Soldering station t12 do it yourself. Choosing a soldering station for Hakko T12 tips
Hello to all readers of my blog. I post articles infrequently. Now there is little time, and writing articles often takes more than one evening. I want to say something else. Many people write to me that I am an asshole, and the Chinese send me the goods for reviews. So, everything that you see on my blog and on the YouTube channel (except for the suntec stabilizer) was bought by me personally, and in no way is a gift from the supplier for a fake review. So I ask the trolls to pass by.
Today we are talking about the Quicko T12-952 soldering station. It is already clear from the model that this soldering station works on replaceable T12 tip cartridges. Why did I even decide to buy this "soldering iron" ??? !!! I have had an adjustable soldering iron for many years, more than five years for sure. The article was written about him in 2013. A soldering station was purchased later. It has exactly the same soldering iron as in. After a while, I was pretty tired of the soldering iron from these soldering irons, and just recently I bought myself a soldering station with T12 tips. I wanted to buy an induction soldering station first, but the toad strangled me. Previously, Quick 202 soldering irons were on sale on Ali, but they disappeared from sale, and replaced them with Quick 203, the reviews of which, in turn, are not very good. Simply put, people from the 203 model spit. And for induction soldering stations the price is at least 5-6 thousand + a set of tips 1-1.5 thousand. This is the background. And we'll start by unpacking. The parcel arrived in a box, enclosed in a bag, and pasted over with Quicko branded tape. Surprised that it was not printed at customs.
I didn’t take a picture of the box itself, it was also pasted over with Quicko branded tape. You can see this in the video review. The set includes the controller itself with a power supply in one case, a soldering iron with a GX12-4pin connector and one tip of the "K" type (hatchet). I ordered the second tip right away, due to considerations that I don't like soldering with a hatchet (whoever likes it). Also included are four rubber self-adhesive feet. But I glued larger ones from D-Link switches. The tips are not labeled as HAKKO, but as Quicko. Made in China.
The unit itself, in which the power supply and the control controller are mounted. I took it apart, and I was very surprised. The body is made of very high quality. I was just delighted. I have not seen such Chinese buildings for a long time. Even the language does not dare to say that this is a Chinese handicraft.
This "soldering iron" was ordered with a soldering iron handle like that of and, so that there was no noticeable transition from one soldering iron to another. If desired, you can freely replace the soldering iron handle, it is not expensive. The device is exactly the same as the previously listed soldering iron stations. The only thing is the upper sleeve, which is put on a shorter sting. Everything else is the same.
The inside of the soldering iron. Made in the form of a tectolite scarf with contacts. There is a tilt sensor on the board. He, by the way, is quite noisy if you jog it. At first I thought that something had fallen off in the soldering iron, and then it turned out - it's just a sensor. The soldering is done efficiently and accurately. At the end of the board, in the place of soldering, the cable is fastened with a cable tie.
I would like a little about the display. Here it is installed a little unevenly, and the window under the display is slightly larger than the display itself. And if you look at it from an angle, it turns out that you can clearly see it. But these are all little things. The display is one-color. You will see this further.
We open the case. Everything looks pretty good. There is a protective piece of plastic on the top and bottom covers. It's good to see it.
Controller. The board is small and runs under MK control. The board also has a beeper that beeps disgustingly.
Power supply board. In general, it is assembled well. There are some comments, but these are all trifles. The soldering is good, the board is washed from the flux. Everything is clean.
VENT input capacitors 22 uF at 400 V. When disassembling old computer power supplies, I often come across such capacitors, but at the moment they are Chinese rubbish (we do not take the originals into account, now it is easier to run into a fake than the original). And the capacity is too small. For the future, it is necessary to put more, especially the lower markings on the board are indicated for large capacitors. I now have nothing to replace, we leave it that way for now. I will definitely replace it later.
Silan Microelectronics is used as a power transistor "pumping" the primary winding of the transformer. I will also add on circuitry here. The diodes of the diode bridge are installed of the SMD type with the M7 marking. It . The diode is designed for a current of 1A with a voltage of 1000 V. It would be nice to replace it for good, but when working in a pulsed mode, it will withstand a larger current.
