Fixing a common fault with the 936D style solder stations.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ค. 2017
- The very common Hakko-themed digital soldering stations seem to have a common fault that causes a sensor error (S-E), erroneous temperature readings and failure to reliably heat the iron.
These are all down to a very simple design fault, where the front panel and PCB are connected by the solder pads on the soldering iron connector. It appears that the solder connections and PCB pads at that stress point can crack.
Here's how to fix the issue permanently and get your iron working properly.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Back in the day when I fixed TVs for a living, a certain manufacturer did something similar by connecting the button panel circuit board *with one screw on the **_opposite end_** of the power button !!!* I did this exact same fix dozens of times, good to see that old mistakes never go out of style...
Soldering stations that haven't been soldered together properly. How ironic!
Solder iron(ic)
Kean Maizels love the profile pic!
Commander Keen!
It's not so much that they haven't been soldered properly but that the mechanical design for support between the PCB and the front panel can cause the socket connections to break due to excessive movement. Not very ironic but more accurate.
OhTheIroning.png
Soldering station's down. Thanks to Big Clive, I know how to fix it. I'll just get my solde- oh.
Wouldn't be the first time I have had to buy a soldering iron to fix my soldering iron...I now own three of them !
I fixed mine with a classic Polish Lutola transformer iron ;)
Doesn't everyone have another cheap iron or two lying around? I know I have a few including a couple of battery-powered ones.
Finally, a legitimate use for the crap hardware store soldering irons!
@@peterlc8166 Oh yeah. I have 4 small irons and two biggies. How can one live with just one iron?
I have a WLX-936D that worked fine for a few months then one day just failed to power up. On investigation I found the soldering on the board was good, all connections and components checked out fine. I was amazed to discover the mains power cable was not passing power into the unit! On looking closer at the mains cable it was marked up as '3CX0.75mm but only had a few very thin strands of copper. Even attempting to strip the insulation snapped the conductors. Fitted proper mains cable and the unit has worked perfectly ever since. The naff cable had 6 strands in Earth conductor, and only 4 in the Neutral and 3 in the Live.. Lesson learned, check and replace power cable on ALL cheapo products, not just the dodgy 'sleeved pin' plugs..
So just buy something decent in the first place?!
@@merlinthegray I agree with you partially, it gives satisfaction to repair something and give it further life when others would just replace it and I'm certainly one of those who detests the modern throwaway society. However, you buy a tool to do a job and the last thing you want when you need it is to find the tool does not work or worse still further damages the thing you were trying to fix in the first place. You don't need to pay a fortune (Although you of course can) to by decent tools but these videos show the folly of buying the Chinese junk. Now we all know the Chinese are capable of quality manufacturing (Much of the top brand electronics is manufactured there) but when left to their own devices they often cut big corners off the product quality and manufacturing standards, and then they cut corners off the corners.
I hadn't used my YCD-936D (identical to your WLX) for almost a year and when I needed it, it wouldn't power up. I checked it and suspected there was something wrong with the cable. Then I read your post so I checked my cable and it was not passing power from the brown cable, so I replaced it. Now it works perfectly fine! So, thanks for your post! It helped me find the source of my problem.
Hi Clive my fist comment here (and rather late). I bought one of the plain black 936D's with red buttons and trim pot calibration. Mine was so far out of calibration that the trimmer wouldn't adjust it. I think it was still about 20 deg too high on full adjustment. I ended up swapping a resistor on the pcb. Now it calibrates about half way on the trim pot. I also used a Hakko 191 knock off sensor like you have. The 936 type units look stackable to me.
I also have a 898D+ (similar to your other station with a heat gun) but the irons are not compatible as the 898D+ uses the thermistor and the 936D uses the thermocouple type elements. Also I had to change the polarity of the thermocouple wires on a spare iron for that to work for some reason. Love your uploads and I've still loads to watch. Subbed.
