Hakko FX-951 auto power off with sleep?

[zibadun]

hey

Just got this gem FX-951 but for the life of me can't figure out how the sleep/auto power off customization works. 

It seems I can choose *either* a sleep (throttle down to 200°C) after a set number of minutes OR auto power off after 30 min.  But not both.       Say I want the iron to sleep after 3 min and power off after 30 min.  Is there any way to do that?

The manual (slightly cryptic) is here https://doc.hakko.com/download.php?_gs=on&l=en&kp=FX+951+old&d=398

[GreyWoolfe]

I just use the sleep setting.  When I am done, I shut it off.  I might have to go play with mine to see if I can get both to work.

[KL27x]

Idling at 200C is probably only drawing something like 3 watts on a T15 iron. And you can probably leave a Hakko tip at 200 C for weeks without touching it, with no ill effect. I think heat cycling might cause more stress to the internals than the worry over oxidation at relatively low temps.

If I could set both, I would have the auto power down at like 3 hours, maybe. 30 min is hardly time to read a datasheet while figuring out what the heck I'm doing.

I regularly leave my 888 on when leaving the building to go eat or something. At soldering temp. I have replaced only one tip in 9 years, and on further examination that tip is fine, too. (The iron sleeve on the inside broke loose, but it looks like it's just a press fit extra shim/doodad to begin with, put in there to protect the chrome plating on the "real" iron layer from wear when inserting/removing the tip. The creamy copper filling is still perfectly sealed and intact.)

Hope you get your answer from someone with this station. Sorry for the sidetrack.

[simone.pignatti]

hey

Just got this gem FX-951 but for the life of me can't figure out how the sleep/auto power off customization works. 

It seems I can choose *either* a sleep (throttle down to 200°C) after a set number of minutes OR auto power off after 30 min.  But not both.       Say I want the iron to sleep after 3 min and power off after 30 min.  Is there any way to do that?

The manual (slightly cryptic) is here https://doc.hakko.com/download.php?_gs=on&l=en&kp=FX+951+old&d=398

this video may help

[metrologist]

Thanks!

[theirishscion]

this video may help

No, sorry but that doesn't answer OP's question (and I have the same question) at all.

I believe we've both worked out how to get into settings and modify them. What we can't work out is whether or not it's possible to enable sleep and auto-off at the same time. Hakko's documentation for the iron (once you create an account on their documentation site, so you can hunt the current version down and download it) isn't so much bad as it is f*&king woeful.

As best I can tell, this is what is possible;

• Setting a sleep time between 0 and 29 minutes works as you would expect, which is to say the iron begins to sleep (displaying 'SLP') between 0 and 29 minutes after it is placed in the holder. However, the iron does not turn off automatically after 30 minutes
• Setting a sleep time of 30 causes the iron to turn power to the element off completely (displaying '---') after 30 minutes in the holder. However, it does not enter the sleep state at all prior to that
• If you don't wish to use the sleep or auto-off function at all, unplug the switch cable to the iron holder. There is no software disable for the feature

As best I can tell, there is no way to enable sleep AND auto power off functionality together, which seems like a crazy omission on Hakko's part. Granted the FX-951 isn't a new model, but then my FM-204 is no spring chicken either and it's quite happy to put itself to sleep after 0-29 minutes, and also turn itself off after 30. Both features are independently switchable in the configuration, though the auto-off seems to be fixed at 30 minutes if enabled, while the sleep pause can be set like the 951.

[metrologist]

That is pretty much what I concluded (actually, I thought I was just too dumb to figure it out, but suspected it might be possible) after several minutes playing with it.

[theirishscion]

I've shot Hakko USA an email asking. They're normally very responsive so we'll see what they say, but I'm not optimistic.

For what it's worth, I suspect that one could leave a regular T15 tip sitting at the sleep temperature of 200C for about, oh, a decade or two, before you'd get significant oxidation or degradation taking place, so from a tip life perspective it likely makes no difference, and it's likely only drawing 10-15 watts average to maintain that temperature, so it's not like it's going to cost much either. It mostly just bugs me psychologically; why _wouldn't_ you make that an optional switch, you do on your other models, and it _is_ a nice safety feature as well. Perhaps from a production standpoint it's considered an unnecessary complication and liable to annoy bosses as irons on the line all have to be shut down and restarted after lunch.

[theirishscion]

Ok, our suspicions are confirmed; we can have one or the other, not both.

I asked

I'm trying to configure my new FX-951 to both sleep (after a few minutes with the handpiece in the holder) and turn off after a half hour of inactivity.

I can do this with my FM-204 easily enough, there are configuration switchs for both functions, plus a settable timeout for entering the sleep state.

The FX-951 doesn't seem to have either configuration switch (meaning the only way to turn the sleep/auto-off feature off is to disconnect the cable from the iron holder) and the only options appear to be setting a timeout of between 0 and 29 minutes, after which it will sleep, or setting 30 minutes, at which point it turns itself off but will never enter sleep.

Surely it's possible to do both, no?

Sheryl at Hakko USA replied

...
You can only set sleep mode 0-29 minutes or auto shutoff in 30 minutes on the FX951-66.

The FX951 does not have the different parameters like the FM204 does. That is why the FM204 can do it and the FX951 can not.
...

(Sheryl's a customer support rockstar, by the way. She's helped me in the past and she's great. One of the better advertisements for the brand in the US)