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Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
techboy:
Hey guys, first time poster, long time lurker. I do run a Macbook and Laptop repair business in Adelaide, where I work mostly on 0201, 0402 size SMD components. So having tweezers is a must these days as these buggers fly.
I need advice, or maybe help with a project which I started and went sideways :palm:. Its the UniSolder project https://github.com/valerionew/unisolder-notes. :horse:
I have committed to the project and built the case at the peak of the chip shortage, and paid more than I should for the components. Probably spent almost 1K$ on chips, parts, genuine cartirdges and handles.
My goal was to build NASE-2C like station which supports nanotweezers, but would be also compatible with 210 and 245 handpieces and other cross-station handles.
My dreams went down the drain after long troubleshooting (my knowledge of mV opamps is limited), resoldering all components multiple times, and replacing multiple chips one more time. We tried to troubleshoot it in the Dangerous prototypes forum but haven't reached much progress in the past year http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=298647.
I am definitely doing something wrong, so went and resoldered all the components from the front board into another board by checking values and orientations one more time with no avail.
Now I need to make a choice. As it's been over a year, I am sitting here with AN115 nanotweezer, NT115 handle, a range of C115 cartridges and looking at this failed project.
Heartbroken decided to move on and choose one of these two:
2,6k$ JBC NANE-2C Nano Rework Station 2NT https://www.oritech.com.au/jbc-nane-2c-nano-rework-station-2nt-230v.html
This will give me 2 extra soldering NT115 handles which I can try to sell and recoup some of my loss.
But will not allow me to use 210 or 245 handles as they are not cross-compatible.
The station is sexy, and fancy and saves lots of space on my bench with hanging tools, but I will still need to keep using my awful T12 replica for generic soldering jobs.
3K$ JBC DDE 2 Tools Precision Rework Station https://www.oritech.com.au/jbc-dde-2-tools-precision-rework-station.html
This will allow me to use a wider range of tips, and micro tweezers 210, 245 series are not that big compared to nanotweezers with the smallest tip in use. And should be able to work on 201 size too.
For another 1K$ I can choose a DMSE with 4 ports to run 4 tools without swapping them. https://www.oritech.com.au/jbc-dmse-digital-solder-desolder-rework-station.html
But have a look how much space these takes , I could had them hanging on Unisolder with some sleep modification, and they all could have been (cheaper) different brands |O
I probably need an extra 400$ on cartridges, as 50$ per piece.
I can try to sell these, but it's a limited sector so not sure if anybody will need them:
Nano Handle: NT115
Nano Tweezers: AN115
Cartridges: C115101 x1 - C115103 x1 - C115105 x2 - C115107 x1 - C115112 x1 - C115113 x2.
thm_w:
Yeah I feel bad for anyone sucked into the unisolder universe. I still see people on youtube comments asking SDG to buy the kit and build it up.
I get the concept, its a great concept, but the end result is just insanely overcomplicated and expensive for what it needs to do. Its more like a soldering iron dev kit.
If you just want to get off the ground, you could get the Aixun or other JBC clone, and use your tips. Some of them use the official handle and connector, some don't, but they come with a handle anyway so... could sell or keep as spares.
Then there is stuff like Aifen A3 and A9 which support C115 handle.
Or Aifen A902 which has dual outputs: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804329501171.html
Please research more, I don't know what the limitations are on these with C115. Other than that for sure you won't get tweezer support. So either, leave that off for now, and just use hot air. Maybe down the road you can fix the unisolder and get it working with tweezers, or build your own design instead.
exe:
Sorry to hear it didn't work out with unisolder. Quickly checking that Dangerous prototypes thread, it seems quite some effort was spent, yet it didn't work reliably. I hope your next soldering station will work smoothly, and you'll forget your 5.2 as a nightmare.
PS I use Aixun T3a and I'm quite happy about it (though didn't try to solder anything serious and yet to buy genuine jbc cartridges).
PPS just in case, did you clean your Unisolder board from flux?
techboy:
--- Quote from: exe on March 03, 2023, 12:49:35 am ---Sorry to hear it didn't work out with unisolder. Quickly checking that Dangerous prototypes thread, it seems quite some effort was spent, yet it didn't work reliably. I hope your next soldering station will work smoothly, and you'll forget your 5.2 as a nightmare.
PS I use Aixun T3a and I'm quite happy about it (though didn't try to solder anything serious and yet to buy genuine jbc cartridges).
PPS just in case, did you clean your Unisolder board from flux?
--- End quote ---
Thanks yes it was a nightmare, and yes resolder all onto a new board and cleaned it well. I don't know whet else to check there anymore.
BTW have you test nano or microtweezers on Aixun T3?
--- Quote from: thm_w on March 02, 2023, 11:35:51 pm ---Yeah I feel bad for anyone sucked into the unisolder universe. I still see people on youtube comments asking SDG to buy the kit and build it up.
I get the concept, its a great concept, but the end result is just insanely overcomplicated and expensive for what it needs to do. Its more like a soldering iron dev kit.
If you just want to get off the ground, you could get the Aixun or other JBC clone, and use your tips. Some of them use the official handle and connector, some don't, but they come with a handle anyway so... could sell or keep as spares.
Then there is stuff like Aifen A3 and A9 which support C115 handle.
Or Aifen A902 which has dual outputs: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804329501171.html
Please research more, I don't know what the limitations are on these with C115. Other than that for sure you won't get tweezer support. So either, leave that off for now, and just use hot air. Maybe down the road you can fix the unisolder and get it working with tweezers, or build your own design instead.
--- End quote ---
Seems like Aifen is a spinoff or Seugon, was just looking at these stations and asked the supplier if they support microtweezers, but to don't think they do. They would need a two heater runners per cord. Also not sure if the connection is same. Although they say its a same cartridge.
When I spoke with JBC distributor he was solid that nano and Micro/Normal handles and cartridges are not cross compatible due to power requirements.
thm_w:
Yes as I said, they don't support tweezers, they don't have the two heater outputs. JBC also wired in a very odd way which makes it more difficult to switch between the two.
If I were DIYing it, I'd just have a dedicated tweezer circuit that only works for that. But I ended up getting hakko tweezers for ~$200 instead.
You can make a cross-compatible system without a huge amount of effort by power limiting. JBC feeds it with 12V but you could also feed the tips with 24V and hold the duty cycle way back, it would work the same way in the end.
I'm not sure if that is what Aifen is doing though.
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