Great fix, but I'd make one change to further improve it. I'd use solder wick instead of solid core wire. The solder wick conducts with low resistance (like the wire) but remains flexible (providing you don't fill the entire length of it with solder). It's easier to use than multi-strand wire as you don't need to deal with insulation or the strands unraveling.
I've done this on heaps of handheld radios where the RF connector center pin was soldered direct or with solid copper wire onto the PCB and there was enough flex after a few years for the connector center pin to eventually break the solder joint. That extra flex in the solder wick solved that problem.
Cheers
Luke
I have purchased a 898D+ reflow station which is basically that iron, a hot air gun and some accessories. After an exciting episode of unboxing and admiring my purchase I figured I should test and adjust it. The air gun worked really well and could be adjusted to burn or not burn my fingers with ease. The iron also works quite well and so I adjusted it for temp by starting at 200°C and raising it by 10° increments until it would melt tin solder easily and then adding another 10°C. That way I am assured it will have the temp and thermal capacity to solder all but the biggest power connections without the tendency to lift tracks or let out the smoke from even the smallest diodes.
Then I thought "you (meaning me) should check and see if the tip is grounded, just to be thorough". Imagine my surprise when it weren't! OH NO! I had already waited long enough to get this thing what with one seller absconding with my money and having to file a claim with ebay, wait for a refund and then order it from someone else. US sellers, but still it took longer than if I had bought it from "the peoples republic". I was not about to wait for a replacement. Besides, I had grown attached to it, what with the burns on my fingers and oodles of admiration already bestowed (see above). So it was determined I was to investigate.
I disconnected the iron and using a meter I measured the connections to find out what was what. Everything checked out fine so I moved on. Measuring the connector on the case I found no ground for the iron but the hot air gun was grounded. Upon opening the case I discovered I still can't see shit without a loupe so back into the house I go. Besides, I needed more coffee and to scratch my... well, you know.
A quick study of the internals revealed that the well attached ground wire wasn't attached to the ground plane of the board, just screwed through to the front case and the hot air gun. The iron ground connection was jumpered to the board, however the resistor that was supposed to connect to the ground plane was not there as marked on the board. It may have been left out due to some issue with noise or stability. But still, no ground on the sheath of a heating coil that can act as an inductor. For use on sensitive components? It doesn't say much for the fine art of Chingineering. Since it appeared to function just fine all afternoon I just soldered a wire in where the resistor would have gone and connected it to the ground lug for the hot air gun. Thanks be to Weller,eh. A quick check showed continuity from cord to iron and when I plugged it in and turned it on the only smoke was from the iron where I had left it laying on the table. Oh well, all is good. It works and now I can finish some projects without all that cursing, maybe.
Now don't get me wrong, I really like this 2in1 Soldering Iron Rework Station. And I certainly don't blame the importer for this little snafu. After all they didn't make it they just got it to me. Except the first one, who should take a.... I am glad actually that I now know how well this thing is built. It should easily last the rest of my life. Unless the zombie apocalypse happens because I will be too busy making brain pokers and zip guns to work on very much chintronics. If I need more flashlights or garden lights or even toilet paper I can always raid the stores that were staffed by zombie food.
If you think this little diatribe is too long then how come you're still reading it? But seriously, since ebay is bugging me to write a review of this device I figured it should be a doozy and serve multiple purposes. And besides Clive has made me smile more than once. So fair is fair.
Mike (o\!/o)
Experiencing Technical Difficulties- I like the cut of your jib
Good fix Clive! Sometimes you see the same problem on laptop power jacks (soldered directly on the motherboard).
I made a small fortune as a teen reflowing solder on old electronics, fixing CB radios mostly.
Been using a Weller EC1002 for somewhere near 10+ years. Oddly enough it has never needed a fix. Thanks for the cool videos Clive
Good to see that these units aren't completely junk. Straightfoward fix - thanks Clive.
just mostly junk... (of course, I say that, but have/use one too)
21.7 C - Having a heat wave there Clive? Quite a bit above your preferred low teens isn't it.
LOL I thought the same.
I bet he hates it!
