Author Topic: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:  (Read 8001 times)

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Offline techboyTopic starter

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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.



« Last Edit: March 02, 2023, 12:59:30 am by techboy »
 

Offline thm_w

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #1 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.
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Offline exe

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #2 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?
 

Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2023, 12:53:43 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?

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?

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.


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.
 

Offline thm_w

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2023, 01:06:59 am »
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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Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2023, 10:36:16 am »
Do you have a recommendation for a DIY one which has tweezer support? I wish I went through a Hakko way. but they are not that popular here in AUS I though I bet well on JBC.  Look how the tables turned.
 

Offline exe

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2023, 11:47:11 am »
BTW have you test nano or microtweezers on Aixun T3?

No. I gave up on tweezers long time ago). Tweezers imo useful only for two-lead packages like 0603, etc. Much less use for sot23-3, etc (but I can be wrong). So, for two-leaded packages I just use knife tip or hotair gun. You can also use cartridges designed for two-leaded components, but, imo, that may require buying quite a few expensive cartridges.

There are videos how to desolder without tweezers, but I can't find them now. Though there is this one which I kinda like: .

Anyway, I'm fairly confident that if you need tweezers, buy the good ones. Any cheap stuff is junk, imo. Check if you can get a loaner, say, from jbc before buying.
 

Offline vulkan35

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2023, 03:50:39 pm »
I do run a Macbook and Laptop repair business in Adelaide, where I work mostly on 0201, 0402 size SMD components.

 :palm:
 

Offline Shock

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #8 on: March 05, 2023, 06:55:03 pm »
If you are after micro handpieces check out the Metcal MX5200 and Weller WXR3 systems also. For a multi handpiece setup avoid their other stations, they have lessor specs and integration.

Micro handpieces are lower power in most cases and many people just use a regular/slim sized handpiece and swap the cartridge tip if they need something smaller.

The Hakko FM2027/2028 70W slim sized handpiece is recommended a lot for laptop repair but if you already have a partly setup JBC system you may discover Hakko is a backwards step in specs and plastic quality (you may save money though).
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Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2023, 06:47:13 am »
I have good news for you, OP. JBC AN115-A nano tweezers can work with the Aifen A902 dual soldering station.

Recently, I snapped up a good deal on the tweezers, figuring that I'd never get another chance to buy it that cheap again. After some experimenting, I was able to make a Binder-to-Hirose adapter to connect the nano tweezers to my A902. A lot of these JBC clones seem to use the same wiring scheme for their Hirose-style "aviation" plugs, so it should work with any Aifen or Sugon JBC clone that can supply enough wattage to simultaneously power two C115 cartridges. The A902 is nice because it's a 350W station and supports C115, C210, C245, and even C470.

What's so annoying about the AN115-A is that it uses a pricey 5-pin male bayonet plug that's only made by Binder. I can't source the female bayonet it mates with because it's locally out of stock. I could order it from Binder USA, but the high cost of the connector and shipping makes it a nope for me. I did eventually find a good deal on a non-bayonet version that I used for R&D and the adapter. But, if I ever have to do it again, I would just remove the unobtainium Binder plug from the tweezers and replace it with a common Hirose aviation plug. Since I don't see myself buying a NASE station ever, it doesn't make sense to spend so much on a Binder product.

The tweezers are working great for me so far. I know some people think they're an extravagant toy, but I've found them super useful at times. They're really nice to have around when you need them.

If anyone's interested, I can also post photos of a hanger and stand for the tweezers that I bent from some 14 gauge solid Romex I had lying around. They put the tweezers into sleep mode.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2023, 09:52:54 am by Arcturus »
 
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Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2023, 07:27:49 am »
Just the type of advice I was looking for. So both cartridges are in parallel. Do you get enough heat from them? Also do you get correct temperature response a sper what you set?

I have got a hangers for jbc from aliexpress can send you like if you wanna buy ready ones. Just missing the spirng on top where you hang your cable

Can you post female plug you used for the tweezers which is compatible with the Aifen
« Last Edit: March 13, 2023, 07:44:20 am by techboy »
 

Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2023, 09:54:55 am »
I got the pin numbering wrong on one of the drawings, so I deleted it. Here's the revised drawing.
 

Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2023, 11:08:50 am »
Heating is fine as long as you have realistic expectations of what they're capable of. These are NANO tweezers after all. They won't work well on boards designed to dissipate gobs of heat. One PCB I tried it on was a USB power source attachment for a power tool battery. It took forever to get 603s off even though the board was tiny (40mm x 50mm). Some larger components near mosfets and other power related regions wouldn't come off at all even with lots of flux and a little help from hot air above.

And phone logic boards are small but engineered for heat efficiency. So, at times you'll need more than flux - like a pre-heater underneath. Other than that, components come off pretty quickly. When I've used it on smaller 2-layer microcontroller boards around 20mm x 40mm, parts come off in about 2-3 seconds.

As for temperature accuracy and response, I haven't done a careful test with thermal loading and recovery, etc. But, preliminary thermocouple readings look stable and close enough to say it's working alright. At least well enough to be useable for it's intended purpose. And I have used it with success for practical work, and for some people, that's all that really mattters. The biggest concern is that this mod sets up the cartridge thermocouples in parallel on the same sensing line. So I'm not sure how that's going to affect the controller's temperature algorithm. So far so good, though. Both cartridges measure virtually the same temperature with no thermal loading.
 

Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2023, 11:17:09 am »
The female plug that goes into the Aifen is Hirose part RPC1-12P-6S(72). It's the same plug that every JBC clone handle uses.
 

Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2023, 11:51:20 am »
Thank you very much for the usefull replies. I will definitely action this, so fed-up of the unisolder.
 I agree that 115 cartridges are powerful enough only for very small smd components on a low mass pcbs. Maybe microtweezers cartridges will have more power and mass?

I have nano soldering handle and nano tweezers working with 115 cartridges. Looking at the A902, i can choose 210 and 245 handles and buy a separate 6pin connector like this one AU $9.01 | JBC 6-core Replacement Socket C245 C210 T245 T210 T470 Welding Table Handle Replace the Plug
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOpQucq

Or for 30aud extra, I can just add 115 hangle with 3 extra tips and chop those ends and adopt to use with the nanotweezers.
 

Offline sobakava

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2023, 09:55:27 am »
Hello,
This is interesting. Recently I bought an Aifen A9 Pro station with C210 handle.

I was wondering if I could use AN115-A tweezer handles with my station. Aifen A9 Pro has a circular 6 pin connector. The inner diameter of the male connector at the station is around 12.2mm.
The overlay text on the station says :  C210 (C115/C245).   Does it mean I can use all handles using the same connector?


And for the tweezer handles, can I connect one using your adapter scheme or I need something like this to use AN115-A

https://aliexpress.com/item/1005005225633424.html
« Last Edit: March 22, 2023, 03:28:48 pm by sobakava »
 
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Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #16 on: March 22, 2023, 10:49:56 am »
I just received my A902 today and was thinking similiar option to add a 6 pin 2 position switch to switch between irons on each side.

This costs 70$ but seems elegant. However having the socket directly at the back with switch on top on each iron holder will be awesome as one unit only.

The adapter scheme seem to bridge both tips of the tweezer as one and it responds as an iron. Havent done it yet, but will be next step.
The one you posted seem to be a switch between two irons so you dont need to reconnect them at the back if i am correct.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2023, 11:47:21 am by techboy »
 

Offline sobakava

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2023, 06:35:46 am »
Hello, what is the power requirement of AN115? I checked and my Aifen A9Pro seems like rated at 96W. Do you think it is sufficient to power both elements of the tweezer?

Thanks



I have good news for you, OP. JBC AN115-A nano tweezers can work with the Aifen A902 dual soldering station.

Recently, I snapped up a good deal on the tweezers, figuring that I'd never get another chance to buy it that cheap again. After some experimenting, I was able to make a Binder-to-Hirose adapter to connect the nano tweezers to my A902. A lot of these JBC clones seem to use the same wiring scheme for their Hirose-style "aviation" plugs, so it should work with any Aifen or Sugon JBC clone that can supply enough wattage to simultaneously power two C115 cartridges. The A902 is nice because it's a 350W station and supports C115, C210, C245, and even C470.