I will not write much on the power supply device. The output part is assembled on a diode assembly designed for 10A and 200 V. Installed with a margin. The output capacitors are installed by VENT and some kind of Yungli brand. This is the first time I've seen such a miracle. In general, it is advisable to replace these capacitors with normal expensive caps. It will be calmer this way. I'll do that later too. At the moment I want to run the soldering station as it is.
But this surprised me. In general, it may be good that it is soldered, but it is better if it was soldered instead of the connector. A more acceptable option than soldering onto the connector pins.
Station without a connected soldering iron. Writes that ERROR. The same will happen if you do not insert the removable sting cartridge.
Now let's start all over again, only with the soldering iron connected. As soon as we turn it on, we are greeted by an inscription informing us that this is a T12 "soldering iron".
If everything is fine with the electronics and the sting, then the display will show normal inscriptions during operation
Let's move on to the settings now. To get to the settings menu, press the encoder and hold it for a while. a menu appears. I'll tell you right away. To exit the menu and save the adjusted settings, press and hold the encoder in the same way. Moving between menu items is carried out by rotating the encoder.
The first menu item is CALIBRATION(calibration). As I understand it, we set the soldering iron to 350 degrees, and measure the temperature. By changing the ratio RATIO, by default 100%, change in one direction or another to decrease or increase the temperature. We DO 1% each. Changed, waited, measured. If not satisfied, we repeat again. After the manipulations, click on the encoder and exit to the menu. In my case, it was necessary to reduce it by 1%. The temperature rise was 10 degrees. In general, you could not touch anything. It is easier to select the required temperature along the soldering process.
Further function AUTO SLEEP... Auto sleep function. It is defined in the range from 1 to 99 minutes and there is also an OFF mode - which disables this function. This functionality works as follows. When we do not touch the soldering iron and the tilt sensor, which was discussed many lines above, does not work, the station after the expiration of the set time goes into the mode of decreasing the temperature to 150 degrees and also the power consumption is reduced. If you press or twist the encoder, as well as shake the soldering iron, then the station quickly enough picks up the required temperature. Oh yes, I have 5 minutes set for convenience.
The next function is AUTO POWEROFF... Here, as in the previous menu, the range is from 1 to 99 minutes, with the OFF position which completely disables this function. It works as follows. As soon as the timer expires AUTO SLEEP timer starts AUTO POWEROFF and the temperature drops to 50 degrees. In theory, the soldering station should then turn off completely, but in my case it does not turn off. The function is very useful. I have had more than once cases when I forgot to turn off mine, and it warmed me up for a day. Not only will this feature save energy, but it will also save you from fire. A useful and very practical function!
I want to say right away. During testing, I noticed such a thing that if the function AUTO SLEEP set to OFF, which stops the function AUTO POWEROFF... I tried a lot of options. One function depends on another. And I tried to set the timer on AUTO SLEEP 1 minute. and on AUTO POWEROFF, but the power off trigger only works after two minutes have elapsed. It turns out that the timer of the first function runs out, and then the timer of the second function starts running. In general, a bug.
Let's start with BOOST DURATION... This function has a range of 10 to 99 s. with a step of 1 s. The default is 30 seconds. I left it that way. This function allows you to increase the temperature of the tip for the time set in this function. This functionality is necessary when heating heat-capacious elements or large heat-capacious polygons. Press the encoder knob once for a short time and the booster turns on, which raises the temperature.
I bring to your attention an overview of the Chinese soldering station based on the STC controller for the Hakko T12 tips.
I'll tell you right away how it differs from the stations on the STM32 controller. The STC does not have a T12 tip library (which is used for individual tip calibration), so there is no individual tip calibration and there is no clock. STM32 allows you to memorize 3 calibration points for each of its tips.
Immediately I apologize, for some reason unknown to me, my photos are not attached to the review (perhaps they are too large, only greatly reduced screen shots were attached) + I simply do not have a lot of things, I will use other people's photos.
Station selection.
Researching forums and articles led me to believe that I needed a temperature controlled soldering iron.
There are several options for soldering irons with a built-in temperature regulator in the handle, they are relatively cheap and are quite suitable for amateur purposes.
But appetite comes with eating))) I really wanted a high-quality soldering iron and, if possible, with digital adjustment.
