Pace ADS200 soldering station

[Hydrawerk]

https://paceworldwide.com/news/pace-product-announcements-august-2020

PACE Product Announcements August 2020

Coming Soon:
MBT 450 Multi-Channel Soldering & Rework System (available early next year)

It looks like it was delayed.

[Hydrawerk]

I found that Farnell.com offers probably all the soldering tips for ADS200 station. Should I buy from them or is it better to buy directly from https://paceworldwide.com/? Would I have to pay an import duty? I live in central Europe. Farnell has a subsidiary here.

[Hydrawerk]

You have probably seen this unofficial ADS200 schematic...

[Hydrawerk]

https://paceworldwide.com/ads200-mt-200-minitweez-chip-tip-isb-bundle
How does the MT-200 hot tweezer work, when the ADS200 has only one channel temperature sensing and one channel heating element control? Is there any electronics built in the MT-200? It is more expensive than a similar tweezer from JBC!
https://www.tequipment.net/Pace/MT-200-6010-0169-P1/Soldering-Tweezers/?b=y&v=126323
https://www.tequipment.net/JBC/AT420-A/Soldering-Tweezers/?v=0

[Shock]

I'd go with Farnell if you are buying both the station and tips at once. The stations and stand are heavy so likely it's more economical locally. As for import taxes it depends on your county, Farnell will slap on vat for you during checkout if you're in the EU. Perhaps ask Farnell or google?

If you want instant setback remember to get the version with correct stand.

[Shock]

I've mentioned this before but JBC CD (compact series) stations still don't run both irons and tweezers to the best of my knowledge. Neither does Hakko FX951 and it's one of the biggest catches with those brands. You have to buy the specific tweezer station or a more expensive or multichannel station.

The Pace MT200 tweezers will likely run on any Accudrive station. They are also aluminum construction, costing about $100 more than the plastic MT100. Tweezers themselves are fairly niche tools compared to soldering handpieces. You also need to consider tip selection and price and with certain brands where it's made.

I don't have MT200 yet but my MT100 tweezers work great. No idea how Pace wires them up.

[Hydrawerk]

Yes, I live in European Union.

[labjr]

Yes, I live in European Union.

You don't want to be caught smuggling contraband. 

[paul]

Can anyone confirm that they are able to cancel / exit the Automatic setback by “holding the tip against a damp sponge”
I don't have the auto setback stand, I didn't think it would matter that much as the unit has an auto setback timer that should reset when the tip gets placed on the sponge.

from the manual,
“There are 3 ways to exit Temperature Setback; pressing the Scroll Up or Scroll Down keys, flipping the power switch off then on again, or holding the tip against a damp sponge.”

This does not work for me, pressing the keys and flipping the power switch does but not the damp sponge. Shame, as wiping the bit on the sponge is first thing I do when picking up a soldering iron.
The firmware is version 1.4 

[Shock]

It worked when I last tested it, make sure it's not in auto off. As best I remember, it won't wake out of auto off without the buttons or power either. I use predominantly brass wool or a kimwipe on finer tips rather than the sponge. So on the station where I don't have instant setback connected, I have a longer setback timer instead and just hit the button.

You can also try setting the setback temperature higher so there is a more obvious temp shift. It may be you are using a fine tip perhaps? I think they had to balance the effect of fume extraction and normal cooling as well so the station isn't so sensitive it jumps out of setback unattended. Try a few different sized tips to see if any difference.

It's controlled in firmware so in theory should just work when that sudden drop is seen, restoring the settings to the defaults listed in the manual seems a good next step.

[thm_w]

https://paceworldwide.com/ads200-mt-200-minitweez-chip-tip-isb-bundle
How does the MT-200 hot tweezer work, when the ADS200 has only one channel temperature sensing and one channel heating element control? Is there any electronics built in the MT-200? It is more expensive than a similar tweezer from JBC!
https://www.tequipment.net/Pace/MT-200-6010-0169-P1/Soldering-Tweezers/?b=y&v=126323
https://www.tequipment.net/JBC/AT420-A/Soldering-Tweezers/?v=0

Yeah, was going to buy the tweezer but their pricing was a bit wild. You can get the Hakko RF tweezers and a used station to drive it for less than that, which gives you per tip temp control. As noted above though they are plastic, not aluminum.

ADS200 only has 4 pins (heater/thermocouple, NTC, ground, earth) so its not possible for them to monitor multiple thermocouple connections.
You can parallel two thermocouples to get the average temperature, so I suspect that is what they've done.