WOW, THANK YOU FOR making this video. I was literally days away from saying "screw it" n ordering one of these cuz I'm sick of the $3 mains knew that takes forever to heat and the usb one doesn't get hot enough for certain stuff. you just saved me from wasting money on gear I don't want problems with once I pay good money for it! thanks again Clive!
Clive, i purchased three off of a skytronic 703.123 base station 5 years ago these are used every day and have had no problems ever.... at the same time i bought 5 spare irons at £3.50 each i have used 2 spare irons at this point and would certainly recommend these to any serious electrical/ electronics practitioner . you have a great channel by the way!
"Electricity has this really annoying habit of hurting" --Big Clive 2017
@@andrew_koala2974 ee33t5ß
Always have a spare soldering iron.... Great vid Clive!
I recently got a second soldering station from China. From what I have gathered in personal experience and online research, these inexpensive Chinese products come with the basic skeleton and the concept is usually decent but will not hurt at all to at least go through and tighten up any loose strings and if you're feeling ambitious, a complete rebuild.
Viewing this in 2020. Interesting fix. There are Amateur Radio manufacturers that use very similar connectors for their microphone jacks. Same issue with mechanical stress causing cracked solder connections on the front panel pcb. Great video...Well done, Clive.
Excellent - thank you. That's what I'll be doing today - pulling this base unit out of my rubbish bin and taking it apart to make some fun new solder tracks. On my guitar set up / upgrade videos I regularly talk about how movement is the enemy of circuits in guitars and its true of all appliances.
The 888D knock-offs seem a little better built (after seeing this vid. I had another closer look at mine's "insides"!) Let's be honest - unless you're soldering for 8 hours a day every day these "budget" thermostatic stations are a very good deal, and even if you ARE in the marathon soldering league, be mindful that these are also used by many commercial Chinese electronics companies, so they HAVE to be reasonably "fit for purpose".
lead free? not anymore!
hi Clive, I very much enjoyed this vidjayo.
mostly because of your ramblings, but especially when you gave a small explanation of how op-amps work.
thanks for reading my comment
Great video! Nice explanation and the printed pictures of the lifted pads make a great visual. Clive never disappoints
Bought one this week and happy to see it came with the correct unsleeved earth pin in the plug. Haven't checked the fuse rating yet. Could future-proof it but now I know I might just wait until it misbehaves.
Wow, I was doing that when I was 10 years old or maybe younger. Using the 'highly accurate' Weller 8200D with a crusty tip, on high & probably the wrong solder, I lifted many pads from the PCB.
I would use reclaimed telephone wire or whatever was around & usually went to another pin on the same circuit with the insulated wire.
Love to see a professional doing that all these years later. Makes me feel good about it haha!
Still have that soldering gun too. Tough to beat them for durability. I can't say so much for my hand & arm holding that monster for long periods though.
just ordered a 936d after watching your previous video about it, i'll make sure to do the fix in this video before using it, thank's for the information clive,
You need to scrub off the word 'free' from the front panel to finish the job properly.
This so reminds me of a call-out last year. Yamaha piano/synth keyboard, power plug snagged, socket lifted, pcb pads broken. Simple fix? No... had to strip it right down. 128 hex bolts later, all different size/length - whole thing dismantled. Reflowed with thick copper wire, 2 minute job. Only took another couple of hours to rebuild it!
Same with my Casio keyboard! 15 small headed Phillips screws with long threads for the metal base, then another 20 shorter ones for PCB! Just to reattach 12v socket! LOL
This reminds me very much of a number of similar situations that I ran into some years back with a well-known brand of Japanese musical instruments, specifically cheap keyboards. They would put the DC input jack in the back of the instrument, and people would bump the plug, or push the instrument back against something, resulting in tearing up the connections and ripping the foil on the board containing the connector. I used an X-acto knife to clear the solder mask. And speaking of which, they applied solder mask to such an extent as to have an absolute minimum amount of solder to that connector, if they'd allowed for more room around the connector pin so more solder could have been applied at least some of these problems could have been avoided. My fix was similar to what you did here, stripping off solder mask and applying a generous amount of solder, sometimes adding bits of wire as well.