Everything is simple here - if inexpensive, then either relative quality or temperature control.
Popular in this category. 
A more expensive alternative is 900 series tip soldering stations, for example from Lukey. 
There are a lot of such stations, including those with hair dryers (it would be convenient for me to plant shrink cambric), but in budget options there is one known drawback - a small gap between the heating element and the sting, which prevents rapid heat exchange between them. According to many, this gap is needed to compensate for thermal deformations. They say the problem can be easily treated with a lump of foil or a "file", but somehow I didn't like it right away.
A soldering iron was also recommended, it does not have such a gap. I didn’t like the need to buy a power supply unit and “collective farm” connector. It is not included in the kit. 
As a result, my choice fell on the T12 soldering station. These tips are also devoid of unnecessary gaps, due to the fact that the heating element, thermocouple and the tip itself are soldered into one body, but they are more popular and their range is much wider.
Similar stings are used by other manufacturers, they have been known since the mid-70s and have proven themselves well in work.
... By the way, they are similar, but sold in other regions.
Several variants of Chinese stations on T12 tips were discovered, as it turned out later, even more than I expected. You can buy them in the form of finished products (I did so), or in parts, combining them as you wish. I chose a ready-made version, so the kit came out for about the same money, and I did not have another soldering iron for assembling the kits.
They differ in the case, power supply, controller and screen, pen. Well, you can choose any sting. In ready-made versions, you can usually ask to invest what you want, they say the Chinese do not refuse.
I also included a yellow tip cleaning sponge, rosin, and a grounded power cord. By the way, the sting is securely connected to the ground. 
Station control
On back wall there is a switch on the case. The station is controlled by rotating the encoder and short and long pressing on it.
Below are photos of the menu, work screen, Standby and Sleep modes. 
Small addition from 04/03/2017.
The old handle let me down a couple of times, the textolite basket was soldered. I decided to buy a new one. I am reporting ...
The FX-9501 pen I ordered came. I watched it, tested it and ... put it off until better (or worse?) Times.
I didn’t like it.
The photo above shows my old pen (951) and a new one. 
First, about the pros. The main reason why I took a new pen was in the old very unreliable textolite basket: 
In the new one, everything is much more modern, more beautiful and more reliable: 
On this we finished with pluses. Not a lot of them, yes ...
Minuses.
First, the rubber seal is loose: 
Why this is so is completely incomprehensible. But it is clearly thinner than it should be.
Secondly, the inscription is already initially shabby, "antique": 
The sting has a little backlash in the handle, but I think this is not critical.
The sting also does not fix it with a nut, but is simply inserted into the handle. And it fits deeper than the old handle.
It seems like it should be convenient ... For this, many people buy it. But there are nuances ...
In the old sting, the fixing nut is located relatively farther from the tip of the sting; in this part, the sting is no longer hot and the nut can be unscrewed by hand during operation. I changed the tip like this without turning off the soldering iron.
This trick won't work in a new pen. The part of the sting that sticks out already hot.
As a result of the deep seating of the sting, the part of the handle that you hold onto is noticeably heated during work. Not that it burned, but unpleasant. With the old handle, this could not be.
Well, one more thing, the new pen does not hold well in the holder: 
Well, okay, for a spare pen it will go.
There is another oddity with her. If you turn it over with a sting upwards, then the temperature sensor starts to fail, and, accordingly, the temperature "floats". If you hold it this way longer, then the station shows instead of the cold junction temperature "? 20", which means "sensor error" in Chinese.
In the working position (sting down), such an error does not seem to occur.
This probably has something to do with the fact that the green wire is common for the temperature sensor and the ball position sensor. It's just not clear why there is no such problem with the old handle, although the wiring and sensors are the same.
In conclusion, I will give a few links to comments in other reviews and just useful links. The information has not been verified by me, check its accuracy yourself.
Assembling a soldering station on the Hakko T12
The article briefly describes the prerequisites for choosing a soldering station on the Hakko T12 tips, below is given comparative analysis several versions available on the market, and also considered some features of the assembly of the soldering station and its final setting.
Why is there such a stir around the Hakko T12?