[Hydrawerk]

Did someone try to download the firmware from ADS200's microcontroller?

[gnavigator1007]

Has anyone swapped out the cable on the td200 for something a bit more flexible? It's not terrible, but the cable for the mt200 tweezers is significantly better. Hoping someone might have some recommendations. I'm struggling to find anything that won't end up significantly thicker. Figure I might as well add some strain relief once I find something too.

[Shock]

The internal strain relief is fine for me, over 3 years and so far so good. Since it's not glued and can be resoldered seems dead easy to knock a few inches off if required.

[gnavigator1007]

Yeah I agree it's fine as is. I think it might become necessary to add additional relief if I do replace the cable with something more flexible. Should mention that I know I prefer my arrangement a bit weird. I keep the station on my right side, but use the iron with my left hand majority of the time.

[Shock]

Heh, yeah know the problem. What I find best is drawers (or small table) on my dominant side then the workbench next to it (where I sit). Cables dangle better off an open edge than up against a wall or in the middle of the bench. If you have a gap you can swing a microscope there was well.

[gnavigator1007]

During a search related to my plan to possibly improve the chord, I stumbled across a post by tooki that led me to T3324-551 as the male connector for the td200. It was mentioned in the other thread by tooki that the Pace connectors are of the Amphenol C091B series. Not strictly necessary info, but figured it might be helpful to have it mentioned here in case anyone came looking at some point. 

[Hydrawerk]

There was an announcement on 20th of July 2021: https://www.facebook.com/paceworldwide

We currently have some exciting new products in the pipeline. Expect more news at the start of Q4!

What is start of Q4? I think it is October 2021. Now it is end of December 2021 and still no news. Do Pace guys have lack of electronic parts or something? Lead time can be 52 weeks when you order some parts nowadays.

[tooki]

There was an announcement on 20th of July 2021: https://www.facebook.com/paceworldwide

We currently have some exciting new products in the pipeline. Expect more news at the start of Q4!

What is start of Q4? I think it is October 2021. Now it is end of December 2021 and still no news. Do Pace guys have lack of electronic parts or something? Lead time can be 52 weeks when you order some parts nowadays.

FYI, I'm pretty sure the Pace rep that used to post here, Aaron, retired. Maybe someone should reach out to Pace and ask them to have someone else interact with this forum?

[Shock]

Hydrawerk perhaps they are holding back until you own a Pace ADS 200. It could be the butterfly effect.

[Hydrawerk]

 
No, ADS200 can hardly be replaced soon because it was released in 2018. I expect a successor of MBT350 with an Accudrive soldering iron and maybe with a graphic LCD. https://paceworldwide.com/mbt350-multi-channel-solder-desolder-rework-system-td-100a-sx-100-mt-100
https://paceworldwide.com/news/pace-product-announcements-august-2020

Coming Soon:
MBT 450 Multi-Channel Soldering & Rework System (available early next year)
 (note: year 2021!!)

[Shattacrew]

Considering buying this station what are some recommended tips for microsoldering?  I was looking at the hakko 951 but since I would have to buy and additional handle plus tips this pace looks like the better option

[Shock]

Doing repair and rework if you have no preheating and working on dense pcbs you pick the largest tip that fits between other components. These type of boards were oven reflowed anyway and if you can't easily solder you either have to use preheating or hot air to assist with removal and replacement.

Otherwise as a general rule you don't exceed 2x the pad width. But a chisel can do 3 or 4 connector pins or ic legs at once by reflowing solder with flux. As the tip is wider than the individual pins/legs it's more efficient than using a smaller sized tip.


The small Pace tips are conical 0.20mm, 0.40mm then they transition to chisels at 0.80mm, 1.20mm, 1.59mm, 2.38mm, 3.12mm. So it's not as confusing as at first glance. Bent conical (also 0.40mm) and Flat blade (6.35mm) are useful as well.

Knotlogic made a spreedsheet. A bit easier to see the sizes in order most people get the (1131 prefix) ultra performance version of the tips.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O9gqqtAMWkMNFm5Baqj6rusK9R6ZHN3FZ12iQJACIUE/edit?usp=sharing

[Shattacrew]

Thanks @shock.  That spreadsheet makes it so much easier to choose the tips I need.   

[Shock]

There is also a tip chart on Paces website where you can play pokemon.
https://paceworldwide.com/news/new-printable-td-200-blue-series-tip-chart