{"id":198,"date":"2020-02-20T19:39:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T19:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pi.peernix.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2020-02-20T19:39:08","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T19:39:08","slug":"t12-soldering-station-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/peernix.com\/?p=198","title":{"rendered":"T12 Soldering Station Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After completing the JBC soldering iron project, and buying a few expensive tips for the iron handle, I decided, after a friend mentioned the lower cost of the Hakko style soldering iron tips otherwise known as cartridges, that maybe it\u2019d be a good idea to buy another soldering iron handle, and try out the T12 style tips as another low cost alternative. I found a nice looking iron and a few tips on Ebay for a fairly low cost, so I went ahead and ordered them. When they arrived, I almost immediately realized that the cartridges were two terminal devices, unlike the JBC cartridges which have three terminals. I should have looked into this earlier, but now clearly things weren\u2019t going to work out of the box as I had imagined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAfter a bit of testing and research, I realized that that unlike the\nJBC cartridges which have a terminal for the hot and thermocouple,\nthe neutral, and the second termination of the thermocouple, the T12\ncartridges have only two terminals (other than the sheath). The hot\nand neutral, and the thermocouple in series. So, I had these\ncartridges and iron that were incompatible with my other design for a\nvariety of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo I had two options, admit defeat and place the new items in drawer\nsomewhere for the foreseeable future, or try and come up with a\ndesign to power the new cartridge type. I decided to go with the\nlatter almost immediately. The main problem with using the new\ncartridge type with my current controller is that AC power is used\nfor the heater, which is fine, because the heater power is isolated\nfrom the rest of the controller circuitry. Here on the other hand,\nthis wouldn\u2019t be possible. I decided to make some modifications of\nthe current controller (a spare). I added a full bridge rectifier\nbefore the heater input to the board, thereby creating a unbuffered\nAC component. In this way zero volt switching could still be used,\nand the negative could still be referenced to DC ground used by the\nlogic portion. Along with some bodge wires elsewhere on the board, I\nwas able to get the T12 style cartridge working with basically the\nsame controller and code. Because this board didn\u2019t need to be\npowered by two isolated supplies, I decided to add room for a switch\nmode power supply daughter board, in\ncase one wanted to use a transformer with a higher voltage than the\nlinear regulator circuitry would allow. This was possible because of\nanother change, using a single supply with the op-amp. So\nnow time for the fun part, spin up a new schematic and board!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"schematic-reduced\"<\/a>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSomehow, when the boards arrived, they just seemed to work. No hours\ndebugging and figuring out what I did wrong, which is always very\nwelcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"boards-reduced\"<\/a>\n\n\n\n

\nFor this station, I decided to go with a new display type. There\nare pretty nice, but small 128×64 OLED\ndisplays available online. Although smaller than the last 16×2\ndisplay, they can display a lot more detail, so I decided it was\nworth a try. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSomeone had given me a 35v transformer good for around 100watts, so I\ndecided because of its size, it\u2019d be optimal to use. I 3D printed\nsome brackets for it, and found its mounting holes corresponded quite\nnicely with the ones of my board. I decided to print a few more\nbrackets and mount the board to the transformer to save space, after\nobserving no ill effects from EMI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"transformer-mount-reduced\"<\/a>\n\n\n\n

\nAlthough I liked the way the last soldering station case turned out,\nit was 3D printed, and I thought it was a bit on the large size, and\nwanted to reduce the size of this station as much as possible. Also,\nit\u2019d be a plus if it didn\u2019t take several days to print. It is a\nfairly simple design, but a lot of attention has to be paid to make\nsure everything fits the way it should. Having to trash prototypes\nthat take tens of hours to print is not fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"Case-Open-reduced\"<\/a>\n\n\n\n

All in all, it the project turned out pretty well. The T12 cartridge types are generally smaller, and more power limited, which makes them ideal for cost effective mico-soldering. So, I ended up with a nice setup, the T12 station near the microscope for soldering small stuff, and the JBC on a separate table, there to tackle larger jobs, where it can figuratively pour a ton of heat into its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"finished-reduced\"<\/a>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll release the source code here at a later date, it is quite similar to the JBC station, but there is some fine tuning I want to look into.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After completing the JBC soldering iron project, and buying a few expensive tips for the iron handle, I decided, after a friend mentioned the lower cost of the Hakko style soldering iron tips otherwise known as cartridges, that maybe it\u2019d be a good idea to buy another soldering iron handle, and try out the T12<\/p>\n

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