Nottawhackjob, not a silly a bit. A valid set of questions/comments indeed.
Well it is posted in the DYI & Modding forum. Where some of our members perform at the wizard level as far as mods, electronic knowledge, and skill sets go.
I would think adding a wire and scraping some covering is within the DYI realm.
I did state that it would be an unlikely event that an internal short would occur. And yes one would have to have a very specific set of circumstances to create a dangerous situation.
Say something inside the power supply did short to the chassis – however unlikely. Bare feet in a puddle of water is not needed. Just touching the power supply and another properly grounded piece of equipment – say a bench top O-Scope, a power supply, a grounded work surface, or even a metal light fixture would create a path to ground using me as a jumper. In other lands where 240v is the line voltage could make this even more exciting…
Now the anodized coating would add another layer of safety to the mix.
But why not add a simple mod to improve matters?
As far a UL rating. It is my belief that virtually all of the sub $100 PID controlled irons are not UL listed and that they too do not have a chassis ground. Youtube is full of vids showing how to make a chassis ground on these PID stations.
Besides the many many variants of these PID irons, lots of the electronics sold on ebay lack UL ratings and may have some inherent danger if used improperly.
For example the many lasers that exceed the US maximum power rating.
And many of the “as seen on TV” lights (and other stuff) are so poorly designed or constructed as to be a hazard. I’d worry more about a system that overcharges a LiPo than one of these irons.
These cheep PIDs or the ~$90 versions use T12 type tips that are used by the fancier and way more expensive soldering stations. These place the heating element very near the tip itself and with the PID control keep a more constant temperature compared to a typical barrel mounted heating element.
Spending $20 - $90 is within the budget for someone wanting a good iron. Where several hundred $$ for a name brand that does basically the same thing perhaps is not.
All the Best,
Jeff
PS, The more I think about it, the less I would worry about using the iron in it’s out of the box format. It would need a rather specific set of conditions to make it a hazard. I would check to see if PC board was mounted upside down to insure a longer life span for the components.
I really like the sleep function and the temp boost. Messing with lead free solder (the devils brew) being able to get some extra heat without constantly cooking the tip is really nice. I have an old pencil iron that the lead free stuff just laughs at.
I left the iron on long enough last night to have the auto-off kick in. The tip cools to room temp and the display shows “OFF”.
A shake of the iron turns it back on and it acts in the normal manner. Nice and a big plus if I wander away and forget to turn off the iron. I tend to wander aimlessly more as I get older.
Weller used to be my go to brand. My very old single temp station is like 45(?) years old and still plugging along. Then I went to a Hakko 888. Both of these are barrel mounted heating element stations. They heat quickly compared to a pencil type iron, but nothing like this PID iron.
This cheepie PID station (if it lasts) is really nifty. I needed a 3rd iron for occasional use in another location. The $17 flash sale made me jump on it. I think I like it best.
If I didn’t have the other two stations, I think I would spring for one of the $90 PID jobs that have a better display and menu screens.
All the Best,
Jeff
I bought one of those T12 stations recently (ksger), the performance is really good, I chose one without the AC/DC PSU because I didn’t want to deal with some safety modifications, I use a Dell laptop PSU so I don’t have to worry about safety (it’s grounded too so no issue with ESD either)
I have a Quicko T12 station. I got it without the built in PS because they’re junk and dangerous. I run it off an HP 95W power supply. It’s the oled screen one and it’s awesome. Heats up fast and has all the functions. Had it for 3 years so far. 0 issues.
A little further info.
I found out what the: “After inserting the hole, the connecting bracket can be put to sleep”
means.
What I thought was a ground strap – which it sorta is – but isn’t. Can be used as an accessory to the standby function.
Put the banana plug into the back of the power supply. Then connect the alligator clip to the spring looking thing that acts as a holder for the hot iron.
Put the hot iron into the holder and if (note the word if) the iron body makes an electrical contact with the metal holder, the iron will immediately go into standby mode.
The tip temp will drop to 200C.
This overrides the timeout setting in the menu.
Pickup the iron and give it a shake and the temp will return to the previous operating temp.
Placing the iron in the holder does not necessarily make an electric contact every time.
You could set the iron to rocket hot for those tough jobs, and it will cool down when placed in the holder.
Still fussing and learning about this station. Still like it. But becoming less enchanted with the lack of clear instructions as far as setting things up.
I’m also finding that the setting range on my iron for the different “P” values is not the same as what Handskit posted in the Amazon reply.
For example, they say the temp step value can be set to 0,1,2,5,10.
Mine only has 0,5,10
And the temp correction “P07” is from –30 to +30.
Mine is from 0 to 20.
Think the BLFs who are using the OLED version with the external power supply may be on the right path.
Just got mine today and it’s very decent. I’m sure that the more expensive version with the OLED screen is much more precise and better built, but for $17 this thing is a steal.
Mine didn’t come with the iron holder that’s supposed to go on top of the sponge tray, only the one with 2 holes that installs on the back of the main unit.
Since it heats so so quickly I set mine to sleep in 1 minute and to shut down in 3. P12 is set to 1, which allows the iron to wake up with the movement sensor but requiring turning the knob to come back ON after 3min. I don’t mind that and it helps preserving the expensive T12 tip. “Turbo” function is handy and I set mine to +80C for 30 seconds, which give it a nice boost for soldering leads to copper MCPCBs.
Temp correction in mine unit also ranges 0-20, not sure what it means. Step value only 0/5/10 same as yours, but I leave it at 10 anyways.
The iron itself feels a bit cheap with the silicone overmold and stress relieve coming off before even I used it. The top piece appears to be high temp resistant fiber reinforced plastic, but there is no real insulation and gets uncomfortably hot after 15 minutes. I might wrap it with automotive high temp cloth tape later. For the price I can deal with it.
Which one did you get? The only ones I see that have a separate power supply seem to have a 24v input.
All my old laptop bricks all have 19.5v (or less) outputs.
Thanks,
All the Best,
Jeff
I see that it’s now up to $33.33. At $17 or $20 it is a deal.
I’d pass at this price and pony up the extra $$ for the Ksger (or other) OLED version.
The biggest plus of the more expensive versions is the ability to do a temp calibration for each tip and store it.
Other than having a menu system that actually makes sense…
I picked this up a few days ago. Also added the ground wire like @jeff51 did. I also replaced that 100uf 400V Chong capacitor with a Nichicon cap.
Only thing that bugs me is it does not appear to be ESD safe (tip is not grounded.) I also have one of the more expensive KSGER T12 irons and that one has the tip grounded (I did have to ground case as well though.) Looks like pin 3 on iron is connected to tip, but not to ground inside case. I could add it but would need a tiny wire……
Hi, I’m hoping this site/post is still active, I have this, it’s my workhorse, was getting errors, pulled the handle parts and 3/4 wires actually just fell apart from the handle, so I don’t know which wires go where. Seems the red wire was never connected and it doesn’t match other handles wiring as I’ve found other repairs guides for the handles, but again this handle doesn’t seem to use the red wire and others don’t match. Anyway to get a schematic of what wire goes where?
The green wire is still connected to a socket (ground for T12 chassis?) 2 connections to the bulb (pre and post mercury bulb) and another to the very bottom socket, which doesn’t match what I’ve seen in other T12 handle repairs. Any help would be appreciated, ty!
The handle should have 5 cables i think, power, neutral, ground, temp sensor, tilt switch?. Power the cable on and see if you can measure a voltage on one of the wires and go from there?
Ground should run from the back ground pin (wall socket) to the tip.
I broke my handle and at the time that was the only iron i had so i couldn’t fix it without getting another handle lol.
