I have a PACE MBT350 with the blue collared intelliheat handpieces (desoldering,tweezers and soldering iron) but it uses 110v mains which I use with a 240V to 110V transformer. I'm looking for an excuse to buy the MBT360 system in a couple of years time. Has anyone used one or actually owns one of these systems, and can they work with existing intelliheat handpieces? Thanks.
The MTB360 has two AccuDrive ports and one Sensatemp. It is not compatible with Intelliheat handpieces. I don't have it, but I do have AccuDrive and Sensatemp systems. They're fine, but I doubt you want to junk all of your Intelliheat stuff.
I want to spank whosoever at Pace came up and used these marketing words instead of something more descriptive.
I don't think that would be any easier, in practice.
What on earth are AccuDrive, Sensatemp, and Intelliheat?
I wrote it up it years ago in a few threads:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/recommendation-for-de-soldering-station-for-through-hole-repair/msg3595853/#msg3595853https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/affordable-desoldering-pen/msg4905416/#msg4905416However, since then I've learned a bit more detail, so here's an updated write-up.
You are absolutely correct that Pace loves using goofy brand names for their technologies. (They're very 1950s-style in that they often use "cutesy" spellings, like Sodr-X-Tractor, MiniTweez, ConducTweez, ResisTweez, StripTweez, VisiFilter, Snap-Vac, Lapflo, Flo-D-Sodr, SODRTEK, and countless others.) With that said, with few exceptions (like IntelliHeat) they each refer fairly unambiguously to a specific technology, so goofy or not, they are useful.
In essence, Pace has really only had 4 different control systems (electrical standards, i.e. drive voltage and temperature sensor type):
- "dimmed" 120V AC (no sensor)
- SensaTemp (21V AC, PT100 sensor) —
this name was originally used in 1971 for the ST-10 external temperature measuement unit- HeatWise (first-generation cartridge heater, 16V AC, thermocouple) —
referred to very inconsistently, see timeline (I'm using the first name they used)- AccuDrive (second-generation cartridge heater, 21V AC, thermocouple)
All of the low-voltage systems use Amphenol C091 B series DIN connectors:
6-pin black is the
SensaTemp connector, containing only the SensaTemp signals.
4-pin red is the
HeatWise connector, containing only the HeatWise signals.
8-pin blue is the
IntelliHeat connector, containing both SensaTemp and HeatWise signals.
4-pin black is the
AccuDrive connector, containing only the AccuDrive signals.
Only the cartridge heater handpieces use HeatWise or AccuDrive signals. (TD-100 series irons and MT-100 and TP-100 tweezers use HeatWise signals. The TD-200 iron and MT-200 tweezers use AccuDrive.) The others use SensaTemp. HeatWise and IntelliHeat are now obsolete and the dimmed mains have been gone for decades.
<end of summary>
Timeline, as best as I have been able to piece together, skipping over the really old stations with the dimmed 120V AC control:
- Stations from about 1989 on used SensaTemp signals on black SensaTemp connectors.
- In 2002, the first
HeatWise and TempWise stations came out, which used HeatWise signals on red HeatWise connectors. HeatWise and TempWise stations differ only in how you set the temperature, with the TempWise models having conventional digital controls while the HeatWise models use fixed preset temperatures via fixed-temp "Power Modules" (headphone plugs with resistors inside). Pace marketed this as "Advanced Heating Technology" without otherwise naming it.
[added 2026-06-23]
- In 2003, the MTS series of HeatWise (“Power Module”-controlled) rework stations were released, offering either one red and one black connector, one red and two black, or two red and one black. They refer to the black ports as being “fixed heater handpiece channels” and the red ports as “heater cartridge channels”. They don’t mention the SensaTemp name at all, neither in the brochure nor on the unit. The
user manual, however, does refer to the “SensaTemp handpiece heaters” in passing, though it otherwise refers to “HC” and “FH” ports and channels, or just red and black. (The manual is wildly inconsistent in its terminology. I suspect this was when Pace reached peak confusion/uncertainty on what it wanted to call these different control standards.) [/2026-06-23]
- The
2004 catalog refers to "SensaTemp" but now names the cartridge heating system as "HeatWise" technology. This catalog inexplicably uses Comic Sans headings!
- In 2005, the new "dual-technology" MBT 301 and 350 introduce the blue connectors which combined both the SensaTemp and HeatWise signals. However, they hadn't yet introduced the IntelliHeat
brand. In the 2005 documentation, they now refer to them as "SensaTemp" and "TempWise" technologies, and the handpieces came in "black series" and "blue series", referring to the plug color.
- In 2007, they launch the IntelliHeat brand. They now refer to the two technologies as "SensaTemp" and "tip-heater cartridge based" and the handpieces's official descriptions change from "black series" and "blue series" to just appending "SensaTemp" or "IntelliHeat" in parentheses. All red connector HeatWise stations and nearly all of the black connector SensaTemp stations are replaced with blue connector IntelliHeat versions. (In many cases, using the same model numbers!
) For people with existing SensaTemp handpieces, an adapter from black connector to blue plug is introduced, too.
- In 2010, the oddball WJS100 "50th anniversary" station is released (two years after their 50th, LOL), which uses a special version of tip-heater cartridge with double the power of the regular HeatWise ones. Sort of a proto-AccuDrive, since it's the same power. I don't know what voltage these use. The station and tips are not compatible with regular HeatWise, but the station is compatible with regular SensaTemp-based handpieces.
- In 2018, the ADS200 station launched the AccuDrive system, the official second generation of tip-heater cartridge irons.
With that, they now have two incompatible cartridge heater systems at the same time. Since AccuDrive is better, they want to kill off HeatWise.
- 2022: Since IntelliHeat minus HeatWise is just SensaTemp, when they update their multi-port stations to AccuDrive with the MBT 360, they essentially kill off IntelliHeat and resurrect the SensaTemp connector. All single-port IntelliHeat stations are replaced with SensaTemp versions. (And recycling even more model numbers!)
(Dates checked against old brochures, manuals, and the US Patent and Trademark Office trademark database.)
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