DIY JBC Nano

[jjoonathan]

The $1400 JBC Nano stations at work have me completely spoiled. Inspired by GreatScott!!'s JBC Mega (for lack of a better sizing term) here:

I'm going to try to make a DIY controller so that I "only" have to buy the handles. Small difference #1: the 105 series nano tips only have a single tip/sleeve circuit to be shared between thermocouple measurement and power delivery (vs tip/ring/sleeve on the "mega"). No biggy; it's not like you could easily get accurate thermocouple readings during the power delivery phase anyway.

Small difference #2: the nano handles don't use standard DIN connectors, or at least not the ones I'm familiar with. Sure, I could chop them off and replace them like a barbarian, but I'd like to give the connector companies a chance at taking my money first. Towards that goal, I could use any help you can give in identifying them. My imagination says that the logo looks a bit like a stylized combination of "a" and "p", like amphenol, but I can't find any record of them using that symbol. It doesn't really narrow things down much on digikey either. Thoughts?

[Aigor]

You have to search for Unisolder , a complete soldering station which can use almost every tip in the world

http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=7218&sid=4f264d655725b6302aecfd573e35df8d

The only "tricking" part is define new tip into software.
take a look

[jjoonathan]

Thanks for the post, but it's not the thermocouple sensing, control loop, power or display driving that I'm hung up on, it's the connector. In the demo video it looks like they took the "barbarian" approach of chopping off and replacing the connector, which I am aware of as an option but am hoping to avoid.

[capt bullshot]

The logo is from Binder:
https://www.binder-connector.com/en/

The connector looks like the Bayonet IP40 series
https://www.binder-connector.com/en/products/subminiature-circular-connectors/bayonet-ip40/female-panel-mount-connector-6/#0909740002

[jjoonathan]

Thanks a million! That's exactly what I was looking for. Looks like Binder doesn't distribute through mouser/digikey/etc, instead they do it themselves. They do a very good job of it, too -- ordering was quick and painless, and I was very pleased to even find that the prices were sane ($6 ea). Given the high quality feel and low price of the connectors, I might even use them on other projects!

[TheAmmoniacal]

You have to search for Unisolder , a complete soldering station which can use almost every tip in the world

http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=7218&sid=4f264d655725b6302aecfd573e35df8d

The only "tricking" part is define new tip into software.
take a look

Anyone happen to have spare boards for this project?

[chickenHeadKnob]

Marco Reps has a similar project video here:https://youtu.be/GYIiOkr6x9o

These two have inspired the itch to try it on my own as well.

One difference between the two, Marco Reps targets the C470 250 Watt hand piece  and great Scott the t245. I am just learning  the jbc product line. The T245 looks like the general purpose one with the most variety in available cartridges. From the videos T245 reported 2.9 ohm heater resistance and 7.2 Ohms for the C470. The wattage of the JBC station for the T245 is  130W.

I want to use a DC switching supply and high side pfet for heater control like sparkyBG unisolder but his design is too universal with all the complexity that brings and uses a PIC, don't want. Which raises the question, is there some reason not to run DC through the heater, like electromigration or plating effects?. As far as I know the official JBC and the two videos both resort to running full wave AC but at least in the Reps case that appears for convenience only.

[mrjoda]

hi,
i have JBC CD 2B almost year at home. Absolutely love it best station and iron at world. C245 iron is little bit bigger than regular pen, for general purposes, you can use very big tips or small smd (i have 0,5mm smallest, waiting for offs from TME and i want to 0,3mm). C210 is micro pen for micro tips (0,1mm smallest).

[nowlan]

Just wondering how this, or the diy metcal compare to just buying a hako 888 or 951.

[mrjoda]

My colleague wants Hakko 951. Genuine one cost in europe 6-700€ per set with VAT. JBCs costs around 350. 

I need to improve my skills in programming, so i work on regulation  for those pen and T12. Based on STM32, AC supply with ZD. Thermocouple is amplified by LTC2051. Next step is optimalization of control loop. I can share if you want. It is only for fun project for me.

[dimkasta]

Interesting ideas.
Ideally I would prefer to choose an iron and build a minimal station that works nicely and is easy to maintain

The universal station sounds nice but the board does not look like something that you can easily tinker with in case of an issue.

[nowlan]

I am wondering if you can use a cheap halogen downlight transformer for 12v ac supply.
What is the (minimum) power these irons need? The downlights are 10,30,40w.

[chickenHeadKnob]

I am wondering if you can use a cheap halogen downlight transformer for 12v ac supply.
What is the (minimum) power these irons need? The downlights are 10,30,40w.

The official JBC irons have one major attraction: near instant heat-up and thermo regulation when applied to hard to heat situations. If you use such a wimpy power source you can get the iron warm in free air (slowly) but will find it totally inadequate  when soldering. Or essentially you duplicate the performance   of  a cheap ebay iron but are using an expensive handpiece - no point in that.