To understand why many radio amateurs recent times so interested in these Chinese stations, you need to start from afar. If you have already come to this decision yourself, you can skip this chapter.For any beginner to learn to solder, the first question is the choice of a soldering iron. Many start with penny fixed-power soldering irons available in the nearest household store. Of course, some simple work, such as soldering wires, can be done even with a Soviet soldering iron with a copper tip, especially if you have the skill. However, anyone who has tried to solder something more technologically advanced with such soldering becomes obvious problems: if the soldering iron is too weak (40W or less), some details, for example, the leads connected to the ground area, are very inconvenient to solder, and if it is powerful (50W or more ) - it overheats very quickly and instead of soldering, ritual burning of the tracks occurs. Based on the above, even if you are just learning to solder, it is still advisable to buy a soldering iron with the ability to adjust the temperature. However, most often soldering irons with simple regulators built into the handle are products of extremely low quality, so if you have already wondered about choosing a normal soldering iron, most likely you should already look towards the soldering stations.
Most often, the next question is which soldering station to choose. There may be variations, since professionals generally work with rather bulky stations combined with a soldering dryer, such as PACE, ERSA or, at worst, Lukey. I don't need a hairdryer at home, but at the same time I want to have a reliable, powerful and compact station with the ability to adjust. Because workplace not rubber, the station should be really small, so many stations fall away in size. Plus, of course, you always want to keep within a reasonable budget. And then our Chinese friends come onto the stage, with their stations designed to work with the tips of the Japanese company Hakko. The original soldering stations from this brand cost some inadequate money, but the Chinese crafts for these stings, oddly enough, are of a fairly high quality, at a very pleasant price.
So why are the stings from Hakko? Their main trump card is a ceramic heater combined with a temperature sensor. Actually, for a ready-made soldering station, it remains only to "add" a PID controller and sufficient power to such a tip, which allows achieving fast heating and high-quality maintenance of the set temperature. Well, wrap it all up in a convenient case. Actually, in soldering stations-constructors, which can be found in abundance on Aliexpress for requests such as "diy hakko t12", all this is implemented, and the Chinese usually put one or two Hakko stings in the kit (there is an opinion that these are mostly copies, however, even the copies have the same quality).
Choosing a kit for assembly
If you have already tried to search for a similar soldering iron on Ali, you are probably surprised by the variety of options that the search gives out.At the beginning of 2018, when searching on Ali, offers from "firms" Quicko, Suhan and Ksger most often come across. Moreover, in the descriptions they sometimes even refer to each other, so it is quite obvious that these are the essence of the same thing, so then, if possible, I will skip the specific names of the "manufacturer", referring only to the versions of specific stations, for a cursory analysis of the photos suggests that if the versions are the same, then the circuitry is approximately the same.
In fact, there are not so many variations in general as it might seem at first glance. I will describe the main significant differences:
An approximate table of soldering iron power, depending on the voltage of the power supply:
- At 12V - 1.5A (18W)
- At 15V - 1.88A (28W)
- At 18V - 2.25A (41W)
- At 20V - 2.5A (50W)
- At 24V (max!) - 3A (72 W)
note, for some versions it is indicated that when using a power supply higher than 19V, it is advisable to unsolder a 100 Ohm resistor, signed somehow like "20-30V R-NC". This resistor is paralleled with the larger 330 ohm resistor and together they form one 77 ohm resistor in front of the 78M05. Having soldered 100 Ohm, we will leave one resistor at 330. This is done in order to reduce the voltage drop across this regulator at a high input voltage - obviously to increase its reliability and durability. On the other hand, by raising the resistance to 330, we will also limit the maximum current on the + 5V line. At the same time, given that the 78M05 itself can easily digest even 30V at the input, I would not completely solder 100 Ohms, but replace this resistor with something in the range of 200-500 Ohms (the higher the voltage, the higher the rating). Or you can leave this resistor alone and leave it as it is.
So, we have decided on the overall package bundle, now let's take a closer look at the boards of various versions themselves.
Comparison of some versions
Now on sale you can find a car of various stations under different names, it is not clear how they differ. I already wrote above that I bought myself a station on STC, so I will only compare the versions on this controller.The circuitry of all the boards is quite similar; small nuances may differ. I found on the net a diagram drawn by a Wwest user from ixbt.com for the version F... In principle, it is quite enough for understanding the operation of the station.
