Soldering iron tip temperature

[mandor]

I've been meaning to check my soldering irons.

Hobbying a bit and i by now i collected weller vhs45, hakko 888d, ts100 and one of the aoyue hot air stations.
What prompted me to start thinking of this is the weller which started to have issues with male part of din conenctor so i it was randomly not heating as i moved the lead. Before I figured out what was wrong i was looking into pcb contacts and thought that it just went out of calibration whatever crude one it is with it's potentiometer. So I found a little trimmer in there and cranked it up. Of course now i know it was heating well it just hd connections problems, so how do I get it back and while I am at it, i can check other ones too just to get them into the same ballpark.

So naturally I got my aneng 8009 which is the only multimeter i have with a probe to check. It shows much lower temperature with it's ugly, claim to be, k-type probe. So i borrowe a fluke 568 gun thermometer which can't even see the iron tip with its sensor, but also has a k-type probe whics also shows like 100°C lower than my hakko 88d display.

So what gives? I stumbled upon this video also where Big Clive shows probes not working
I don't want to spend 300$ on a hakko tester. I don't really need to know the temperature.

The thought crossed my mind that solder melting points should be quite a reference like 187°C  for SnPb and 213°C for SnAgCu or whichever numbers are correct.

Anyone tried to use cheap hakko ebay ripoffs? Did you guys ever try to measure your irons?

[wraper]

You need to insert end (junction) of thin unsheathed thermocouple into a solder blob to get meaningful result. Just touching the tip is completely useless.

[Mortymore]

So naturally I got my aneng 8009 which is the only multimeter i have with a probe to check. It shows much lower temperature with it's ugly, claim to be, k-type probe. So i borrowe a fluke 568 gun thermometer which can't even see the iron tip with its sensor, but also has a k-type probe whics also shows like 100°C lower than my hakko 88d display.

You should have borrowed a Fluke thermocouple thermometer instead, with proper surface thermocouple.
IR thermometer has to have emissivity index set for the type of surface they are measuring to be accurate. I think it would be hard to read the tip of an iron with them anyway.
Those bead probes like the one the aneng has, are usually rated up to some 200... 250 ºC, so forget precision trying to measure 300...400ºC.

I have one of those fake Hakko thermometers and it is fairly accurate. But I believe that not all fakes are alike. I have bought some ebay stuff from different sellers that should be the same thing, but they´r not. Some work pretty well, others are garbage. You just need to find a good and honest fake stuff seller. 

PS: I wouldn't go mad about temperature precision of the soldering tip. It will fluctuate anyway when soldering. Until you can't access a good thermometer, you could just trust the measurement with the bead thermocouple of aneng, and not of the IR thermometer, as good as it may be.

[wraper]

Those bead probes like the one the aneng has, are usually rated up to some 200... 250 ºC, so forget precision trying to measure 300...400ºC.

It has nothing to do with ability to measure. Type K works completely fine over 1200^oC, temperature rating is relevant only for durability of insulation. And only exposed end is subjected to temperature of iron tip.

[SilverSolder]

Anyone tried to use cheap hakko ebay ripoffs? Did you guys ever try to measure your irons?

I use one of those and am happy with it.  There is good agreement between what it displays and what the soldering stations are set to (when used correctly with a blob of solder as @wraper said).

Two reasons for measuring your irons: 
1) Get a consistent temperature between different stations, handles, and tips
2) Catch problems with ageing heaters (sensors) - they slowly change over time

[mandor]

The Fluke gun does have a probe. I'll go and try to make a blob.
And i did try to set emissivity but it just does not read the tip. Highest it shown is 80°C while it was actually arround 300.

[mzzj]

And i did try to set emissivity but it just does not read the tip. Highest it shown is 80°C while it was actually arround 300.

Fluke 568 minimum spot size: 19mm


And the "bead thermocouple" that comes with these is probably too massive for accurate measurement.
Try 0.1mm single strand of K-type extension cable or 0,2mm thermocouple wire.

[mimmus78]

I found the way it works for me is to split the two k-type wires and put the tip in the middle. Than pull gently the wire and the soldering iron in opposite directions to make good contact. This will increment surface contact of the probe with tip and gives me very consistent and repeatbly results.

Inviato dal mio ONEPLUS A5010 utilizzando Tapatalk

[JM1010]

No one is mentioning the use of thermal cam for the rare occasion when you want to check your probe tip temp. I ordered the C200 which goes up to 500C with good refresh rate. I haven't receive it yet but is it good enough to measure overshoot and stabilized tip temp or do you need a specialized gizmo just for this?

[mzzj]

No one is mentioning the use of thermal cam for the rare occasion when you want to check your probe tip temp. I ordered the C200 which goes up to 500C with good refresh rate. I haven't receive it yet but is it good enough to measure overshoot and stabilized tip temp or do you need a specialized gizmo just for this?

It's going to be a crapshoot with thermal camera because of unknown emissivity value.
Compared to 1.00 emissivity error at 330 Cel tip temperature would be:
0.95 emissivity: -10 cel error
0.5 emissivity: -120 cel error
0.2 emissivity -210 cel error

Shiny metal(tinned tip) has emissivity somewhere 0.1 to 0.6 depending on gazillion things.
Unless you want to paint your soldering iron tips with high temperature paint 

[mzzj]

I found the way it works for me is to split the two k-type wires and put the tip in the middle. Than pull gently the wire and the soldering iron in opposite directions to make good contact. This will increment surface contact of the probe with tip and gives me very consistent and repeatbly results.

Inviato dal mio ONEPLUS A5010 utilizzando Tapatalk

I'll vote for this method. For best results use very thin thermocouple wire (single strand out of multistrand cable works well)