What's so annoying about the AN115-A is that it uses a pricey 5-pin male bayonet plug that's only made by Binder. I can't source the female bayonet it mates with because it's locally out of stock. I could order it from Binder USA, but the high cost of the connector and shipping makes it a nope for me. I did eventually find a good deal on a non-bayonet version that I used for R&D and the adapter. But, if I ever have to do it again, I would just remove the unobtainium Binder plug from the tweezers and replace it with a common Hirose aviation plug. Since I don't see myself buying a NASE station ever, it doesn't make sense to spend so much on a Binder product.

The tweezers are working great for me so far. I know some people think they're an extravagant toy, but I've found them super useful at times. They're really nice to have around when you need them.

If anyone's interested, I can also post photos of a hanger and stand for the tweezers that I bent from some 14 gauge solid Romex I had lying around. They put the tweezers into sleep mode.
 

Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2023, 07:22:44 am »
Heating is fine as long as you have realistic expectations of what they're capable of. These are NANO tweezers after all. They won't work well on boards designed to dissipate gobs of heat. One PCB I tried it on was a USB power source attachment for a power tool battery. It took forever to get 603s off even though the board was tiny (40mm x 50mm). Some larger components near mosfets and other power related regions wouldn't come off at all even with lots of flux and a little help from hot air above.

And phone logic boards are small but engineered for heat efficiency. So, at times you'll need more than flux - like a pre-heater underneath. Other than that, components come off pretty quickly. When I've used it on smaller 2-layer microcontroller boards around 20mm x 40mm, parts come off in about 2-3 seconds.

As for temperature accuracy and response, I haven't done a careful test with thermal loading and recovery, etc. But, preliminary thermocouple readings look stable and close enough to say it's working alright. At least well enough to be useable for it's intended purpose. And I have used it with success for practical work, and for some people, that's all that really mattters. The biggest concern is that this mod sets up the cartridge thermocouples in parallel on the same sensing line. So I'm not sure how that's going to affect the controller's temperature algorithm. So far so good, though. Both cartridges measure virtually the same temperature with no thermal loading.

I haven't tried it yet. check out @Arcturus's feedback. I have spilled my one's guts here on the table and still figuring out how to mod it. 96W should be more than sufficient to run it bot heaters. I don't think A902 feeds all 130W on each channel anyway.
 
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Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2023, 01:47:52 pm »
On the A902 and A9 Pro, the C115, C210, and C245 handles all use the same 6-pin Hirose-style connector. However, there is an important difference in the wiring. The C115 and C210 handles have a jumper wire from pin 5 to pin 6. If you do not bridge pins 5 and 6 on the C115/C210 handles, the station will display an "H-A" error code upon lifting the handle out of the stand. Also, "S-E" error code means that blue and/or red are disconnected.

C245 handles are wired the same as C115 and C210, but there's no jumper wire. Pin 6 has no connection on C245. Another thing about the C245 handle is that the wire colors are swapped on pins 2 & 5. In other words, C245 pin 2 is blue (C3) and pin 5 is red (C2). Whereas C115/C210 pin 2 is red (C3) and pin 5 is blue (C2). They probably did it this way for consistency in color designating Vout+(red) and Vout-(blue). C115/C210 has Vout+ on C3 and Vout- on C2. C245 has Vout+ on C2, Vout- on C3.

I don't see why the nano tweezer adapter wouldn't work with the A9 Pro. That station is 120W, which is more than enough.
The extension unit you linked to is interesting. The auto-switch feature looks handy. BTW, there's a similar unit that has a Binder 5-pin connector in the back. Don't know if it'll work with the tweezers though.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803010440133.html

It would be ideal to design an auto-switching DIY extender mod pcb that can be mounted inside the A902. When you pick up tool A, tool B disconnects. And vice versa. A simpler alternative would be a manual switch mounted somewhere convenient. Maybe 3PDT for pins 1, 2, & 6 and gang the others?

BTW, for 2023, Aifen came out with upgraded T210 & T245 handles. The new handles have built-in temperature up/down buttons. They're using pins 3 & 4 to support this enhancement. The buttons control the temperature by grounding either of those pins (pin 1 is ground). Pin 3 is "DOWN", and pin 4 is "UP". Holding down both buttons puts the handle in "off" mode and disables that channel. Hold down both buttons again to re-enable.

« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 11:31:49 pm by Arcturus »
 
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Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2023, 10:47:31 pm »
That unit looks sleek, do you know how it detects what type of iron it uses? I have got 115, 210, 245 irons as part of thekit, but did not saw any resistors in the plug side. Must be detecting the type of iron somehow.