Diagram of a soldering station Mini STC T12 ver.F
For starters, under the spoilers below are comparative photos of the two versions of Mini STC T12 ver.E and ver.F :
Appearance of Mini STC T12 ver.E
Appearance of Mini STC T12 ver.F
The first thing that catches the eye is the absence of an electrolytic capacitor between the indicator and the encoder in the version F, as well as slightly fewer details. It seems that the electrolyte was replaced with ceramic closer to the 78M05 exit, but it is difficult to estimate the capacity of the ceramic from the photograph. If there is something in the spirit of 10 μF or more, then, given the low power of the load, this is quite acceptable. In the schema for version F this capacitor is designated as 47uF tantalum, probably the author of the circuit had a board from Diymore (see below). Also, in the newer version, the contact pads for the NTC thermistor were changed (in the version E it is designated as R 11) for a larger standard size, and reduced the number of individual resistors by assembling them into another assembly - this simplifies the purchase of parts, reduces the likelihood of errors during installation and increases the overall manufacturability, which can clearly be written as a plus. In addition, an electrolytic capacitor, which could be dispensed with, can also be written as a minus for the version E.
In total, as an intermediate conclusion, we can conclude the following: if you have the opportunity to replace the electrolyte with a polymer, then it is better to take the version E... If you don't care what to change, it is better to buy more capacious ceramics and take the version F... And if you don’t want to change anything at all, then the question comes down to the fact that the electrolyte, or the controller with an unstable power supply, will fail faster. Considering that the version F overall manufacturability is higher, perhaps I would recommend it.
Less common are two more board options - from Ksger and Diymore, and it can be seen from them that the board routing has been additionally worked out.
Diymore Mini STC T12 appearance (version unknown)
Appearance of Ksger Mini STC T12 LED (version unknown)
Personally, I like the version from Ksger the most - it can be seen that it is divorced with love. However, the capacitor mentioned earlier is definitely not more than 1206 - there is practically no 10 uF ceramics available on the market with a voltage of more than 20V for such a standard size, so, most likely, something small is worth here in order to save money. This is a minus. In addition, the AOD409 power mosfet has been replaced with some kind of transistor in a SOIC package, which, in my opinion, has a worse heat transfer.
The Diymore version has tantalum and the usual AOD409 in a DPAK case, so despite the fact that it is less attractive visually, it is clearly preferable when choosing. Unless you are ready to re-solder these elements yourself.
Total: if you do not care what to buy at all and you do not want to re-solder anything after purchase, I would advise you to look for a version similar to the photo of the board from Diymore, or, if you are looking for laziness, take the version F and change capacitors as described above.
Assembly
In general, assembling a soldering iron is trivial, apart from the fact that you need another soldering iron to assemble it (smile). However, as usual, there are several nuances.Soldering iron handle assembly. The connector pins on the board and in the handle can have different markings. This is hardly a problem, since there are only five wires anyway:
- Two power wires - plus and minus
- Temperature sensor wire
- Two wires of the vibration sensor (the order is not important)
If the contacts on your pen are not signed in any way, it is enough to know that there are only three contacts at the very sting: plus (the one closest to the end on the sting), then there is a minus and a thermal sensor output. For clarity, I buried the scheme with Ali.
The Chinese sometimes sign the output of the thermocouple as ground, and in the controller itself, E is connected to ground - as far as I understand, this is not entirely correct, although I'm too lazy to figure it out, and I still don't have grounding.
In some versions, in addition to the vibration sensor, a capacitor must be soldered in the handle. I don't know for sure, but the conductor can be between the plus and minus of the heater - so that it makes less noise in the RF range. It can also be a conduit between the temperature sensor and the ground - again, so that the readings of the temperature sensor are smoother and less noisy. I don’t know how expedient all this is at all - for example, in my pen there was no room for a capacitor at all. In addition, some users wrote that the accuracy of thermal stabilization with closed capacitor leads was higher. In general, if this capacitor is provided in your model, you can try this and that.
Judging by the reviews on the Internet, in some pens, in addition to the capacitor and the vibration sensor, there was also a thermistor, supposedly to control the temperature of the cold end. However, then it dawned on the manufacturers that it would be logical to place the cold side sensor directly on the controller board and they don't suffer from such garbage anymore.
