I’ve been thinking about getting the bits to do emitter swaps myself, soldering irons are plenty but it gets a bit murkier when it comes to hot plates. I’ve seen them on Amazon for circa £100, but for occasional hobbyist use is there a cheaper option that’s not likely to burn my house down?
Needs to be available in the UK but I’m OK with buying from overseas if the shipping’s reasonable.
After a little research I purchased this one.
It’s still in transit but I think it’s good value for the money.
MECHANIC IX5 Ultra:
This is the bit I struggle with. My general rule for buying from china: don’t buy anything that runs directly from the mains; don’t buy products to be used for anything edible.
If I remember correctly the Mechanic hotplate above looks good but has an aluminium body and plugs into the mains with a 2 pin plug so is not earthed!
The body isn’t aluminium, but some kind of plastic. What I always do is place it on a silicone work mat, which is a bit more heat/fire resistent and maybe have a small fire extinguisher on hand. (And maybe create some clear space around it, so it can’t easily spread the fire to something else.)
Also, when using it, I don’t leave it unattended, so I can intervene quickly when it happens. Besides that, it’s a small unit, so there’s not so much to burn.
But do what you feel comfortable with! Normally I’m also very warry with (cheap) Chinese products, especially with build in Li-ion battery and charging. (Often taking it apart and see if the devise doesn’t overcharge and that it has a form of LVP.)
BTW, I also totally agree with no edibles from China and even no “kitchenware” or other things for consuming food with/in. Saw a fun couple of shot glasses, but were made from some sort of ‘plastic’ and you have no clue if it’s food grade/safe or has harmfull chemicals in them.
I think an electric shock was a concern, not a fire. (Edit: regarding the part about aluminum body and lack of earth)
But if the body is plactic then the presence of the optocouple and transformer makes me hope the high voltage part is isolated from the heating circuit. I was also concidering buying this plate but haven’t decided if I really need it.
Or not. It might be isolated only from the control circuit.
Ah yes, I meant kitchenware but wrote edible, must be lunchtime or something…
@Chris100575 any idea of budget? I see people on forums like the cheap USB C types.
There are also a few that’ll run IronOS (same OS as the PineCil soldering iron runs).
I used to do mine on my parents aga whenever I went to visit them(!). They’ve since moved so I just use the ghetto tealight method. I wouldn’t want to do multi-LED MPCB or complicated boards on this arrangement though.
I had a G3061 PD65W Mini Hot Plate but the temperature sensor (which is glued to the bottom of the hotplate) fell off and the unit started smoking.
Luckily I was there and unplugged it before anything crazy happened.
I don’t really have an idea of budget in mind unfortunately, it’s more a sort of “how much would it cost to get set up and is it worth it” kind of thing.
As things stand I have one light that I would like the emitter swapped, obviously that would be cheaper to pay someone to do it for me, but then if I can do it I might find more lights that I want to swap because I won’t have to be as choosy about the emitters in the first place.
I have considered using the frying pan as I have an electric hob, but I have no idea how hot that’s going to get on its lowest setting and I’d prefer a stable temp so that I’m not having to rush before it gets too hot and toasts the emitter.
Mine is working so far but I already see a potential for breakage.
Also this plate produces a toxic smell when hot. I left it working outside for an hour to eliminate that smell and that helped but not completely.
So yeah, better avoid buying it.
The reason I was thinking in the line of fire was because of Chris (in the quote below) asked “not likely to burn my house down?” and therefore I (unintentionally) only focused on that subject.
You were right that gravelmonkey in his last sentence focused more on the electric shock risk, but I totally missed that.
I did (vaguely) remember taking some photos of the inside of the Mechanic i5X Ultra and posting them on BLF, so I looked them up. Might not be the best photos to give a complete picture of the internal design, but it gives an idea:
I can be safely assumed that I would also enjoy not getting electrocuted.
Caved and decided that I do indeed need a hotplate.
Went for one of the cheap, white coloured USB - C powered ones, about £9 on AliExpress.
This one?
Yup. Is this the part where you tell me it’s garbage? 
Maybe I should have stuck to my ghetto tealight method
Please do post your experience with it once it arrives, I looked at that one too. Although I am balancing the cost of buying a hotplate and soldering iron against the number of emitters I’m likely to want swapped. At the moment it’s cheaper to pay someone else to do it.
Yeah. Anyway, if it’ll work then it’ll really come in handy.
I’m still using it cause even though it had already got broken I managed to repair it. Mine didn’t loose the temperature sensor but got the spring in one of pogo-pins broken. Those pogo-pins deliver current to the plate and heat it. I ordered new pogo-pins from AE, but even before they arrived I manged to repair a pin with a piece of toothstick :).
Will do! I often buy LEDs pre-flowed to MPCB for this reason, but then limited to 10/16/20mm MPCBS so have to plan which lights I want which LED in.
Soldering iron is useful to swap MPCBs, I’ve also built a few electronics kits in the past, too, when successful they’re very satisfying!
The PineCil soldering iron can be had for not too much money, if you have a beefy USB-C supply already. Lack of stand and (I find) weird ergonomics is probably it’s biggest downside.
I don’t reccomend AliExpress solder, I used to use branded multi core stuff but leaded is getting harder to buy so swapped to silver solder, it’s a little more expensive but really don’t use much so it’s not too bad.
If you go for a hotplate, you’ll likely need some solder paste, I forget what I use, it’s now absolutely ancient and a bit crusty, so I add a little electronics flux to help it flow. Others will have specific reccomended products they use.
