ERSA i-CON 1 - Teardown and Repair (Success)

[tooki]

@ Alfons
Good question. I am on a business trip, when I am back I will take a look at the signal
I would expect the following

1 Ground
2 Heater supply
3,4 Temp Sensor feedback
5 Signal of movement (ON, OFF)

May be time to closer inspection of this PCB?

The handle not only has the accelerometer, it also stores the calibration data. (The i-tool series handles, and the i-con vario tools as well, I think, store all the calibration in the handles so that they don't have to be calibrated to a particular station.) So it's definitely gonna be a far, far more complex protocol than "movement on/off".

[dom0]

Something like 1-wire... not hard to do proprietary...

[Alfons]

Something like 1-wire... not hard to do proprietary...

What do you do not do anything to avoid being copied in China?

It is Ersa at least not to blame, that they are trying to go their own way. The entire electronics to accommodate in the iron, probably AD-converters (or IIRC-Sensors) and other interfaces to sensors, I have never seen before. This of course makes the soldering iron expensive, but also not interesting for copier.

[coreire]

I bought an Ersa I-Con a while back on ebay that turned out to be faulty and I'm finally getting around to finding the problem. Here's what I've found so far in case it's of use to anyone else that comes across this thread.

The error I was getting was the "Heater Defect" one. It seemed to be random so I assumed it was a failing triac and I went ahead and replaced it. That didn't fix it so I checked the gate signal of the triac with a CRO and just before the fault was occuring the waveform seemed to become a little erratic so I went and replaced the optocoupler also just in case. The problem still seemed to occur "randomly".

I decided to watch the station a little more closely at this point and noticed that when powered on initially the temperature seemed relatively stable but over time the temperature started to fluctuate more and more and eventually the error would occur. I figured maybe it's heat related so I pointed a desk fan at the station and sure enough it went for longer that ever without a fault. I felt around for anything overly warm and found that the heatsink on the 5v regulator(LM1086) was getting extremely hot after a while.
A tiny amount of airflow was enough to cool it (even blowing on it) at which point the station worked fine for a while until the temperature got back up.

I replaced the reg as a precaution which did seem to increase the amount to time before the error occured but it didn't cure it.
I've now mounted a little 40mm fan behind the heatsink which I have running at low rpm. The small amount of airflow was enough to keep the heatsink cold to the touch constantly (I left it on for around 4 hours constant with no fault).
The station can now be used and seems to be functioning as it should but I'm assuming something is drawing a little bit more current through that reg than it should be. Next job is to try and track that down.

[frozenfrogz]

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but I figured since a lot of i-Con 1 owners already follow this one and my post is on topic...

I bought an i-Con for little money (that is one of the models before the line was split into 1 / 1V / 1C / 1VC models). It is basically the 1V because it has similar specs and you can use all different tools on it, but lacks the interface that the C models have.

I got it for cheap because the display illumination was broken. Two of the three LEDs were dead and the third one was blinking and flickering - let’s say almost dead.
This was an easy fix. I did not have the right sized side-looker (90°) type LEDs but used some 1206 type cool white 450mcd ones. I guess the LEDs were all dying because - unlike some of the newer stations that only have one current limiting resistor for all three LEDs where Ersa wanted to shave another cent or two from the BOM - the limiting resistors per LED were 88 ohms. That is almost 60mA per LED which seems rather much to me for this type, but then again I do not know the make and model used.
I replaced everything with 1206 LEDs and some 0805 220 ohms resistors (the original setup had 1005 LEDs and 0402 (!) resistors). The parts were mounted tilted 90° and everything fit nicely into the original cutouts in the display assembly without needing to alter anything else. There is 4.7VDC on the LED supply line so 220 ohms should be OK for nominal 20mA per LED.
I am very pleased with the overall display brightness with the 450mcd LEDs.

Here is a question I have: Can anyone provide me with some photos of the "C" version main board and internals? Since all models share the same PCB (my guess from what I have seen so far) I am curious if the interface is easily hacked into the other stations by wiring a DE-9 connector to the board.
We are going to get the Ersa Easy Arm fume extractor at university, so I could check out if the remote stand-by / On / Off functions are working with a "hacked" i-Con.

[KL27x]

The new one has some sort of ceramic receptor.

Probably just a hard coating over a die cast metal (zinc aluminum alloy) part. Copying Hakko.

[tooki]

The new one has some sort of ceramic receptor.

Probably just a hard coating over a die cast metal (zinc aluminum alloy) part. Copying Hakko.

No, it’s ceramic. Ersa specifically says so. It definitely feels like ceramic, like the kind used in mains fuses and other electrical gear. I also think it’s too heavy to be a zinc-aluminum alloy. (My i-CON nano came with that stand, so I know what it feels like.)

