OT: A rather smart soldering iron, and a memory from the past.

[Buzby]

This rather neat soldering iron lowers its temperature when it is idle. This is probably just a piece of code that recognises there has been no movement of the accelerometer for a minute or two.

http://www.banggood.com/TS100-Digital-OLED-Programable-Interface-DC-5525-Soldering-Iron-Station-Built-in-STM32-Chip-p-984214.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Celc-Prot-Repair-RM-TS100&utm_content=nydia&gclid=CJbBpJiS580CFVIaGwodkGQPXg

This brought back memories of something I've not thought of for many years.

My first iron was an Antex ( X-25 I think ), and it got left on for hours, hanging on a hook I had on the side of my workbench.

The 'hook' was actually a wire-lever microswitch I had put in series with the iron, which shorted an IN4004 when the iron was off the hook.
This had the effect of reducing the power by 50% when I was not using the iron, thus prolonging the life of the bit.

Modern technology provides a much better solution, but when it breaks you can't fix it !.

 

[ZOR]

I use an Antex XS25, excellent iron.

I remember the earlier iron a while back. An engineer I worked with at the time had a habit of hanging his iron on a texas oscilloscope. One day he turned round to talk to me and a couple of other people without seeing the iron poking into his jacket. It started smelling and all of a sudden he felt the iron tip and leapt away but the damage was done. His wife had bought the jacket only the week before. How we all didn't break out laughing I don't know. Good to have memories.

 

[bluejets]

it got left on for hours, hanging on a hook I had on the side of my workbench.

The 'hook' was actually a wire-lever microswitch I had put in series with the iron, which shorted an IN4004 when the iron was off the hook.
This had the effect of reducing the power by 50% when I was not using the iron, thus prolonging the life of the bit.

Had one just like that...many did.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

This thread has reminded me that I need to look at getting a new soldering iron sometime, as the venerable temperature-controlled 50W Weller that I have is now well over 30 years old, and my spares for it consist of one spare 24V element and nothing else (at one time I had three or four spare elements, a couple of spare magnetic switches, and maybe a dozen spare iron-coated ferro-magnetic bits for it, acquired from a lab closure, along with the iron and transformer).

The Weller still works well, but is getting very tatty, and sooner or later I feel it will probably suffer a failure that I either cannot fix, or that is just too costly to fix. I can still buy spares for the ancient Weller (quite remarkable really, given the age of the thing) or, indeed, a complete new replacement 24V one, just like the one I have but with a pale blue, rather than black, handle, for around £70. I do have a spare, a 12V Weller TCP that I purchased for working on my boat or car, where 12V was readily available, but that lives with an extra long lead attached, terminated with a pair of large croc clips.

However, I've always found the "change the bit to change the temperature" feature of these TCP irons a bit of a nuisance, so it would be nice to have something of the same sort of quality and reliability as the old Weller, but with the ability to set the temperature more easily. I'm not at all sure about buying something Chinese, as I'd like the ability to buy spare bits, elements etc easily and quickly.

My requirements are for a reasonably powerful iron, that will take a fairly large (say 5 to 6mm) bit for soldering heavy power cables, yet also take a very narrow (say 1mm or less) bit for fine work. It needs to have a fast heat up time (at least as fast as the 50W Weller) and have readily available spares. Low voltage isolated operation is essential, being able to switch off the the iron earth if you need to work on something that has a safe supply voltage on it is one of the big advantages of the Weller (I am often working on battery packs for electric vehicles).

Amongst the expertise gathered here, does anyone have any views as to a possible replacement, please?

 

[MartinM57]

You might have to eat bread'n'dripping for a year (or you may not ), but my Weller WD1 control unit and WPS80 iron are very nice and fulfil all your requirements (and more)

 

[Janne]

You might have to eat bread'n'dripping for a year (or you may not ), but my Weller WD1 control unit and WPS80 iron are very nice and fulfil all your requirements (and more)

Having the same soldering iron, I agree. It was expensive, but the steep price was soon forgotten
My biggest gripe with "cheap" soldering irons is the lack of quality tips to select from. The iron I had before was a bit more clunky in ergonomy and took ages in comparison to warm up (WPS80 warms up in about 5s..) but the biggest killer was that only useless tips were available.

 

[tmfkam]

I've been using this Tenma one from CPC (£33+VAT) for almost two years, five days a week. Maplin do the same unit as a 'Maplin Gold' model for slightly more, pricing depending on their current offers if you don't want to order from CPC. If I ordered from Farnell (CPC's parent company) they were, at the time, more expensive still.



I was rather taken by this one from Rapid. I thought it had an auto-standby mode, but as I can't find reference to this on the Rapid website, I could have dreamt this, or it could have been in the Rapid newsletter. Don't take it as being accurate. Bits for this are £1.20, the iron and station cost £47 (both +VAT).

 

[tmfkam]

Aha! I've got the irons mixed up.

This one from Rapid does have the auto-standby mode. It is more expensive at £108 +VAT. This has an Iron which looks similar to the Maplin/Tenma one as does the display. Made by Atten.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Thanks folks. I've been impressed with Weller, as the 30 year old one I have was second hand when I got it, so could easily be 35 or more years old, and has been very reliable, and the bits seem to last a long time, too. Having looked at the spec, my inclination is to splash out on a new Weller, as if it's as reliable as my very ancient TCP then it will outlast me! I like the feel of the Weller, too, in fact the only thing I don't like is having to change bits to change the temperature, and the fact that the handle is a bit too large in diameter at the front end, and can get in the way sometimes.

 

[JimPerry]

I'd vote for the Weller also. Still using one that I reviewed for ETI magazine back in 1978 ! I was Specials Editor for the UK edition and managed to get samples of virtually every iron on the market for an article - gave most of them away to staff after publication.