The maximum power delivered to the heating element is determined by its resistance, the supply voltage and %duty cycle. Ohms law is a bitch.

[dimkasta]

The OP made an interesting question though.

Would dc be such a big problem?

PWM would greatly simplify the circuit

[GreyWoolfe]

My colleague wants Hakko 951. Genuine one cost in europe 6-700€ per set with VAT. JBCs costs around 350. 

That's horrible.  Here in the US, the FX-951 is $236.45 USD at TEquipment.net without the EEVBlog discount.  No taxes for me as they don't have a brick and mortar location in the state I live in.   I am grateful I live here.

[mrjoda]

for example, JBC are using AC switching. This is capture from heater line on CD-2D.

BTW CD-2D has 2 regulation line so is it possible to use tweezers with CD-2D or two pens but with divided power and same temperature.

[Free_WiFi]

My colleague wants Hakko 951. Genuine one cost in europe 6-700€ per set with VAT. JBCs costs around 350. 

Scuse me,but where are you living ?
I mean here in italy ,i can get an standart Jbc soldering station for circa 400 euros .
Can you tell me some online shop from where i can get it cheaper ?
Thanks .

[kaevee]

My colleague wants Hakko 951. Genuine one cost in europe 6-700€ per set with VAT. JBCs costs around 350. 

Scuse me,but where are you living ?
I mean here in italy ,i can get an standart Jbc soldering station for circa 400 euros .
Can you tell me some online shop from where i can get it cheaper ?
Thanks .

Checkout the following link

http://www.vtech-smt.co.uk/Soldering-Equipment/JBC-Soldering-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/CD-B-Soldering-station-for-general-purposes/

I bought one for 340 Euros from JBC as part of a bigger deal, but I paid 30% more for customs duty, but no VAT as the product was shipped to India.

Venkat

[stevelup]

I don't know where those crazy Hakko prices are coming from:-

http://www.dancap.co.uk/soldering/fx951pricelist.htm

[tivoi]

JBC china clone wave from
https://www.youtube.com/embed/3GMyvgiB-qk

https://www.youtube.com/embed/W_KQKP55DUw

how to add direct youtube link?
thanks

[fero]

Hi jjoonathan, how are you?
Iam also interested about building own station for jbc nano.
Do you have any news? Cable configuration/ resistor/heater?
Thx

[Xyphro]

Working on the same thing - already have running hardware and 80% software in place :-)

From what I see, the characteristic of the Thermocouple is quite close to a Type S thermocouple. The voltages are much lower, as the ones, that you'd get from a Type J/K thermocouple.

What I really wonder about, especially seeing other projects... The cold junction compensation is something, which cannot be done really well.
The cold junction is within the hand-pieces of the soldering iron (copper cable used from iron to connetor, but also the cartridge contacts seem to be of the same metal type.
Kind of proove of this theory:
I've dipped the iron into hot water. Initially the voltage was going up to 450uV, while then decreasing slowly to a much lower voltage, allthough the water was pretty constant at 83°C.

For that reason I concluded, that it'll not make a lot of sense to implement sophisticated cold junction compensation within the controller board.

Agree?
Or is there a mechanism present, on top of the thermocouple? e.g. measuring the heater resistance?

[Xyphro]

About the question of the cable configuration:
When you open the Binder connector, you'll see 4 terminals are connected.
2 are short circuited within the connector - GREEN. Green is connected to the TIP and to the metal ring to sense standby
1 Terminal is Red - Red is the heater connector and thermocouple positive pin.
1 Terminal is Blue - Blue is the other heater connector (also connected to the TIP) and the negative Thermocouple pin.

I use the 2 green terminals to connect to PE with a 1 MOhm resistor. One of the terminals is used to detect if the iron is connected or not. The standby mechanism is also used in a similar way.

An OPAMP with a gain of 221 is used to get voltages below 1V - connected to an ADC input of a Cortex M0 controller with 1.25V reference voltage.

I also decided to use DC voltage and a P-Channel FET to heat the thing up. Temperature /voltage relation is already characterized, working today on the PI regulator coefficients. The PI regulator will run at a rate of 50 Hz to be similar to the original thing.

Edit: The connector can be ordered at Farnell - order number1122379

[damianzet]

Hello everybody!

I'm really interested in the JBC nano. Any update on it? I can be the first to build and test it really need it to help me with my work

[Xyphro]

Hi!

As I got a few private messages, here some updates.
The housing is not prettied up yet and not 100% build together.

Anyway, it works like charm.

Quick video:


(yes, my lab table is a mess right now)

Attached the schematic & 2 PCB photos.

Best regards,

Kai