[frozenfrogz]

This is a somewhat redundant post, but it might help out other people by having more opportunities to finding the answer to why the i-Tool throws »Error 8 - heating element?!« on older i-Con stations.
I found, that the 2.2k ohms SMD resistor (5025 casing, labeled 222) was blown on my unit and today coreire could verify that it was the same issue on his station (see above). The resistor seems to be part of the feedback loop regulating output current for the heating element of the digitally controlled soldering irons. The current is not being throttled down when reaching the target temperature, thus the station senses high temperature or current overshoot and shuts down the heating circuit as fail safe.
I have no idea why additionally cooling of the PCB/5V regulator acts as a workaround though.

The fix is easy:
Replace the 2.2k resistor with a new resistor. I went for 1W axial, because I had no matching SMD part in stock.
0.5W resistor might be to small and possibly fail again in the near future.

I also talked to the general distributor for Ersa in my area and he was delighted to hear, that there is such an easy fix. He had been running into the same error often in the past and since Ersa does not share any repair information, the only fix was replacing the mainboard (current price for the board is 188,20€ + VAT + working time).

[coreire]

This is a somewhat redundant post, but it might help out other people by having more opportunities to finding the answer to why the i-Tool throws »Error 8 - heating element?!« on older i-Con stations.
I found, that the 2.2k ohms SMD resistor (5025 casing, labeled 222) was blown on my unit and today coreire could verify that it was the same issue on his station (see above). The resistor seems to be part of the feedback loop regulating output current for the heating element of the digitally controlled soldering irons. The current is not being throttled down when reaching the target temperature, thus the station senses high temperature or current overshoot and shuts down the heating circuit as fail safe.
I have no idea why additionally cooling of the PCB/5V regulator acts as a workaround though.

The fix is easy:
Replace the 2.2k resistor with a new resistor. I went for 1W axial, because I had no matching SMD part in stock.
0.5W resistor might be to small and possibly fail again in the near future.

I also talked to the general distributor for Ersa in my area and he was delighted to hear, that there is such an easy fix. He had been running into the same error often in the past and since Ersa does not share any repair information, the only fix was replacing the mainboard (current price for the board is 188,20€ + VAT + working time).

Thanks again for the info. My surface mount 750mw resistors have just arrived so I'll be replacing the axial part over the weekend. Minimum order was 10 but at least I'll have spares 

I think the cooling of the voltage regulator was just a coincidence. The resistor would have also been cooled by the fan. My resistor was going open circuit when hot so the extra cooling would have helped it there. A half watt axial gets quite toasty in there so I can see it being a little difficult for the surface mount part to dissipate the heat.

[Wiljan]

This is a somewhat redundant post, but it might help out other people by having more opportunities to finding the answer to why the i-Tool throws »Error 8 - heating element?!« on older i-Con stations.
I found, that the 2.2k ohms SMD resistor (5025 casing, labeled 222) was blown on my unit and today coreire could verify that it was the same issue on his station (see above). The resistor seems to be part of the feedback loop regulating output current for the heating element of the digitally controlled soldering irons. The current is not being throttled down when reaching the target temperature, thus the station senses high temperature or current overshoot and shuts down the heating circuit as fail safe.
I have no idea why additionally cooling of the PCB/5V regulator acts as a workaround though.

The fix is easy:
Replace the 2.2k resistor with a new resistor. I went for 1W axial, because I had no matching SMD part in stock.
0.5W resistor might be to small and possibly fail again in the near future.

I also talked to the general distributor for Ersa in my area and he was delighted to hear, that there is such an easy fix. He had been running into the same error often in the past and since Ersa does not share any repair information, the only fix was replacing the mainboard (current price for the board is 188,20€ + VAT + working time).

Thanks again for the info. My surface mount 750mw resistors have just arrived so I'll be replacing the axial part over the weekend. Minimum order was 10 but at least I'll have spares 

I think the cooling of the voltage regulator was just a coincidence. The resistor would have also been cooled by the fan. My resistor was going open circuit when hot so the extra cooling would have helped it there. A half watt axial gets quite toasty in there so I can see it being a little difficult for the surface mount part to dissipate the heat.

Hi, I had the same problem with Error 8, "faulty heating element" only now and then and typical when it was cold in the room
I had the luck to borrow another iCon 1 and did swap the the whole cable with heater etc.  and in one go but did still see the fault.

I changed the Triac for a BT139  same problem.
I could spray cold spray on the main board and the problem did go away for a while.

So now I saw this 222 resistor thread and I de-soldered it from the board and now it was in the M ohm area, sure faulty.

I did take 4 x good old wired 1/4w 2k2 resistors (2x 2k2 in parallel)  + (2x 2k2 in parallel) = 2k2 1w

The iCon 1 now it does work fine again :-)

Txh

[frozenfrogz]

Good to see that this piece of the puzzle solves other peoples problems to

[HighVoltage]

That is a really nice discovery with the 222 resistor and will come in handy for many people in the future.