I bought this station on your recommendation and encountered the same problem about a month ago. Fixed it by quickly borrowing an iron
I really like what you do,, it gets my technical juices flowing. .. tanx
keep up the good work. ..
After running out of solder i went to sunny Maplins , was told they dont do lead solder anymore only unleaded. Tried it , yup proper crap. Was so lucky to spot 2 rolls of lovely leaded 60/40 on the market ,1.25mm and 1.75mm 5 quid a roll . 1 kilo of leaded loveliness will last me years .
You can still get it from Banggood.
Wilko still do 60/40 solder in the little tubes.
You can still buy 60/40 leaded solder by the pound in the states, though it has warning labels "KNOWN TO CAUSE CANCER" which is ironic because flux in many lead free solders is more toxic.
Though in recent years, 63/37 leaded solder is supplanting 60/40 stocks. I don't like 63/37 because it's harder to melt and doesn't flow properly. It usually leaves tails on the connections pointing whichever way you pulled the soldering iron tip away from which is annoying.
I just buy it in bulk from China. Might take 3 months to get here but I only need to do it once every half decade or so!
I still have some 60/40 lead rolls here from the early 90's , definitely far better for hand soldered stuff.
you should be careful about holding them upside down. wouldn't want the electrons falling out. (as dave would say)
Bostish2 magic pixies ?
Good Fix BigClive. Had a different model/brand of Chinese solder station with the same problem some time ago. Did as you did and had to resolder other doggy PC board pad connections. For a solder station that sit in one place for months to develop such a problem was the surprise. Where the DIN connection has to be re-soldered again without any pulling on it. Of course to really have some fun, wait until you have to change out the heating element in the Hot Air attachment of the more deluxe stations, especially when the replacement element has its four wires with different colours than the original, and the wire sizes are all the same, leaving no simple indication of which wire goes to what. Not to mention having to get it back together where no wire is left too close to the element yet has to all fit back together again. Now that was a pain.
Something I thought of while watching was to make some sort of brackets to help hold the circuit board on the inside-- 3D printed brackets or corner braces. Love your channel!
Like the groove shown around 5:05 ?
Seeing this video in my feed just gave me a heart attack as I bought the Katsu based on your recommendation about a month ago. fortunately mine works great, no issues at all, however I'll definitely be more gentle with the plug now that I know it's a failure point. Thanks for the warning, @bigclivedotcom!
I have learned a lot from your videos Clive. Thank You. Please keep them coming.
I'm glad I found your channel. Such a pleasure not listening to that squeaky antipodean slagging off products that are quite usable by the hobbyist..
Thank goodness for simple fixes! Good video.
Thanx Clive, that repaired mine that was having an error code. Works fine again now.
Cheers for that Clive :)
Since borrowing a really good quality Weller soldering station, I've been contemplating getting one. I looked at the Katsu one but wasn't that convinced of its quality. But now I know if I do buy one, how to fix it when it breaks. Or, when I get it ;)
I bought, or was gifted a clone of the Hakko. Its a Kendal 937D, the only issue I had with this this the cable for the iron itself. I had some scrap cable from a load cell, felt to be high temp rubber/silicon coated cable heavily braided I think 20 maybe 18 gauge 4 conductor wire. That solved my S-E error. After seeing this video I half wonder if I should pop mine apart and check that connector.
I agree with you completely that this is an annoying defect in their design. At the price point of those things though, I half expected as much. Personally I stripped the solder masque off down the traces and just flooded the whole thing which does exactly the same thing you did with wire. I must say though, that your method would offer a lot more flexibility which is something I hadn't thought of. That said I used quite a lot of double sided foam tape to secure the board so it wouldn't move as much. I also used a bit of hot glue to further lock it into place. This is something you might consider doing as you likely have some double sided foam tape on hand and it does help quite a lot. Great fix though, with the wire instead of my method. If I ever get another one, I'll do that instead. Thanks for this....
