sleep mode

[kjn4685]

Hay guys does anybody out there in the electronic engineer s have any ideas how to put a sleep mode on a soldiering station . So when I put my iron in the cradle it will go into the sleep mode . I would appreciate it very much. And thanks to all you guys that have in the past and fortune.

[Howardlong]

The Weller tweezers I have detect a magnet located in the stand. Not sure if it's a simple reed switch of something more technologically advanced like a Hall effect switch. That tells the comtroller to stop powering the twwezers. There are other irons from Weller range which do this too.

[Jeroen3]

Offset the temperature sensor feedback signal so it'll appear to the controller as if it is hot, but instead it is just 100C or anything near.
You'll need to put some sensor in the handle, like a hall sensor or a capacitive touch.

You can also modify the setpoint. But this is very complicated with a digital controller.

As a kid my soldering iron was modded with a 30 minute countdown timer that would turn it off when left on accidentally.

[nanofrog]

The Weller tweezers I have detect a magnet located in the stand. Not sure if it's a simple reed switch of something more technologically advanced like a Hall effect switch. That tells the comtroller to stop powering the twwezers. There are other irons from Weller range which do this too.

Another method they use is to simply install a micro switch in the stand (its weight activates the switch). WDH10T or WDH20T for example are made like this.



The metal rod is connected to the micro switch (plastic cradle floats on a single pivot at the top).

[sotos]

Maybe this can give you an idea.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/pace-set-back-controls/

[artag]

Long ago, I had a Antex iron with just a simple heater, no temperature control. I didn't want it to run full strength all the time, but I didn't want it to get cold either.

So I made a stand where the tip rested on a wire frame and operated a microswitch. Across 2 pins of the microswitch was a diode.

When the tip was resting on the stand, the diode was in-circuit, so the element only got half the AC cycles and ran cool. When you lifted the tip, it got full power and soon warmed up.

This worked reasonably well. It wouldn't work with a temperature-controlled iron, though, as the thermostat would try to make up for the lower power.