we have SWD or not.
If we do then could try and extract the firmware to confirm flash is 1:1 with what they upload (given they are baking in the bootloader it may not be).

I'm thinking I'll pick one of these up at the end of the month, but it could be a while until i make progress on it due to busy life / actual job :D

[gordon-quad]

Just a thought: it would be awesome to have some sort of poor man's reflow profile support on that device, just set soak temp/soak time/peak temp/peak time w/o slope control and use PID for reaching those temps.

Would be great for reflowing tiny usb-stick-sized pcbs.

[AlessandroAU]

This would be awesome for reflowing small PCBs, I have one too, let me know how I can help.

[AlexKlimaj]

I can confirm that it is a great little product. Bringing IronOS to it would be a nice addition.

[g3gg0]

would also love to see a custom firmware for it.

came across various use cases which can be addresses using profiles

• slow temperature raise up to 100°C for PCB dehumidifying (e.g. after cleaning or before reflow)
• drying with temperatures ~60-70°C
• auto shutdown after n minutes
• buttons on the back are hard to press with PCB on it
• three temperatures hardly covers the temperatures for a repair workflow (which includes drying)

so if you could manage to add support, this would be very cool.