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Topic: Really universal soldering controller (Read 1047163 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #105 –
[quote author="Erythros"]
BTW, do you anybody have some experience with Weller WMRT 12V/80W desoldering tweezers? I may be able to get them for reasonable price.[/quote]

If you are planning to drive them with this controller, you will have to find out yourself how they must be connected, and then create a profile for them.

JBC microtweezers are an alternative. And maybe a better one - they seems smaller on the photos, and are again 80W (2x40W). They work extremely well form 0201 upto "D" package (never tried something bigger). And it seems they are a bit cheaper.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #106 –
Just dropping in to say what a great project this is!

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #107 –
[quote author="neslekkim"]
What do you mean with running low?, low temperature?, the T12 tips are almost cold on th eend, so that should work ok I guess, if you have weight in the bottom so it doesnt tip over.

The hakko piece is solid aluminium I think.[/quote]

Yes, I meant temperature. Aluminium is nice but you have to anodize it. (Which is incredibly simple, but you need the pigment.) That take me to: Do you know how hot are the JBC C245 tips? Can you take them out of the T245A just by hand?

[quote author="sparkybg"]
If you are planning to drive them with this controller, you will have to find out yourself how they must be connected, and then create a profile for them.

JBC microtweezers are an alternative. And maybe a better one - they seems smaller on the photos, and are again 80W (2x40W). They work extremely well form 0201 upto "D" package (never tried something bigger). And it seems they are a bit cheaper.[/quote]

By "reasonable" price I meant about 1/4 of the current price of JBC microtweezers. (I take it that we are talking about PA120-A.)

If I get them then I will try to use this controller. But that's if.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #108 –
[quote author="Erythros"][quote author="neslekkim"]
What do you mean with running low?, low temperature?, the T12 tips are almost cold on th eend, so that should work ok I guess, if you have weight in the bottom so it doesnt tip over.

The hakko piece is solid aluminium I think.[/quote]

Yes, I meant temperature. Aluminium is nice but you have to anodize it. (Which is incredibly simple, but you need the pigment.) That take me to: Do you know how hot are the JBC C245 tips? Can you take them out of the T245A just by hand?
[/quote]

Newer tried that, the tip is far inside the handle, and it is very tight, so I did not want to burn my fingers. But the back end of the tip is cold, but like I mentioned earlier, and small rubber matt would work ok.

I don't know where you come from, but I bought lot of hakko stuff from this ebayseller: http://stores.ebay.com/NEI-Lamps-and-Electronics
I would ask him if he could get the B2300 heat resistent pad, and the B2756 Tip tray, I bought the tip tray there, I paid $20 for the tray, and that is worth it in my eyes, if he had more in stock at that moment, I would have bought an extra.
He got me various things that is not on his list on ebay, because I needed some spareparts for my FR300.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #109 –
[quote author="sparkybg"][quote author="savril"]
If you really are about the performance of a JBC station, that's a great job ![/quote]

Show me a movie of your station while heating up, and I will show you a movie from mine.

P.S.: Here is it, heating up, and then heating TO247's thermal pad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTdQB4y ... e=youtu.be

P.S.: Chinese fake T12 on the same ТО247 thermal pad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u588sh- ... e=youtu.be[/quote]

Sorry for the delay, I didn't have the JBC at hand when you first wrote. I took a small video, available here: https://youtu.be/8glanxybxEM . I took it with my phone and I've not edited it so its a little rough.
I didn't have a TO247 on hand so I've done it on a SOT-223. The thermal mass is clearly not comparable but it could give you an idea of how the JBC work.

The JBC seem slower to update its screen but seem to achieve the same stability as you, I think the PID update faster than the screen. But yours seem faster to update and less prone to overshoot.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #110 –
From what I can see, the JBC controller shows the target temperature once it reaches it. I hate this. I am always showing the real temperature (although a little filtered) on my devices. And I like the fast updates - my multimeter (Agilent U1272A) has a fast update also, so I'm used to it. :)

C245 is my favorite tip, so I spend much time optimising the PID coefficients for it. Nevertheless, I think it can be made a bit better.