There is a guy on TH-cam (12Votlvids) that did a review & tear-down of the non-digital version (It's black in color). And he noted that the solder connections on the board were terrible, some had cracks and others had cold solder joints. He recommended taking the board out and re-working the solder joints with a good quality 60/40 rosin core solder, just to prevent these problems.
Hello clive, Helpfull video keep them coming. I notice that you have been given 11 thumbs down, I am not understanding what there was to not like.You have showed people how to repair their soldeiring stations.There are a lot of f-king idiots out there.
The board needs to be reinforced to stop the flexure. All this did is to make it more resistant to flexure, the fundamental problem still exists. The real idiots are the ones who couldn't reflow the joints on their own.
Not entirely necessary. The 5-pin connector is reasonably firmly attached to the front panel (which is in turn well-supported by moulded channels in the outer casing). The "fix" would seem more to do with correcting initial slap-dash assembly / impatient soldering rather than a major mechanical deficiency. Nevertheless it would be pretty easy to mount rigid insulating spacers between the fascia and PCB in order to provide mechanical support.
@@phils4634 I agree. Dude just had to be the Mr know it all. He is right... I had one that was down. I did it the hard way but the better way and got that fucking lead free of the board, then re flowed the components. Works great now
I've done a similar repair on circuit boards with screw terminals. The screw terminals have large through-hole pins and large solder pads. Vibration would cause a fracture around the perimeter of the solder pad, breaking the connection between the circuit board and pin.
The repair is made with a small coil of wire, about three or four wraps, that would fit loosely over the pin. The coil is pushed down over the pin with a soldering iron and fresh solder is added as needed. I've never had to go back to repair a connection after making this repair.
Many thanks for your video, I have an intermittent error 5 but the soldering on my PCB is OK.
Good video. I tend to solder around 360-370C. I've been soldering so long that I can very quickly make a solder joint without risk of overheating components or pads. Clive does a pretty good job, I've watched some of these TH-camrs solder and it's like they're frosting a cake or something, they come back and try to reflow the crappy connection they just made without adding any flux or fresh solder and/or they take 5 seconds to make one solder joint. Some of the repair guys are the worse ones. I was taught how to solder by an instructor that held multiple certifications, I think some of these repair guys learned to solder by reading the directions on the back of the Chinese soldering iron package.
I haven't had a problem as such but I know mine was too far out of calibration to compensate for. It was a comfortable temperature for me so I just left it but I might have a look and see if I can perform this fix. Thanks.
Hi Big Clive, from someone with no electrical knowledge I find your videos fantastic how you describe everything; one thing I would like to ask you is how the heck can you tell what's on the board by just looking at the solder blobs? keep up your videos there great.
+Mike Bailey I can guess what the circuitry is and the tracks and pads match the expected components.
Hi Clive. I'm BRAND NEW dipping my foot into electronics. I just got myself the Katsu 852D station. 45 quid! I've been watching loads of reviews and stuff and from what I can make out I think I got a decent wee station. Could you do a review on the 852D as I think it would be a good one to recommend for other newbies?
Terry
It's all your fault, Clive! You made us buy those things. ;o)
I feel doubly dumb as I just picked one of these up. Ah well. At least I know how to fix it if there's a problem.
When doing this same sort of repair, I usually clean off all the solder mask about the same distance back as your new pads, then lay the wire (usually heavier gauge) and then flood each connection with solder. It adds a large physical mass to support the mechanical loads. I once did that fix to my windshield wiper motor controller 10+ years ago. Haven't needed to touch it since.
I have done that to several wiper motors, usually GM with the integral circuit board. Just clean, flux, and reflow with some lead and they are forever boards now.
Mike Cowen But for cases like this, that would ruin the ability of the botch wire to allow future plug and board movement.