About the vibration sensor. As a vibration sensor in such stations, either SW-18010P vibration sensors (rarely) or SW-200D (mostly) are used. Some craftsmen also use mercury sensors - I am not at all a supporter of the use of mercury in the household, so I will not discuss this approach here.
SW-18010P is a conventional spring in a metal case. They write that such a sensor is much less convenient for a soldering iron than the SW-200D, which is a simple metal "cup" with two balls inside. I had two SW-200Ds in the kit, and I advise you to use them.
The vibration sensor is needed to automatically switch the station to standby mode, in which the temperature of the tip decreases until the soldering iron is again taken in hand. The feature is ultra-convenient, so I highly recommend that you stick with the sensor.
Judging by the picture with the handle connection diagram, the Chinese advise soldering the sensor with a silver pin towards the tip. Actually, I did just that and everything works very conveniently for me.
Nevertheless, for some reason this sensor does not work normally for someone - they write that the soldering iron has to be shaken to bring it out of sleep mode and explain this with a picture from which it is obvious that if the sensor is tilted towards the handle, there can be no contact until it shake it up. In general, if in your case the station does not come out of sleep mode when you just take the soldering iron, try re-soldering the vibration sensor with the reverse side.
There is one more hint - some tricksters advise soldering two sensors in parallel and in different directions, then everything should work in any position of the soldering iron. Indirectly, this assumption is confirmed by the fact that the Chinese put two sensors in many kits, and on the handle itself there are two places next to where it is very convenient to solder them - most likely for this. Everything worked for me right away, so I didn't check the hint.
If you still do not want to use the auto-off function at all or you do not like how the vibration sensor rattles, you can turn it off by simply closing SW and + on the controller board, and do not unsolder the wires going to the handle.
About the case. As I wrote above, I chose the standard aluminum case that is offered for these stations. And I am generally satisfied with my choice. There are a few things to watch out for.
First, you need to somehow fix the power supply in the case. I decided this corny by drilling four holes in the case and fastening the power supply to the screws. In my case, the power supply was just a separate board with radiators, and since the case is aluminum, it was necessary to make some bosses so that the power supply board does not lie directly on the case. For this, I cut out two strips of plexiglass, in which I drilled two holes for the screws, and this solved the problem. You can also, for example, cut insulating rings of the required height from some polymer tube, but it seemed to me that the idea with Plexiglas strips is simpler.
Secondly, I hoped for a gloomy Chinese genius and did not check the dimensions of the case and power supply. This was a mistake. As you can see from the photo below, it turned out that after installing the controller, my unit fits into the case almost end-to-end, which is not good. I had to unsolder the output terminals of the unit and solder the wires with the controller power connector directly to the power supply board. If there was no connector on the controller board, the unit would be non-separable, which would be much less convenient. On the 220V side, I added additional insulation with heat shrinkage and a drop of hot melt glue. You can also see a strip of hot melt glue on the 220V connector - so that it dangles less.
In general, despite the fact that everything fit with minimal gaps, it turned out to be acceptable, but the sediment remained.
About the power supply and controller modifications. As I wrote above, I had a version station E with ordinary electrolyte. Everyone knows that ordinary electrolytes tend to dry out over time, so I replaced the electrolyte with a polymer capacitor that was lying around. I also soldered the encoder contacts - many users noticed that without this the button in the encoder did not work (if you paid attention, in the photographs given earlier, you can see that three of the four boards have the central contact of the encoder not soldered at all).
The power supply that was sent to me complete with the station had a defect - one of the diodes of the "hot part" was soldered with the wrong polarity, which is why the power mosfet burned out already at the third start of the soldering station and I had to figure out what the reason was, spending another half a day on repairing the power supply ... It was also lucky that the PWM Controller did not die after the mosfet. This I mean that it may make sense to assemble the block yourself, or use some already tested one.
As a minimum modification of the power supply unit for the output electrolytes, small-capacity ceramics from those that were lying around were soldered in parallel, and the interwinding capacitor was replaced with a higher-voltage one.
After all the tinkering, a fairly powerful and reliable unit and controller turned out, although clearly more effort was spent than I had planned.