I think some overshoot in favor of smaller undershoots is actually a good think, but It is always a compromise - my PID should work well on 9-28V, and I had to make a small compromises for it to be stable from the lowest to the highest input voltage.

Thank you for the video. :)

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #111 –
Hi, very interesting project!

Do you know how JBC does its sleep and tip changing poweroff? In this, you are doing it with an IR sensor, but I'd like to know how has JBC implemented it.

Thanks!

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #112 –
[quote author="fredboivin"]Hi, very interesting project!

Do you know how JBC does its sleep and tip changing poweroff? In this, you are doing it with an IR sensor, but I'd like to know how has JBC implemented it.

Thanks![/quote]

As far as I know, they have a switch in the stand. My controller also can work with a switch in the stand.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #113 –
No switch, but the metal on the front of the iron, and the casing of the tip connects to the metal on the stand, and the tip ejector.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #114 –
[quote author="neslekkim"]No switch, but the metal on the front of the iron, and the casing of the tip connects to the metal on the stand, and the tip ejector.[/quote]

There's no contact check I think with the tip ejector because it continue to heat while I remove the tip (and make contact with the tip ejector). As soon as there is no contact inside the iron with the cartdridge, the station detect it (because there's no longer a conductive path).

I have a question about Rgnd1 on front PCB. It join the grounds of both sides of the ADuM3160 with a 10M resistor in 2512 format. In this format, it likely to be a 2,5W resistor. So it seem to be designed to withstand like 5kV at 5mA, like an ESD discharge. I have'nt seen a similar design before.

If this resistor was connected to the iron ground and the mains earth pin, I would have understand It would be to have the iron ESD safe. But why did you put it with the ADuM and connected with ESD ? Why haven't you used a TVS diode like in other part of your design ?

I'm not questionning your design, I'm just a begginner trying to understand.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #115 –
Both the controller and the computer you are connecting it to may or may not have a connection to earth/ground, so it is there to provide a weak coupling between two sides to prevent too large voltage there in case one device has ground connection, and another one does not.

There are several 2512 resistors on the market, specified to withstand 3kV voltage on them, so that's why it is 2512. You may put 1M, 3M, 5M, 10M resistor there or leave it without resistor at all. It will still work, but I think the reliability is a bit higher when the resistor is there.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #116 –
Well, I got ordered PCBs in my post. They are not bad, but not 100%, however will work nicely.
[attachment=0]
When seen in natura it looks really packet. Made me realize that hot air reworking will be probably needed. Which is kind of ironic, given that I wanted nice soldering iron in first place and now I will have to buy el cheapo hot air to build soldering station. Well that is life I guess. Now I will have to talk to friend with CO2 laser about making some stencils.

I still have some questions about BOM:

Not sure I get the Ja, Jb, Jc, Jd, Je, Jg resistors with 0 value. It looks like they are parallel to the ULN2003 (by the gerbers).

The ULN2003L specifically the L in the end. That is some specific model? Because I could not find it. Only LV which is low U and I model which is in opposition to the note in BOM about it being high U,I model.

Also you have there in BOM on lines 90 and 92 two zener diodes 3V and one 3.0V - I take guess that they are the same.

The WSL3637 is 0.003 ohms?

The 60V in TVS is reverse standoff voltage?

Will have to finalize order and choose some nice eshop, Farnell is on most items terribly expensive.

I have received OLED display modules from China. I ordered the 0.96 and 1.3 inch models. Let me tell you these are tiny. I first received the 1.3 inch model and my basic reaction was that I will use the bigger one when it arrive. It was quite shock when I realized that that was the bigger one. And they use SH1106 instead of SSD1306 which is specified in BOM which is similar IC but it has matrix of 132x64 so you have to offset the image.