John Francis Doe The point being if you can provide sufficient physical mass, the flexibility is not required. It's sturdy enough to hold its own without failing. If you can make the joint solid enough that it CAN'T move, no flexibility is required. Keep in mind, the original flexibility in the joint is what caused the problem. I've been playing this game as long as Clive, and you tend to learn what works best in a given situation. Admittedly, this basic design sucks, mechanically speaking. It's designed for assembly, not durability.
worth trying to add in some spacers between the board and front panel at the same time to prevent so much flexing?
HEY I HAVE AN AWESOME TIP FOR YOU!!! Incase you dont have your desoldering braid with you or dont feel like using it. I havent got any yet so I do it this way!
If you need to desolder something with multiple pins
Turn the PCB upside down. so your soldering iron is pointing towards the sky with the solder joint on the bottom and you sort of soak away the solder away from the PCB joint.
I got a 4 lead component out really easily by doing this!!!!! Only took a few seconds! Then i just wiggled the component a little bit and it slide right out!
It basically soaks all the solder away from the PCB onto the soldering iron. then you can diposit the solder elsewhere or leave it on the iron (as long as its not a HUGE glob of solder)
Its super useful. just make sure your quick!
Clive I finally got an iron that holds a good temp but it game with a thick screwdriver shaped tip. What tip should I get for soldering PCBs and other projects?? its a weller.
Great video
3:24 My work just started selling that exact same mini screw driver. Seems pretty durable. I was thinking of getting one.
Hello Clive!
I was wondering, what is your opinion on the TS100 Soldering on BangGood (or other sellers on eBay). It seems like a quite nice little always-carry iron in a laptop case to me. Its quite appealing to me as an technician who only has limited space (normal toolcase with all the tools an electrician and technician needs and a laptop case for all the diagnosis fun) in his equipment.
Put some hot glue or silicone between the board and faceplate to help support them.
Keeping in mind that it's a generic (low) quality station, I'd go with something a little easier to service later like proper screwed-in standoffs.
Reminds me of back when I did component level repair on cell phones. One of the most common problems was the surface mount headphone jack legs breaking off the pad. Occasionally the pads were lifted, but most often it was the solder joint failing. I don't recall if they were lead free or not. At the time I was blaming gold embrittlement (the board pads were gold plated) along with the stupidity of using SMT on a high mechanical strain application.
Thanks for the video. If I were going to bother repairing it, I would have added at least one, probably two or more screwed on standoffs (depending on how many can be put through the front faceplate without making it look too hacked up), or perhaps an L-bracket made from sheet aluminum, with one leg of the "L" screwed to the bottom of the case and the other to the back of the PCB. From the video it looks like that might block a few of the case lower vent slits but while I had it apart I would drill a few more/new vent holes anyway.
Note that while what you found is a common fault causing the SE error display, another very common fault with these is that the low quality iron cable frays internally. It's quite a shame that China can't seem to make decent quality wire. It's also a shame that they reversed the male/female plug/socket arrangement between the base station and iron cord so that a standard Hakko 907 iron isn't plug 'n play, especially considering that they went to the trouble to make these station variant yellow and blue once Hakko did the same on their current gen 888.
I suppose that's expected, that a color change doesn't necessarily cost any money while making it fit to last longer than the first few uses would cost a few cents more, lol.
I think one of the reasons for the plug versus socket on the iron lead is to stop people plugging in thermistor based irons instead of thermocouple ones.
I like my 939d. nice job again clive
It's truly an amazing cheap soldering iron isn't it? Had to calibrate the temperature when I received it but other than that, it works like a breeze!
My Yihua 898d knockoff ended up having an issue where the solder joint of one of the capacitors failed causing it not to get hot and have random problems. I went to the horrible frieght and bought the cheapest soldering iron i could find to fix it. Works great now.
In the market for a new soldering station, I was glad to see your video on this particular one. However, I find it interesting that the Hakko 936D is not listed on eBay US!
I'm quite happy with my Weller WES51. It's old-fashioned, but it's good.
Not all that interesting. The real Hakko 936 isn't digital, and went out of production years ago, so there is no such thing as a Hakko 936D. What there are, are clones that were named 936, then when the clones switched to a digital front panel, put a D at the end for the digital version.
