Aixun T3B tip loose contact

[Dracarris]

I could not find a general thread about the T3B, if there is one, moderators please move this post over there.

I have a problem with loose contacts with the tips on my Aixun T210-A handle, attached to the T3B station. Almost every time I put the handle back in the stand, the station shows a "tip not detected" error. When I press/wiggle the tip against the extraction helper holes in the stand, it detects it again, but it is super annoying.
Has anyone had/resolved a similar issue? I thought about a loose contact in the handle, however I have no clue how to open/disassemble it. Seems very tightly glued?

[RayRay]

This station has firmware updates available, I'd suggest you give that a go, as it's entirely possible that it's a bug rather than a physical issue. If this doesn't resolve the problem, you could get a new handle from aliexpress instead of fiddling with the existing.

Edit: Also, have you tried tips of a different brand to rule out the tips themselves as the cause?

[Dracarris]

This station has firmware updates available, I'd suggest you give that a go, as it's entirely possible that it's a bug rather than a physical issue. If this doesn't resolve the problem, you could get a new handle from aliexpress instead of fiddling with the existing.

Edit: Also, have you tried tips of a different brand to rule out the tips themselves as the cause?

Thanks, I will give the update a try. But it really seems related to contacts, as the issue goes away when I give it a physcial wiggle.

AFAIK, there are only the Aixun and the JBC tips available for this station. And Aixun only has very few types, so I spent a bit of money to get a suitable chisel tip from JBC. However the issue happens with both brands. Some tips seem to work but then sporadically still show the issue, additionally sometimes don't go into standby mode and/or a buzzing sound from within the handle can be heard.

[ruslan_nesterenko]

Hi guys, can anyone do a dump of the t3b firmware?

[GnomeZA]

Hi guys, can anyone do a dump of the t3b firmware?

They are available online: https://aixun-updates.github.io/#t420

If you mean the boot loader, I believe the chip is read protected, but do you have a suggested way to read off the boot loader?

[ruslan_nesterenko]

Hi guys, can anyone do a dump of the t3b firmware?

They are available online: https://aixun-updates.github.io/#t420

If you mean the boot loader, I believe the chip is read protected, but do you have a suggested way to read off the boot loader?

Mr. "c0d3z3r0" read the full dump using OpenOCD and a programmer. His Github page has a full tutorial on it.

Here is his Github. https://github.com/c0d3z3r0/aixun_t3a_rev.

He did a lot of work with the T3A soldering station, even tried to embed the bootloader from the T3A into the firmware from the T3B. It almost worked, but the bootloaders are still slightly different, the stinger detection algorithm and the GPIO configuration. At the moment the "Frankenstein" (Boot-T3A and Firmware-T3B) works, but does not see soldering tips.

[GnomeZA]

Mr. "c0d3z3r0" read the full dump using OpenOCD and a programmer. His Github page has a full tutorial on it.

Here is his Github. https://github.com/c0d3z3r0/aixun_t3a_rev.

He did a lot of work with the T3A soldering station, even tried to embed the bootloader from the T3A into the firmware from the T3B. It almost worked, but the bootloaders are still slightly different, the stinger detection algorithm and the GPIO configuration. At the moment the "Frankenstein" (Boot-T3A and Firmware-T3B) works, but does not see soldering tips.

Notice this from that Github:

Read protection is not enabled! :-)

Aixun has learned from their mistake; new devices are all read protected, including the Aixun T3A stations.
There is no way to read anything from the microprocessor if it is read protected.

With that said, I do hope you are able to find the T3B boot loader, it would be awesome if we could find all the Aixun station boot loaders.
Please do post it here too if you find it