Slightly weird circuitry. This took longer to reverse engineer than expected, but yielded new information on the thermal sensing of Hakko-style soldering irons.
The default temperature of 500C (932F) is quite dramatic for a soldering iron, but there is a way to hack it to a lower temperature if desired.
The circuitry is a bit weird, in that the main control chip may have a stand-alone comparator section, but also monitor its activity externally and override it to shut the iron down. At least, that's my first guess at what's happening. Alternatively it could be ensuring the MOSFET is forced off in sleep mode, although the sleep current draw is very low at about 1uA.
The hack to set a lower bit temperature or allow it to be adjusted is to remove the zero ohm link shown and either solder a fixed value resistor in the two outer holes of the bypassed preset position, or put in a 100 ohm multi-turn preset. If using a single turn potentiometer I'd suggest a value of 56 ohms. I tested with various resistors and got the following results:-
Existing zero ohm link 500C.
10 ohms 460C
22 ohms 410C
33 ohms 360C - common standard electronic soldering temperature.
47 ohms 315C
56 ohms 277C
100 ohms 77C
The construction of the soldering iron seems quite robust, and the default bit temperature will probably make it ideal for automotive wire repairs or fast soldering.
The iron wins lots of points for using the very common soldering iron bit sold in bulk on eBay.
Supporting the channel with a dollar or two on Patreon helps keep it independent of YouTube's quirks, avoids intrusive mid-video adverts, gives early access, bonus footage and regular quiet Patreon live streams.
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
The default temperature of 500C (932F) is quite dramatic for a soldering iron, but there is a way to hack it to a lower temperature if desired.
The circuitry is a bit weird, in that the main control chip may have a stand-alone comparator section, but also monitor its activity externally and override it to shut the iron down. At least, that's my first guess at what's happening. Alternatively it could be ensuring the MOSFET is forced off in sleep mode, although the sleep current draw is very low at about 1uA.
The hack to set a lower bit temperature or allow it to be adjusted is to remove the zero ohm link shown and either solder a fixed value resistor in the two outer holes of the bypassed preset position, or put in a 100 ohm multi-turn preset. If using a single turn potentiometer I'd suggest a value of 56 ohms. I tested with various resistors and got the following results:-
Existing zero ohm link 500C.
10 ohms 460C
22 ohms 410C
33 ohms 360C - common standard electronic soldering temperature.
47 ohms 315C
56 ohms 277C
100 ohms 77C
The construction of the soldering iron seems quite robust, and the default bit temperature will probably make it ideal for automotive wire repairs or fast soldering.
The iron wins lots of points for using the very common soldering iron bit sold in bulk on eBay.
Supporting the channel with a dollar or two on Patreon helps keep it independent of YouTube's quirks, avoids intrusive mid-video adverts, gives early access, bonus footage and regular quiet Patreon live streams.
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
Something like this, but with an actual digital temperature control (just take the same electronics that the ts100 uses) would be great.
I'm sure someone will just take one of these and connect a ts100 or one of those cheap chinese t12 irons into it.
The "on" signal looks like it's to measure the battery voltage
Clive while high heat makes life easy for general soldering Ic's (cheap ones) are sensitive to high temperatures which is why in Ic pick and place machines the ovens have very controlled heat cycles. so when soldering electronics how long the iron remains on an IC is important.
i love that there is an industry standard cordless tool battery (its called CAS) and that ONLY smaller brands use it. seems like literally none of the "major" brands use the standard battery 🙁
You can cut the label on the seam with a box cutter. It looks way better than peeling labels afterwards.
I bought a corded one. Tip lasted a week before it ate through the nickel plate.
Made a solid nickel tip from a chunk used for plating . Hard stuff to machine!
a fair reminder is that the 936 type heaters not only have different voltages but temperature sensor is also different. when i bought cheap parts for my station, i burned up the tip and plastic nut because controller meant for thermistor never switched off with thermocouple. i even did it twice. heaters survived, despite whole assembly glowed red hot
Lidl also sells a slide-on light/USB-charger type thing for those batteries. I replaced the led with a 5v relais to switch a direct battery connection. Now I can use the full 20v with the built in discharge protection and soft switch.
It looks like a green duck
I found these generic tips from aliexpress to dissolve quite rapidly when using high temperatures together with leadfree solder. I usually prefer lower temperatures with larger tips because of that.
looks good – Thanks
I prefer my cheap and cheerful £5.99 soldering iron from Maidstone Market and yes, the tip needs replacing well one day
When you was rattling off those temperatures, I was half expecting you to end with and that’s gas mark 12… 🤣
Is there a decent soldering station that you could recommend? Something with hot air and an iron? As for my background, I am a Mechanic, of 35+ years. I do have multiple irons, both electric and butane, as well as the Weller soldering gun, and there's always the propane torch for brute force! LOL! What I really need is something with more finesse. I often have to repair switches and relays that cannot be replaced. This goes for a lot of components that are unavailable. Thanks in advance to whoever answers. o7
as much as I've been watching your videos especially on your video you show your examples of how to do soldiering and the difference in a good soldiering as to bad. also different types of soldiering irons and temperature adjustments and it help me as do all your clear videos you make. ty
Using the comparator built in to the micro is a great way of providing a safety function. It can kill the power if the controller latches or the drive latches high,it takes the safety function away from the software. You an set it to also interrupt the MC so it can try to recover from the error. If you need a safety function its easier to do it in hardware than software, kill the fault then let the software recover if it can. Hardware is far easier to certifie than software.
Coming to a store near you next week (UK)…
I wonder if the data pins are for a screen maybe