Jed Rhoades I have the same iron. It's a real trooper!
William Garrett If you solder large connections, I recommend getting the 936P. It's the same as the regular 936, but can deliver more power.
If you are in the market now, i'd look at one of the T12 based Hakko clones. they cost about the same ~$40 assembled or slightly cheaper as a kit, and have higher thermal mass than the 936 clones (at least the one i had).
Awesome fix!
Thanks Clive!
great videos, keep up the good work :)
Do you think it would be worthwhile to surround your bare-wire repair of the connector with epoxy?
Hey bigclive; long time watcher/first time asker. I was curious if you would still suggest this Yihua brand? Here in 2021 I'm looking at their new Yihua 939D+ III; I'm new to soldering but would like a station that will last awhile. Thanks for any suggestions you might have; your videos pushed me to get back into tinkering.
It's a generic brand. Some are good and some are bad. You have to check things like grounding/earthing when you buy them.
@@bigclivedotcom Thats good to know; I'll certainly do that. Thank you for answering my question on a four year old video.
Good practice would have been to replace the blue before removing the yellow stubs, or vice versa. Just in case you get a phone call 😵💫
Also, I’d look into adding a couple of supports between the board and panel, even if it’s just a block of plastic and hot glue. In this case there a number of holes in the board and I wouldn’t mind screw heads showing on the panel.
I wonder if you desolder the connector, add a screw on that spacer, whether the board would sit correctly
I would also be tempted to at least add some spacer blocks that are double sided taped in place.
But then i have never owned a temp controlled iron, i prefer my Antex X25's
Hi, can you tell me please where I can find that front panel (I didn't find it on ebay), I have Baku 936D same type transformer and I want to try to put this panel on my soldering station to see if it suits me better. I prefer pot instead of push-buttons but I wish to try this panel just for fun...
When it comes to soldering irons, more is better, that way you're never tuck without one, I think I have 5 irons myself, a 30 watt burn-everything one, a 12v one that barely works, two of them USB irons (one a spare), and my station I got from Rapid, the latter of which I've modified with cloth-covered wire cos the stock PVC stuff was too inflexible... :)
For all that messing around, I'd much prefer to not buy a clone and pay the difference, like a lot of commenters have said "My solder station is down, ok just need to solder something to fix it" - Apart from that, thanks again Clive, was disappointed that you didn't find a pink version of the 936D though.
A nice way to start bank holiday Monday. Cheers.
for the ground connection i would probably cut the track and stick a 100k or 1 meg resistor in series. A directly grounded iron can be a problem if you happen to use it on a live circuit, even low voltage, if it is earth referenced :)
Great video.
I love your usage of the word "modest" in many of your videos :-). Modest usually means limited or small. In your case it means large or possibly (and preferably?) life threatening! Is that a Scottish thing? :-)
Tony Brock It's basic irony. The word still means the same, he just uses in a joke. It's like talking of that small computer company from Armonk (IBM), or that small company from Redmond (Microsoft).
Clive, I use a 'Fiberglass Pen' to get PCB tracks exposed. Excellent for making stuff ready to solder. I have a spare I can send you.
+Nuts n Proud I have a full set of the steel, brass and fibreglass pens. I just used the screwdriver tip out of habit.
In my years of having to care for 100+ Thinkpads I actually have seen quite a lot of this, the power connectors are the most stressed components on laptops, and with (thankfully) tight-fitting connectors from the power supply you get quite a bit of leverage on the circuit board. Really should have dared to do a solder job like that on them, but IIRC there wasn't too much space for the new "solder pads". Also we hade quite good warranty on them, so sending them in for repair wasn't that much of a biggy... just had to give the user a loaner while waiting for IBM/Lenovo to fix it.
Now I long for those days, since the HPs at my new place of work have made the power connectors not quite fit the cable of the power supply, making it fall out all the time.
if you need a backup soldering iron then an ersa 75 gas one is ideal. self igniting and uses lighter gas.