Post-build setup
The station does not have many settings, most of them are configured once.Directly during the operation of the soldering iron, you can change the step of temperature adjustment and perform software calibration of the temperature - menu items P10 and P11. This is done as follows - we press the encoder knob and hold for about 2 seconds, we get to point P10, with a short press we change the order (hundreds, tens, units), turn the knob to change the value, then press again and 2 sec. we hold the encoder knob, the value is saved, and we go to point P11, etc., the next 2s. pressing it returns to the working mode.
To get into the extended program menu, you need to hold down the encoder knob and, without releasing, supply power to the controller.
The most common menu is the following ( short description, the default values are given in brackets):
- P01: ADC reference voltage (2490 mV - TL431 reference)
- P02: NTC setting (32 sec)
- P03: op amp input offset voltage correction (55)
- P04: Thermocouple Amplifier Ratio (270)
- P05: PID proportionality factor pGain (-64)
- P06: PID integration factor iGain (-2)
- P07: PID derivation coefficient dGain (-16)
- P08: falling asleep time (3-50 minutes)
- P09:(in some versions - P99) resetting settings
- P10: temperature setting step
- P11: thermocouple amplifier factor
To move between menu items, briefly hold down the encoder button.
The following menu configuration is also sometimes encountered:
- P00: restore default settings (select 1 to restore)
- P01: thermocouple amplifier factor (default 230)
- P02: bias voltage of the thermocouple amplifier, xs what it is, the seller advises not to change without measurements (default value 100)
- P03: thermocouple ° C / mV ratio (default value 41, advise not to change)
- P04: temperature adjustment step (0 blocks the tip temperature)
- P05: falling asleep time (0-60 minutes, 0 - disable falling asleep)
- P06: shutdown time (0-180 minutes, 0 - shutdown function is inactive)
- P07: temperature correction (default +20 degrees)
- P08: wake-up mode (0 - to get out of sleep, you can rotate the encoder or shake the knob, 1 - you can get out of sleep only by rotating the encoder)
- P09: something related to the heating mode (measured in degrees)
- P10: time parameter for the previous item (seconds)
- P11: time after which the "automatic saving of settings" should be triggered and exit from the menu.
It is worth noting that, unlike board tracing, there can be much more firmware options, so there is no single correct description of menu items - there can be many options, even in one version of the board they may differ. Unless it is possible to advise all the same to take models with a text display, and in its absence, look at the recommendations of the seller from whom you bought.
conclusions
Conditional cons:- Out of the box, the temperature of the tip does not necessarily correspond to reality, I had to dig deeper with the thermocouple to get an acceptable result.
- For each tip, the station has to be re-calibrated. I don't change the sting often, it's not critical for me. In addition, in some firmware versions, the ability to save several profiles is implemented, so this minus is not relevant in some cases.
Total: in general, the station works perfectly and I think that hemorrhoids with assembly are fully justified. A little later I will compare several different stations, and there I will describe all the advantages / disadvantages.
That's all, thanks for reading!
Again, a review of the handle, but with a built-in controller.
Many well-known and inexpensive T12-based DIY kits have one thing in common - you need a different soldering iron to assemble them. Some people just because of this completely abandoned the idea of getting a station on T12, and the “toad” somehow did not allow paying for the already assembled stations. An interesting pen with a built-in controller was found in the vastness of Taobao. It does not require assembly, but is ready to use out of the box. You just need to insert the tip and the laptop power supply.
Appearance
The upper part of the handle has a transparent body, through which the inner board is visible. A smooth rubber pad is put on the place of the grip.
The base of the handle, where the sting is placed, is made of aluminum alloy (as it is written in the lot at the seller). 
If you expose the place covered by the rubber pad, you can see that the metal part is screwed into the plastic body of the handle, but I could not unscrew it. 
At the top of the handle there is a connector 5.5 / 2.1mm, although notebook PSUs 5.5 / 2.5mm
The rated power of the soldering iron depends on the supply voltage. According to this picture from the seller, at 19V, the voltages that most laptop PSUs supply, a maximum of 45W can be available. 
The handle has a temperature adjustment wheel. Its most extreme positions rest in the range of 200-400C 
The middle contact, which touches the tip body, apparently just hangs in the air, although at least it should go through a 1MΩ resistor to the ground. 
