Whats a good soldering station?

[The Real Andy]

"John Crighton" <john_c@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3fd27fed.14278137@News.CIS.DFN.DE...

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 11:44:01 +1100, "Phil Allison"
philallison@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

Hello Phil,
I wasn't impressed with the Hakko aftersales help
for bits and pieces on my Hakko 700 soldering and
desoldering station.
No circuits are supplied.
IC UPC1701 is unobtainable in Australia.
Hakko USA and Hakko Japan do not answer e-mails.
The local agents can get the IC in six weeks, maybe,
for 15 dollars and 8 dollars delivery. No pickups allowed.
Must receive the tiny IC by standard 8 dollar satchel post.
Wouldn't even let me talk on the phone to the local
repair man.

I have had no problem obtaining parts and schematics from Prime Electronics.
The person I used to deal with at Prime has now left to start his own
business

The soldering iron part of the station has worked well
and is probably quite similar to the 936 model that you
mention but the desoldering iron electronics is a bit
flacky to me. I traced the circuit and it seems to
work by sensing the resistance change in the heating
element. As the element gets hot the resistance goes
up so the current though the element and and a low
ohm series sense resistor goes down. The voltage
sensed is fed to a comparator and then on to the special
IC which produces a series of pulses to fire the triac
when required, observing zero crossing requirements.
Very erratic in operation.

I give the Hakko 700 desoldering station the thumbs down.

Ditto, the barrel and tips are crap. The corrode in no time at all. They
dont transfer heat to large ground traces etc. very well either. Had no
problems with the electronics however. I got the 700c schematic so I could
add the LED to my 700. Never neded up doing, scored a 700c for nothing and
sold the 700.

The best desolder tool i have ever used is by Pace, the PRC9000 iirc. It was
the big unit with the desolder tool, solder iron, thermotweez and all the
other crap.

 

[John Crighton]

On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 17:11:31 +1000, "The Real Andy"
<ihatehifitrolls@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

I have had no problem obtaining parts and schematics from Prime Electronics.
The person I used to deal with at Prime has now left to start his own
business


The soldering iron part of the station has worked well
and is probably quite similar to the 936 model that you
mention but the desoldering iron electronics is a bit
flacky to me. I traced the circuit and it seems to
work by sensing the resistance change in the heating
element. As the element gets hot the resistance goes
up so the current though the element and and a low
ohm series sense resistor goes down. The voltage
sensed is fed to a comparator and then on to the special
IC which produces a series of pulses to fire the triac
when required, observing zero crossing requirements.
Very erratic in operation.

I give the Hakko 700 desoldering station the thumbs down.

Ditto, the barrel and tips are crap. The corrode in no time at all. They
dont transfer heat to large ground traces etc. very well either. Had no
problems with the electronics however. I got the 700c schematic so I could
add the LED to my 700. Never neded up doing, scored a 700c for nothing and
sold the 700.

The best desolder tool i have ever used is by Pace, the PRC9000 iirc. It was
the big unit with the desolder tool, solder iron, thermotweez and all the
other crap.


Hello Andy,

does the schematic that you speak of, include the circuit of the
control boards? I have seen the overall interconnecting diagrams
which just shows the control board as rectangles with wires.

Your 700C model is 60W. So it works better.
You have just given me an idea to get more heat out my
700 model which is 40W.

If I rectify the 24 AC and then run the element off roughly
30 volts DC. with a little PWM heat controller. Maybe even
a switch to apply full power when the air pump trigger is
pulled. That might help this desoldering tool work better.
I better check the price of elements.
Maybe the 700c element will fit.

Thanks for that,
John Crighton
Sydney

 

[The Real Andy]

"John Crighton" <john_c@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3fd54ada.30954374@News.CIS.DFN.DE...

On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 17:11:31 +1000, "The Real Andy"
ihatehifitrolls@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

Hello Andy,
does the schematic that you speak of, include the circuit of the
control boards? I have seen the overall interconnecting diagrams
which just shows the control board as rectangles with wires.

I had the actual schematics for the control PCB's. Wouldn't know where they
are these days. Prime can help out out, they may want a samll fee for
photocopying the drawing though.

Your 700C model is 60W. So it works better.
You have just given me an idea to get more heat out my
700 model which is 40W.

If I rectify the 24 AC and then run the element off roughly
30 volts DC. with a little PWM heat controller. Maybe even
a switch to apply full power when the air pump trigger is
pulled. That might help this desoldering tool work better.
I better check the price of elements.
Maybe the 700c element will fit.

Make sure you use the new style of tips, they dont narrow down right at the
point like the old ones. They hold the heat much better.