Don't know what to do, they seem incredibly small. Probably will go to the 1.3 route, bigger ones uses different IC pinout and I already have the backplane PCB.

Re: Really universal soldering controller

Reply #117 –
[quote author="Erythros"]Well, I got ordered PCBs in my post. They are not bad, but not 100%, however will work nicely.[/quote]

PCBs looks pretty nice.

[quote author="Erythros"]
When seen in natura it looks really packet. Made me realize that hot air reworking will be probably needed. Which is kind of ironic, given that I wanted nice soldering iron in first place and now I will have to buy el cheapo hot air to build soldering station. Well that is life I guess. Now I will have to talk to friend with CO2 laser about making some stencils.
[/quote]
You can make them in the kitchen oven, if you have stencils. :) However, I made them purely with soldering iron. No hot air whatsoever. Just get yourself a decent flux. I am using BGA no-clean flux.

[quote author="Erythros"]
Not sure I get the Ja, Jb, Jc, Jd, Je, Jg resistors with 0 value. It looks like they are parallel to the ULN2003 (by the gerbers).
[/quote]
ULN2003 and Ra-Rg are have to be there if you use 7 segment LED indicators. If you use OLED, the ULN2003 is not mounted, and Ja-jg and Ra-Rg are all just solder jumpers. If you look at their footprints, you will notice the pads are pretty close to each other in order to make easily a solder jumpers out of them.

The ULN2003L specifically the L in the end. That is some specific model? Because I could not find it. Only LV which is low U and I model which is in opposition to the note in BOM about it being high U,I model.

[quote author="Erythros"]
Also you have there in BOM on lines 90 and 92 two zener diodes 3V and one 3.0V - I take guess that they are the same.
[/quote]
Yes these are the same.

[quote author="Erythros"]
The WSL3637 is 0.003 ohms?
[/quote]
You can use 0.003 and 0.004 ohms. On the schematics there's a table what the resistor values of the amplifier are for 0.003 and 0.004 shunt.

[quote author="Erythros"]
The 60V in TVS is reverse standoff voltage?
[/quote]
Yes.

[quote author="Erythros"]
I have received OLED display modules from China. I ordered the 0.96 and 1.3 inch models. Let me tell you these are tiny. I first received the 1.3 inch model and my basic reaction was that I will use the bigger one when it arrive. It was quite shock when I realized that that was the bigger one. And they use SH1106 instead of SSD1306 which is specified in BOM which is similar IC but it has matrix of 132x64 so you have to offset the image.
Don't know what to do, they seem incredibly small. Probably will go to the 1.3 route, bigger ones uses different IC pinout and I already have the backplane PCB.[/quote]

If the pad layout and the voltages are the same, you can use another controller, but you will also have to modify the firmware to support it. The commands and the initialization of every OLED controller chip is different. So if you ask me - get a SSD1306 OLED.

(No subject)

Reply #118 –
Just a silly question that maybe was replied before...

Can a 7seg and OLED displays be used at same time? Is the firmware ready for that?

The idea is to use a big 7seg display for temperature and maybe other important stuff (change iron? Sleep mode? OFF?) because of greater visibility.

Re:

Reply #119 –
[quote author="Circuiteromalaguito"]Just a silly question that maybe was replied before...

Can a 7seg and OLED displays be used at same time? Is the firmware ready for that?

The idea is to use a big 7seg display for temperature and maybe other important stuff (change iron? Sleep mode? OFF?) because of greater visibility.[/quote]

No, they cannot. They are sharing MCU legs, and 2 of the transistors for OLED common anodes are providing the power to the OLED.

In fact, I never tried the 7 segments on this version. There are routines for 7 segment in the firmware, it can detect if 7 segment or OLED is present, but probably the firmware will need some work/debug to use 7 segment. Older versions of the controller are using only 7 segment.