Of the main elements used here, a two-channel operational amplifier, a stabilizer 
P-channel mosfet, to the left of it there are two trimmers, to the right of the output SMD-electrolytic capacitor 25V 10mkF 
Dimensions and weight
The width of the main part of the handle - 16.1 mm
The width of the handle in the place with the rubber strip - 18.2 mm
Length of the entire handle - 140.5 mm
Outside diameter at inlet - 10.7 mm
Inlet diameter - 5.7 mm(tip diameter - 5.4mm - there will be a slight backlash)
Handle weight - 37 gram
Comparison with the FX9501 handle
Blade stick out at blue handle FX9501 - 4 cm, which makes it very convenient for soldering small electronics, but with access to narrow alleys between highly elevated elements like radiators on motherboards, it was inconvenient. In the monitored handle, the overhang is almost 2 times greater - 7.5cm, - therefore, it turns out to be more universal for different conditions.
Comparison of the species in hand: Observed vs. FX9501
Work indication
A two-color red-green LED in the handle is responsible for notifying the status of the soldering iron.Immediately after power-on and during the temperature rise, the red LED flashes quickly:
While maintaining the temperature, the red diode blinks less frequently, the wattmeter readings periodically fluctuate between 8.5-16W. The slider is set here at 300g.
If the wheel is turned in the direction of decreasing the temperature (counterclockwise), the red LED stops blinking, the green remains on: 
Tests
Compliance with the temperatures indicated on the adjusting dialPower supply - laptop power supply unit 19V, 3.42A. Sting - BC (M) 3 9Ω.
It can be seen from the tests that the real temperature is up to the established 300gr. goes to plus by 70-80 degrees, then with the rotation of the wheel in the direction of increasing temperature, the difference decreases.
200gr. (Wheel) - 269gr. (Thermocouple) 
250gr. (Wheel) - 329gr. (Thermocouple) 
300gr. (Wheel) - 367gr. (Thermocouple) 
350gr. (Wheel) - 410gr. (Thermocouple) 
400gr. (Wheel) - 430gr. (Thermocouple) 
Submerging the sting in water
At rest, the consumption of the soldering iron is 8-15W 
When immersed in water, consumption rises to 48W 
Other
Heating rateHeating up to 300g from the 19V power supply. takes place in 14-15 seconds.
Heating in the area of the rubber pad
I did not notice strong heating, the maximum is light heat. BP 19V
Tip scroll and backlash
It is harder to roll the tip in this handle than in the new FX9501, but there is some play due to the inlet being slightly wider than the tip. However, the electrical tape glued here can help out here: 
In this way, an almost perfect fixation of the tip can be achieved. You can also glue it with a blue tape, tk. this place practically does not heat up, but it is too thick and shrinks when the tip is installed inside, so I chose a heat-resistant tape because of its thinness. 
Quick tip replacement
Due to the greater protrusion of the sting, it is already done with bare hands without any tweezers and potholders 
Battery power
On hastily collected in series 3 lithium batteries of size 18650. Did not charge. The voltage was 11.66V... The soldering iron works at this voltage. 
Then I charged two batteries for a total of 8.4V. Oddly enough, but small things can be soldered at the same time. 
A bag
Rosegal's 1-cent handbag from the auction of unprecedented generosity, the handle fits perfectly 
conclusions
As a travel option for field work - not bad. The handle is compact, lightweight. Doesn't take up much space in the sting bag. You can feed from a laptop power supply, a car network or a battery assembly. Well, and most importantly, it does not require another soldering iron for assembly. Of course, there are also disadvantages, and I will note them: tip backlash, plug backlash in the soldering iron power socket, non-grounded tip body, temperature differences indicated on the wheel with real temperatures, but the latter is not so important, because thermal stabilization is a more important parameter. As a minus, I would also write down the complexity of disassembling the handle and its difficult to find at the current moment on popular sites.The soldering iron was purchased as part of a combined package (1.5kg) through an intermediary, the total price with a $ 10/50 coupon was $ 40 + shipping with fees ~ $ 26.
The product is provided for writing a review by the store. The review is published in accordance with clause 18 of the Site Rules.
I plan to buy +29 Add to favourites I liked the review +48 +67