You keep saying in your videos about lead based solder am I correct in assuming you mean 60/40 tin lead or is there another type because I have always used 60/40 and never had any problems. The next video I watched was May 2018 and you explained the different solders you have so that answered my question LOL.
I just got one of these and the display stuck at 76 but the soldering tip started glowing very bright orange...god knows what temp it was but turning it down did nothing. Then, when i tried it again a few times, it would not heat at all....is this likely the issue? Also im unsure what soldering to varios places on the board that appear to have no track is doing to stop it relifting at the connection points and still not working. Is that just an attempt to give original joints strength? Wouldn't hot glue be better to stop board moving?
Have you any fixes for a Precision Gold A55KJ with the two wire soldering iron , put a new element in but it doesn't regulate temperature, maybe a triac fault, the tip gets red hot and HE stills shows on the LCD screen.
Check the triac. They usually go short circuit when they fail.
I've bought a maplin soldering station, pressision gold, and some ebay handles, my handles look to have 5 separate wires, 2 for heater, 2 for sensor and 1 for earth but in my station the connector only has an earth which is centre pin and 2 pins either side are shorted together so 2 pins in left are together and 2 pins in right are together, will I need to rewire the handles so heating element works without the sensor because as they are in getting an s-e error code
The one with the funky pad looks like it might be a "refurbished" one where someone with a broken one returned it, they fixed it and sold as new.
By the way, I love your Videos
Have you seen the TS100 mini soldering irons a couple of TH-camrs have reviewed? They look pretty interesting, 12-24V input, OLED display, microUSB port for uploading custom heating curves, firmware updates & custom power on GIFs(!)
It would be quite straightforward to 3D print some supports or maybe a shroud to hold the PCB firmly in place and correctly alighted with the front panel. As I don't have one of these solder stations there's no need for me to bother and, in any case, I don't have the necessary dimensions. Now I have a 3D printer I'm always looking for things to make or fix with it.
Just thinking the same thing haha. Bigclive Get a 3D printer!
True, but designing simple parts is not too difficult really if you've got a 3D printer and then you can share your fix with the internet
You could cut a few bits of something to length and glue them in there, in a fraction of the time it would take to print something.
Because people need something to justify their newest WhatevrBot clones they jumped at to be part of the craze.
@Pete Allum, I believe there are some on the market which are suitable already. They have a sticky pad base and latch on to the board edge. They are like the sticky pad pillar type.
could you do a review of a ebay soldering iron with the built in lcd? I dont solder all the time or often to be worth getting a bench so I would like to know how good are the all in ones are
Clive what make are the black pocket pen type screwdrivers u use have tried so many that were useless
Ty Alan
+Alan Morton They're from a UK outlet called Poundland, and are surprisingly good quality.
Thanks for this.
are you going to epoxy or jb weld the boards together so that they don't separate again?
The best tool for scraping off solder resist is an abrasive fibreglass pencil such as KR61R from Maplin.
Clive! Mine has knackered this week. I've got new elements and a pen iron for it, but it's stuck on cold. Any ideas? A bit tricky without a second soldering iron!
Check the solder joints as shown. Not handy unless you do have another iron.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks Clive. I've ordered a cheap iron to fix my cheap iron! Cheap tech don't fail me now!!
@ bigclivedotcom where do you get your solder from my friend, all i can find in canada is 4 oz from amazon... way too big
everyone else just has lead free junk.
nvm i found some leaded stuff on amazon, just was not using the right keywords... haha...
very good bit of imformation
you could also drill 4 holes in the front panel and PCB and add nylon screws and spacers to keep them aligned?
Strangely enough, I got one of these from a drop-ship supplier based in Coalvile, Leicester (Probs from the Amazon warehouse based there), and I also got the same thermocouple test unit you have shown in a previous video, and tried the calibration mode, and no matter what I try, I can not get the display on the iron to match what the themo test unit was showing, so at the time, I dismissed the test unit as being faulty..... Clive, what you have shown here, would the issues I have mentioned explain the issue I have?