Repairing a weller soldering station

[ricston94]

Hi all!

I was stupid enough to plug the North American version of the Weller WE1010 in 230VAC. It was plugged in for around 10 seconds, then smoke started to rise. I did not power it up since that time.

I am about to buy a 230VAC - 110VAC transformer so that I am able to use the station, but I don't know if it survived the torture.

Do you think that I can use it safely if I just buy a transformer? What are the chances that the main board survived? Is there a chance that I can replace a cheap part easily if it does not seem to work with the proper voltage?

Here is a review video which I found on the channel, you can take a quick look at the internals of the station too: https://youtu.be/tlKg6rSMPEs?t=2356

I am very desperate to somehow repair it and use it. Thank you so much for your opinions in advance.

[Rasz]

start by opening it up and taking pictures and basic measurements

[Old Printer]

Unless you are buying the 230-110 v transformer anyway I would hold off until you open it up and look for visible damage. There are not many parts that can generate smoke and still be operated safely. Depending on the damage and parts availability to you, you might be better off buying a unit designed for your usual voltage.

[ricston94]

I opened it up. Visual inspection did not reveal any damage on the board. However, I think the yellow component seems to be a bit burnt (it's a bit hard to see but there are some darker areas) and the brown fuse is a bit bulged (it's also bulged in the video).

I am not sure what the yellow component is, but seems like it is related to the fuse. It is basically a short between the those two pins which you see on the transformer (the right pin is the 23V output of the transformer, the left pin goes to the board, and there's the yellow and brown component in between in series) (see attached pictures).

I will try and measure the output of the 120V/23V transformer with the 230V/110V transformer if I'm gonna have it, but am curious if anyone knows the functionality of the yellow component.

Thanks!

[PA4TIM]

Probably a Thermal fuse

[Bashstreet]

Unless you are buying the 230-110 v transformer anyway I would hold off until you open it up and look for visible damage. There are not many parts that can generate smoke and still be operated safely. Depending on the damage and parts availability to you, you might be better off buying a unit designed for your usual voltage.

Yeah i think it is sensible to see whats blown.

[floobydust]

Test it by giving 24VAC power to the main board. Disconnect the power transformer secondary (black wires) and feed in 24VAC power. Or, if you have some way to give 120VAC power to the unit and see if it comes up, after the 240V happened.

If it smoked then I would say something got damaged, which then overloads the fuses.

The square yellow component is a resettable PPTC fuse. The other side has the part number. They get hot and smoke and usually survive abuse. Strange there is also a 4A fuse in series with it.

[electrolux]

My brother did the exact same thing, apparently the screen flickered and magic smoke appeared. 

I took it apart and connected a 18VAC (closest AC PSU I had to 24VAC) power supply directly to the terminals as @floobydust suggested. Everything worked perfectly fine! The iron heated up, the display, temps etc worked. 



Now its just a matter of getting a new 230v transformer. Many retailers sell spare Weller transformers, the exact part number is 'Weller T0052511398' search it in Google. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/soldering-station-accessories/2550520915/

Its rather expensive @£64 so it may be cheaper just to order an off the shelf transformer of appropriate power output and wire it in yourself. I will update you when (if) I do this.

Note: I am not sure what other damage may have occurred to the components during their exposure to the extra voltage, everything is working fine but maybe someone else can offer some insight into other potential damage that may have happened (if any).

[andy2000]

It sounds like a new transformer will probably fix it.  It's safe to assume that the sensitive digital circuits powered by a regulated supply, so they probably didn't see excessive voltage.  Also, the transformer core would have saturated and limited the output voltage to less than double. 

[electrolux]

Welp, i guess Dave did the exact same, heres a link since this thread comes up in Google.

https://youtu.be/8itTKH5tj3s