Ersa Desoldering-Station

[Alfons]

Here is a brief review of the Ersa vacuum station CU 100. Here in connection with a X-Tool desoldering-Iron and a old Ersa I-Con. The special of the old I-Con is, that at this a variety of tools such as soldering irons from the Ersa Digit2000, X-Tool, Chip tool, Tech tool, etc. can be connected. This was then changed with the newer I-Con1. The old I-Con was then replaced by the I-Con2. Otherwise, the old I-Con is no different from the new I-Con1. Since there already enough pictures of the I-Con1 is set and this has been described here in this forum, I shall confine myself to the vacuum station.

At the Vacuum station, the Ersa X-Tool, a desoldering-Iron, can be connected.

The device is somewhat smaller than the soldering stations I-Con1 / 2. In front of the panel is in each case a connection for vacuum and a compressed air and the power switch.
Upon opening the machine, you see little more than a small pump (a high-Quality Part from EBM-Papst) and a small circuit-board which ensures, that the instrument again goes out after a short time of operation (hef4538 NXP Monostabiler Multivibrator). All is “Made in Germany”. On the circuit- board there is a vacuum switch. Pressing the switch on the X-tool-iron, a valve is opened, vacuum falls, the pump starts and the station draws air. If the switch on the X-Tool is closed, a vacuum is created again and the vacuum switch turns off over a the HEF4538 after a fixed time-period the pump. A simple, small circuit. This works well and also quite reliable. Disadvantage: it is important that the whole system is sealed. A small leak somewhere and the pump would run through or start over again. An electrically operated switch would certainly be less prone to error than this solution. Until now, the station still works reliably.

[Alfons]

And more...

[ciccio]

Interesting.
If I understand well the operation  of this device the pump does not start when you press the button on the handpiece, put pre-existing vacuum is present and eventually reformed. This should work better than standard systems, where vacuum is created when pressing the handpiece button and a negative pressure must slowly form in the tubing from pump to handpiece.
This means you do not need a cable from the handpiece to the pump unit.
Very nice.

[wraper]

Yes, it pumps when the pressure rises. I use it with a vacuum pickup tool too although it has nothing to do with ersa.

[August]

Thank you Alfons. I just bought a defective Desoldering station consisting of the Digital 2000A, CU100 vacuum unit and X-tool. The problem is no or not enough vacuum. Will be nice for me when it comes so I can start to troubleshoot.

To be honest, in the pictures of the Ebay sale the vacuum line was connected to the pressure output instead of the vacuum, so it might be just that and no defect
How can somebody with such equipment make this mistake?

[PlainName]

How can somebody with such equipment make this mistake?

Perhaps it was a deliberate 'mistake' to encourage potential punters to think it's an easy fix 

[August]

How can somebody with such equipment make this mistake?

Perhaps it was a deliberate 'mistake' to encourage potential punters to think it's an easy fix 

Might be, I'm not counting on that to be the only problem but we'll have to see once it gets here. I'll be laughing if it turns out to be the problem though. Anyway, the price was not bad, so worth a try, and worth it in parts.

[August]

Got the desoldering station in the mail today. The digital 2000A must have fallen from a bench or something, because the ABS housing had quite a few cracks and torn off pieces inside. I use an old tip at 200-225C to plastic"weld" the ABS and fixed the housing.
Compressor unit seemed to be working fine, so I worked my way to the X-tool. Fortunately there were some spare parts and by fitting and testing I found a working configuration. The unit was password protected so I could not make any adjustments. I found the password after some time by trial and error. Afterwards I read in the manual how to reset to factory settings ahem.

Anyway, got a working assembly that I just tried out on a couple of dozen through-hole parts. Seems I would need different tips for larger or smaller pins. Nice to have a desoldering assembly now next to my JBC soldering station. I'll keep an eye out for more Ersa parts such as different handpieces.

[natman69]

I've bought an used CU100 unit on eBay. 
It works but I haven't understood how to use the pressure connector!!! 

I have noticed on internet several photos where the manometer is connected to the pressure connector.
In my unit air comes out from the pressure connector so the manometer (I've the original Ersa manometer) remain stable on 0 bar because it has a negative scale and it can measure only negative (vacuum) pressure.

If I connect the manometer to the vacuum connector the unit starts for a few seconds and the stops. I can read -0,8 bar on the manometer that is the rated vacuum pressure of the CU100 unit.

So why people connect the manometer to the pressure connector and what the purpose of this connector?
Is it normal that air comes out from the pressure connector?

 

[wraper]

So why people connect the manometer to the pressure connector

Because they are idiots.

[Alfons]

I've bought an used CU100 unit on eBay. 
It works but I haven't understood how to use the pressure connector!!! 

I have noticed on internet several photos where the manometer is connected to the pressure connector.
In my unit air comes out from the pressure connector so the manometer (I've the original Ersa manometer) remain stable on 0 bar because it has a negative scale and it can measure only negative (vacuum) pressure.

If I connect the manometer to the vacuum connector the unit starts for a few seconds and the stops. I can read -0,8 bar on the manometer that is the rated vacuum pressure of the CU100 unit.

So why people connect the manometer to the pressure connector and what the purpose of this connector?
Is it normal that air comes out from the pressure connector?

 

Well, somewhere must indeed the air that is sucked in. Of course it is normal that air comes out. Make you not mad because of the Manometer.
What I suppose: there are two versions of these stations: one is operated with a built-in pump, then a different, which works with an external compressor. For this you need a pressure gauge. For the normal station with built-in pump it is not required a pressure gauge.

[natman69]

@wraper
Thank you for your clear explanation…   

@Alfons
Ersa X-tool is a very good desoldering tool   

[jasom]

Can be used i-Con 1 with x-tool and cu100a? or with chip tool desolder tweezers? Thank You

[tooki]

Can be used i-Con 1 with x-tool and cu100a? or with chip tool desolder tweezers? Thank You

It depends on the exact model of station and handpiece.

The Chip Tool and X-tool exist in two generations, the original and the new “Vario” versions. The Vario versions work only with the stations that have either V or Vario in their name, e.g. i-Con 1V or i-Con Vario 2. The original Chip Tool and X-tool work on all of the stations except the one whose official name is “i-Con 1”.

The original “i-Con” (no number in its name, order number 0IC1000A) from 2007 works with the original X-tool, Chip tool, and various older handpieces (Power Tool, Micro Tool, etc). In 2008, they canceled the “i-Con” and released a new “i-Con 1” (order number 0IC1100A) that only supports the i-Tool soldering iron. Then they released the i-Con 2V (and later the 1V), which support all the old tools, plus added support for the new “Vario” tools.

See this compatibility matrix from the Ersa catalog. I screenshotted a few years of it, as they added and removed both stations and handpieces from the matrix.

As for the vacuum unit: it has no electrical connection to the station, so will work with any of them that supports the X-tool version (original or Vario) you want to use.

[jasom]

By this matrix I have chip tool and x-tool with 100cu from 2012 and i-con1 which is not compatible. :/

[wraper]

By this matrix I have chip tool and x-tool with 100cu from 2012 and i-con1 which is not compatible. :/

I-CON1 only supports i-Tool soldering iron and nothing else. It's basically a downgraded version that replaced older I-CON. Not to be confused as they are not the same at all.

[jasom]

I bought digital 2000A
So I hope it will works good