The buttons on the irons are actually quite comfortable. I was pessimistic at the start.
My thought for the DIP switch was this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000925833903.html its 6P2T and can switch all 6 lines between two states. Took some time to locate it, but I can fit one on each side of the power switch.

I am thinking to add nanotweezers and have 2 position manual switch for each iron side, which can alternate between all connected 4 irons. I am just contemplating keeping the hiroshi plugs or using standard aviation plugs instead. Those buggers are 15AUD each and still are missing the two extra pins for UP/DOWN on the iron handle. I don't mind having to manually switch between the irons as long as the switch is on a reachable distance. I have measured the space inside and this will fit nicely.

BTW I am combining my findings on A902 in a github repo so we can hack it around, would it be ok to include and modify some of your drawings?
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 10:56:48 pm by techboy »
 

Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #21 on: March 27, 2023, 06:00:25 am »
That unit looks sleek, do you know how it detects what type of iron it uses? I have got 115, 210, 245 irons as part of thekit, but did not saw any resistors in the plug side. Must be detecting the type of iron somehow.

When the station detects C115/C210, it outputs ~8.5v. C245, it outputs ~20v or more. Exactly how it does that, I don't know.

What's clear is that the A902 doesn't need ID resistors like Unisolder and JBC. It's probably setting its output based on the presence of a connection to pin 6. It might be as simple as that. A more complicated approach would entail the range of resistances and TC offsets it detects between earth, C2, & C3 at various temperatures. The forum has a bunch of rabbit hole discussions about it that are way over my head. But if you look at the way the heater and thermocouple are connected internally on the various cartridges, you'll see that they're different. Between C1 and C3, C115/C210 heater & TC are in series while C245 heater & TC are parallel. So, you can distinguish C245 from C115/C210 just by taking a resistance reading between C1 & C3 while it's cold. For example, when I measured C210 & C245 cold and hot resistance, I found that C210 resistance is ~2.5ohms cold and >8ohms hot. C245 is zero to 0.3ohms cold, >24ohms when hot.



« Last Edit: March 27, 2023, 06:36:53 am by Arcturus »
 
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Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #22 on: March 27, 2023, 06:16:07 am »
The buttons on the irons are actually quite comfortable. I was pessimistic at the start.
My thought for the DIP switch was this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000925833903.html its 6P2T and can switch all 6 lines between two states. Took some time to locate it, but I can fit one on each side of the power switch.

I am thinking to add nanotweezers and have 2 position manual switch for each iron side, which can alternate between all connected 4 irons. I am just contemplating keeping the hiroshi plugs or using standard aviation plugs instead. Those buggers are 15AUD each and still are missing the two extra pins for UP/DOWN on the iron handle. I don't mind having to manually switch between the irons as long as the switch is on a reachable distance. I have measured the space inside and this will fit nicely.

BTW I am combining my findings on A902 in a github repo so we can hack it around, would it be ok to include and modify some of your drawings?

Yeah, the new Up/Down buttons on the handle are pretty sick. Think I'll pick up a set, since I discovered from tinkering with pins 3 & 4 that my A902 from 2022 has the feature supported in it's firmware.

I'm going to add a manual switch to mine too. But I'm gonna try a 3PDT switch instead. Pins 3, 4, & 5 can be ganged, unless I'm missing something. See attached.

Feel free to add my drawings to your github repo. I made them in Google Drawings, so I'll have to figure out a good way to share the originals.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2023, 11:37:48 am by Arcturus »
 

Offline techboyTopic starter

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #23 on: March 27, 2023, 07:10:41 am »
Apparently, the microcontroller is read blocked and doesn't allow reading out the firmware. I was hoping that I could dump the firmware.
How did you figure out what version your one is on?

They use these STC 8H1K28 uPC which has no way to dump the firmware out. Let me know if you come across their firmware dumps or updates anywhere.
 
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Offline Arcturus

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Re: Advice on recovering from a soldering station miss choice :palm:
« Reply #24 on: March 27, 2023, 07:56:28 am »
I didn't have to dump the firmware. I just suspected the remote control feature might be already in the firmware for the station I bought in 2022 and started experimenting based on that hunch.

Since all the other pins are are designated for other things, I deduced that they must be using pins 3 & 4.
 


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