[millerfield]

Hello, I would also share my experience with ab broken ICON2, which mereley has some more parts on the same PCB like the ICON1.
A couple of years ago it starts to show up the heat element fault randomly. The last time the fault rendered the soldering station unusable. The fault appears after a few seconds of operation.
Before I read this thread here, I had no idea and tempted to sell all the stuff at ebay  as "defectiv", cursing to never buy such an expensiv soldering equipment again.
The hint of frozenfrogs brought me to check the 2,2kOhm SMT resistor.
This innocent looking device in its SMT 2010 housing had a value of MOhms 

Because in lack of presence of such a component I replaced it by an  old-fashion leaded resistor desoldered from an old radio.

The soldering station now works without any trouble 
I will replace the resistor against the destined one at next opportunity. But for now: Being able to solder.

So a big thanks to all here. Without discussion it would be very hard to figure out such kind of problems.

[HighVoltage]

Welcome to the forum, millerfield

And great to hear, that another ICON was saved from the landfill.

[frozenfrogz]

The hint of frozenfrogs brought me to check the 2,2kOhm SMT resistor.
This innocent looking device in its SMT 2010 housing had a value of MOhms 

Very nice!

Seems like things are moving into the right direction for a number of ICON stations

To tell you the truth: I am still flabbergasted by this design flaw (or better put: The lack of information provided by Ersa about this issue).
I prefer dealing with companies that are upfront with their customers and admit if something did not work out as planned. After all it would not be that big of a deal for almost everyone owning such a station if there was some piece of information by Ersa stating that the resistor might fail in some units and it then would need replacement.
There is little to lose and a lot of trust and gratitude to earn from valued customers in my opinion.

[HighVoltage]

That is unfortunately not the thinking of ERSA, it has become a modern company that looks out for shareholder value first.

For my first repair attempt, I even had called ERSA several times to get some technical advise.
The only advise I got was to buy a new controller PCB for some real Euro.

[wraper]

That is unfortunately not the thinking of ERSA, it has become a modern company that looks out for shareholder value first.

For my first repair attempt, I even had called ERSA several times to get some technical advise.
The only advise I got was to buy a new controller PCB for some real Euro.

What technical advise you expected? Help to repair the thing? Or them to offer component level repair? It does not make sense for them from financial standpoint. Like to most companies these days. Needs qualified persons to do that, which in Germany will cost a lot.

[HighVoltage]

That is unfortunately not the thinking of ERSA, it has become a modern company that looks out for shareholder value first.

For my first repair attempt, I even had called ERSA several times to get some technical advise.
The only advise I got was to buy a new controller PCB for some real Euro.

What technical advise you expected? Help to repair the thing? Or them to offer component level repair? It does not make sense for them from financial standpoint. Like to most companies these days. Needs qualified persons to do that, which in Germany will cost a lot.

Not all companies are like ERSA.
Last summer I repaired a German built FUG high voltage power supply and FUG helped all the way with schematics and replacement parts to the component level and technical advise over the phone. So, it is still possible.

[wraper]

Not all companies are like ERSA.
Last summer I repaired a German built FUG high voltage power supply and FUG helped all the way with schematics and replacement parts to the component level and technical advise over the phone. So, it is still possible.

I think TTi still provides schematics if asked. But it's an exception rather than standard trhese days.

[dzseki]

Sorry for bringing this up again.
At work we have an I-Con 1 station that became deffective. It does not throw any error codes, it simply shows „no-tool”. The handle (an i-tool) however tested to be good in an other station, and this station shows no-tool with other handles too, so the problem lies in the station for sure. The digital part looks to be working, as I can enter to the setup menu and change things.
After opening up I found a 10R 0805 resistor that measured open, but after replacement there was no change in behaviour.
Does anybody know how the prescence of the handle is sensed?

[HighVoltage]

There is one data line coming from the handle and you could trace it through the PCB.

In my experience its probably just another resistor that is burned up and causing this error.
Just keep looking for bad resistors and replace them.

[frozenfrogz]

As HighVoltage stated, it is very like a cheap component like another resistor that has crapped out. Also, check the triac (TO220 package with heat sink).
If you have not seen it already, maybe this thread or sn4k3 the OP can give you some more pointers as to how tool sensing works on the i-cons.

Also, please let us know when you have made progress or if you need to check your unit against a working one for reference.

[dzseki]

Thank you! Will surely update if there will be any advancement, the thing is not top priority, so it may take some time.

[HighVoltage]

I just had bought another broken ERSA i-Con 1 and fixed it.
Interestingly it has a new firmware installed.
Version 2.28 29.04.19

There are no obvious changes in the settings or menu for this new FW.

[frozenfrogz]

Maybe this one has been serviced at one point, got a new main board - just because.
My iCon1 is on FW 2.02.
Does yours still support all the extra tools?

FW Release notes would be very interesting to look at, but I guess that will never happen, because of Ersa being tight-arsed about their stuff. :/