The PCB heating plate has built-in heating element traces

Normally, when we talk about PCBs and hot plates, we are talking about reflow soldering. In this version of [Arnov Sharma], however, the PCB itself is the hot plate!

The idea was to create a compact hot plate to easily reflow small PCBs. To achieve this, [Arnov] designed a board with a thick coil trace that acts as a heating element. The full coil track has a resistance of 1.9 ohms and passing electricity through it generates a lot of heat. Powered by 12 volts, the mini hot plate is capable of reaching a maximum temperature of 214°C. Higher voltages can push this figure higher.

The board is intended to be self-regulating, with a built-in ATtiny13 and a thermistor to measure temperature. However, in the initial design, this feature did not work properly. Version 2 is intended to include a better temperature sensor and an OLED screen to display the current temperature to the user.

We've also seen other small versions of griddles before. They're great for small projects and for hacking on the go! Video after the break.