The warm and rather stinky heart of any hacker’s lair is the soldering station, where the PCB meets the metal (solder). A good soldering station lets you get on with the business of building stuff without worrying about piffling details like temperature and remembering to turn the thing off. The AxxSolder is a neat design from [AxxAxx] that fulfills these criteria, as it includes full PID control of the iron and an auto sleep feature. It will run from any DC power source from 9 to 26 Volts, so you can run it off your bench power supply and have one less thing to plug in. There is even a portable version for those on-the-go hackathons.
It is built around an STM32G43 SoC twinned with a Waveshare 1.5-inch OLED display module, all stuffed into a 3d printed case. The business end is a JBC C210 or C245, which makes it compatible with most other soldering handles and cartridges out there. Plus, [AxxAxx] has done an excellent job of documenting the wiring, so you could easily hack this to another setup if required. [AxxAxx] has also made the wise choice to make the portable and station versions of this setup use the same PCB and other parts, so it would be easy to build both at the same time: the only difference between the two is the 3D-printed case and the power connector.
The sleep mode is handled by sensing when the soldering head makes contact with a metal plate, indicating it is placed in the stand or in touch with the rest on the portable version. There’s also a customizable time-out, where the station shuts down if you don’t pick up the soldering handle after a certain amount of time. If you are one of those people (cough, me) who always forgets to turn the station off after use, this is a very useful feature.
[Via Hackster.io]
As a contrast, these smart soldering irons can be pretty small. https://hackaday.com/2023/01/31/all-about-usb-c-pinecil-soldering-iron/
I wonder how the pinecil compares in non-obvious ways.
These TS100 style tips, there are a whole catalogue of like 6-8?, and 2 of them are “wood burning” knife tips. That’s the real annoyance while I’ve been searching for a portable JBC compatible. The problem then is USB-C PD. While continuous current that adapters are rated for often deliever, If you pulse a high current, the speed of disconnecting / shutting off on current surges is variable from brand /make. Leading TS101’s and such to lose power when you try and modify them for other higher current / lower voltage tips such as JBC’s
Sadly this isn’t USB-C powered either, but it’s a great starting point if you want a catalogue of literally hundreds of tips. I’d love an all in one iron that is USB-C and supports JBC tips and stays within the USB-C PD continous rated current without major spikes.
Aren’t jbc tips also configured differently, I think they only have two contacts while these have 3, 1 ground, temp and power. Jbc combines temp and power somehow so you have to pulse the power off then read the temp. Maybe I’m wrong but this is what I remember from sparkybg the guy who created unisolder
you would probably want a buffer battery then. as the battery gets lower step up the current from the charge port and as it gets higher step it back down. I’ve thought about doing this for a power supply for a kweld
Indeed! If you have ever tried the JBC ecosystem of tips and handles you never want to look back.. I have worked with many of thoese TS80/100 pinecil irons in the past. They work fine and are compact. But they are, and will never(?) be as light and compact as a T210 or even NT115 handle. nor have the same assortment of tips to choose from.
I created AxxSolder with my needs in mind, and my needs were to have it battery powered for when I’m not in the lab. And as I have a bunch of 3S li-ion packs for other projects I made it work with thoese.
But the thought to have it powered by USB-C is a great idea!
The “hack-it” version would be to just update the enclosure to fit a USB-C PD module like the STUSB4500 or similar which can provide more than enough power (100W) for the T210 handle. The C245 tips need more than that to work properly.
The more long-term way would be to integrate a USB-C PD negotiation chip and components to the PCB.
I’m happy with my Weller TCP-24. ^^ 💙
Put a triac in the handle to switch the heater current, then the magnetic switch lasts forever…
Having two of them on my workbench: I feel you. One from the 60s, one from the 70s. And one spare in the drawer I got pretty cheap so when one heating element decides to die…
I put an XT60 on one of them so I can use it when I’m on the go with a 5S tool battery. The magnastat switch will die sooner if fed DC voltage but I don’t use it on DC tooo often or too long.
Same – and for on the go my ultra torch.
JBC are the best on my opinion, but you pay the price.
It’s a clever idea and it looks nice. I would definitely uses this at the bench. For portable use though I don’t think I want to have even a small box attached to the pen via wires. Currently I use butane irons for that although those all in one charge via USB pens that have been shown the last several years around here are tempting to try.
Unless of course I have a really large lug to solder to. Then I am pulling out the big old-fashioned iron that hangs on my wall and dragging a long extension cord to wherever. I think maybe it was originally intended for roof flashing or something like that? I don’t think anything is going to take it’s place wirelessly unless someone wants to perfect soldering via thermite.
Hmmm.. soldering by thermite…
I did use the old standby weller NiCad back in the day btw. The drill attachment was pretty cool. I do miss that. Butane definitely got the job done better though for soldering.
To correct the article, making it compatible with jbc does not in fact make it compatible with most if not all other cartridge style tips. In another reply above I explain more but the jbc thermocouple configuration is different in jbc than in t12 or other common ones I believe. According to the post by the subject, he added in a different configuration for these other styles.
Thanks for clearifying this! AxxSolder is intended to be used with C210 and C245 tips/cartridges only as for now. This is also what is tested. Perhaps it is possible to support other cartridges in the future but for now only these JBC’s.
A very nice project. I built a soldering station myself 6 years ago, using an Arduino Nano, combined with an NT105 and a T210 and they are still running today.