Hacking Weller HAP-200 to work with WMD-3 station?

[Lomax]

I'm somewhat underwhelmed by the power of the HAP-1 "hot air pencil" that came with my Weller WMD-3 station, and curious about the possibility to get a HAP-200 to work with it. They're both 24V tools, and the WMD-3 is compatible with 180W irons - another 20W doesn't seem all that much (10%)... Famous last words and all that. I think the power requirement of Weller tools is encoded by a resistor value in the tool itself - if I were to mod a HAP-200 to say it only needs 180W, would the WMD-3 accept it, and more importantly, would it blow up? 

[tito39]

Hi I have "WMD-3" Weller and HAP-200 (not working) /Did you find out way how to tweak value .
Thanks

[Lomax]

No, I haven't - I am hesitant to fork out for a HAP-200 before I know if it can be made to work. Weller use a resistor in the tool to tell the station how much power the tool requires. I suspect you can convince the station to supply power to a HAP-200 if the resistor is changed so that it looks like a 180W tool - but what value to use?

Edit: Here are a couple of photos of the innards of my HAP-1. It seems likely that the power requirement is encoded by the two 200k ohm SMD resistors (a voltage divider?).