| Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff |
| Why isn't there many soldering station that uses a switch-mode converter? |
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| coppercone2:
--- Quote from: Nusa on December 18, 2018, 06:29:05 am ---Dave is something of a special case. Most of us don't have to worry much about having ~120V hardware lying around to accidentally plug into ~240V power. Especially those of us that live in ~120V areas, as the reverse case isn't very dramatic. Soldering irons are just an ideal scenario for transformers. Once you've got low voltage AC, all you have to do is connect it to the heater, add triac control and a control system and you're done. The tip heater doesn't care if it gets AC or DC, nor does it require any power conditioning. Plus you get isolation for free with a transformer. Yes, modern irons will need some DC for the fancy displays and control systems, but a few diodes and caps will give you enough for that purpose. No need to switch to a full-fledged switching supply just for that. --- End quote --- you want to use a quality circuit because its used inside a electronics lab not an out door light dimmer. Don't take shortcuts just because the process control step time constant is long you need to care about your operating environment. Those irons are running very often and if there is a few people in the same room and you shove some kinda bootleg ass power system into it you will have problems or ruined experiments. Some evil charge pump to save a 50 cent LDO or whatever can cost a good product. And you want it to be reliable and repeatable without weird failure modes because of cheap power systems. Save that kind of stuff for something like a wood engraver in a wood shop. Or a hot knife tool for plastics work or whatever. |
| Zero999:
--- Quote from: technix on December 18, 2018, 10:42:57 am --- --- Quote from: 001 on December 18, 2018, 07:34:29 am ---SMPS also have a problem with grounding and leakage It is not good do get about 80V at iron tip It can kill components --- End quote --- There are SMPS power bricks that uses three-prong mains connector that has an resistively earthed negative terminal. And that type of power bricks with a rated output of 12V/5A and 20V/3A are pretty much standard products now costing less than a big hunk of iron as used in transformers of that type. 12V/5A ones usually use the standard center-positive barrel jack too for further standardization. 20V/3A ones also mostly uses a common laptop power connector. --- End quote --- Another solution is to connect the output to earth, via a Y capacitor, which is very common in switched mode power supplies with a non-earthed output. In my experience most soldering irons have an earthed tip, so it's a non-issue. I don't know why switched mode power supplies in soldering irons, aren't as common as they are in other pieces of equipment, such as oscilloscopes. |
| coppercone2:
yea but if the earth pin gets loose or something its probably going to much worse then a conventional supply because of the high frequencies being used i kinda want filtered DC there I don't give a shit about the cost magnetic field |
| mikeselectricstuff:
There was a Youtube comment that suggested that AC is preferable for high temp heating as migration within the element was an issue. I have no idea how plausible that is at soldering temperatures - any metallurgists here ? |
| coppercone2:
Well I read literature for kilns and they have migration problems at high currents with DC because the fields cause the wires to bend I actually wonder if it would be annoying and pick up parts. Maybe its a bad idea. The plating is iron. |
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