Hakko T12 D52 tip performance measurement (Quicko clone)

[thmjpr]

In a previous Metcal thread, there was discussion of a thermocouple test board used to measure iron performance.
I made a 12 x 12mm copper slug, drilled and fit sensor in the center to attempt to get a decent average temperature measurement. Its not fast response at all, however maybe SDG will be going that route.

The test procedure:
- Power on iron, allow 30s to stabilize
- Start recording sensor temperature
- Place solder on tip
- Place tip on top of copper slug, at angle of tip
- Apply normal soldering pressure for 150s

First comparison is between a genuine Hakko and a clone tip, both 5.2mm:



Clone tip is a T12 D52 Quicko. Both tips had station set to 320C and measured ~333 and ~331C with a thermocouple.
You can see the difference in performance between the two D52's. The circle is about where I noticed solder on the copper top turn liquid, almost 10 seconds difference. Of course this is worst case, a big hunk of ~10g copper.

Heater coil resistance is usually lower on a genuine tip, but its not much, I measured peak power (24V DC):
- 71-72W on genuine
- 67-71W on clones

I suspect poor clone performance comes down to:
- Overall worse coupling from tip to part (eg thicker plating)
- Bad feedback from tip to thermocouple (eg thermocouple is further away or not contacting well where it sits inside the cartridge)

Next various tips, performance scales down as tip size decreases, as we expect:





Future ideas:
- Compare other brands (even worth it when the better Hakko tip is only $15?)
- Compare smaller tip sizes
- Compare Handskit to genuine Hakko station (control loop + AC vs DC power)
- Play with control loop to boost output when heater power is high for an extended time. Would this even work? JBC might have something that they do, but probably more complex.

[thmjpr]

Quick Metcal comparison:


Interesting result, with the large tip they both heat up equally quickly until the solder melts, then Metcal seems to give up.
Need to figure out how to add a power graph to make things a bit more clear.