Author Topic: CFW for KSGER/Quicko STM32 Soldering Stations  (Read 662338 times)

0 Members and 4 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline CapnBry

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 24
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #150 on: May 20, 2020, 01:41:41 pm »
If one thing positive came out of this, I learned how to go back to stock! :D now i'm not so afraid to jump off the cliff anymore. I will update once I've tested all the versions I can find.
Oh hang on now. You have a way to get back to stock? I still haven't flashed my daily-use soldering iron because I am afraid of losing the original firmware when I turn off readout protection. Do you have a source for the stock firmware?

I will say that the stock firmware has a little better UI for me. When I need to switch to boost, just turn the knob to the right. Sleep, one turn to the left. Standby, two turns to the left. It is much easier than using the click scroll over, click scroll option, click, especially because clicking requires a change in hand position to prevent the iron from scooting away. I may take a swing at redoing the main screen UI to be similar. The temperature control of the custom firmware seems a little better in working on groundplanes, since the original firmware never seems to ramp up high enough.

These ST toolchain are so convoluted it's a total nightmare to use them.
I had a similar problem with building in that the project I loaded wouldn't build and I had to start editing all these settings and source files and adding files to the project and some were duplicates and I eventually had to blow away the copy of the project and start from scratch again. I'm sure the tools are very powerful but golly things are just all over the place. This is from someone who has been programming in C for 25 years. If I broke my project somehow I'm afraid I'd have to start from scratch again to repair it, although I am sure a lot of that comes from just not being very familiar with the IDE.
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #151 on: May 20, 2020, 02:05:52 pm »
eventually had to blow away the copy of the project and start from scratch again

LMAO because the 'ST MX Cube' program decided to delete and blow away all of the source code for me. The whole lot. Then it didn't know what to do after that because couldn't find it anymore. It even deleted the hidden .git folder too.

 :clap:
 

Offline CapnBry

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 24
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #152 on: May 20, 2020, 02:09:29 pm »
LMAO because the 'ST MX Cube' program decided to delete and blow away all of the source code for me. The whole lot.
haha that is crazy because the first time I tried to load the project it made a complete second copy but then the next time, I expected it to make a second copy but I  was actually editing the originals in the git clone. I think one time I imported it into the workspace and the other time I was able to just load it. I really would like to learn more about STM32 development but there seems to be a pretty steep learning curve with the thousand different tools involved.
 

Offline Gandalf_Sr

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1729
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #153 on: May 20, 2020, 03:15:55 pm »
So, if the IDE setup for STM is so bad, what if we changed the processor to a Cypress PSoC 4000? The PSoC Creator IDE is great and I can get code running PDQ in that environment.  Annoyingly, Cypress are now migrating to a new Eclipse-based IDE called ModusToolbox and I'm struggling to get anything other than the canned examples working but the PSoC4000 is all still done using PSoC Creator - everything is free BTW.

If the code already exists for the STM, is it written in C or C++?

Or shall I just stick with the original processor?

What other changes could we put in?  The setup where the connector for the iron gets put in the front panel and then the PCB is soldering onto it is terrible IMHO, how the heck are you supposed to maintain it?
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer
 

Offline CapnBry

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 24
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #154 on: May 20, 2020, 04:03:04 pm »
The setup where the connector for the iron gets put in the front panel and then the PCB is soldering onto it is terrible IMHO, how the heck are you supposed to maintain it?
Oh man I hate that as well. It isn't a problem to put it together but I've had to take 3 apart now and desoldering that chunky connector from the PCB is a real pain. Structurally it makes sense because everything is held together pretty well but using a header connected to the panel jack by itself is a lot more of a serviceable solution. My main iron has a header on those TSGEN pads and it makes it trivial to replace the board, but then the PCB just sort of floats inside, connected to the case only by the encoder... which is at a bit of an angle.

STM32 is a very popular platform for its low cost and high performance / available peripherals. I think the IDE is just confusing because we're unfamiliar with the toolset and there seems to be more tools than you can shake a stick at. I think ST is trying to address that with STM32CubeMXIDEetcetc by bringing everything into one frontend although it still is a little rough around the edges. The debugger interface with just a cheap ST-Link is also pretty good and makes it pretty accessible and it works a lot better than the AVR debugger interface (that white box thing I can't remember the name of that I rarely break out).
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #155 on: May 20, 2020, 05:50:12 pm »
If I had a clear instructions how to just directly compile the src folder in linux from the cmdline using C compiler and flashing with OpenOCD instead.... then that is what I would do.

However there are no CMAKE or other traditional Makefile / build chain there to be found. Only whatever those ST Project files / Eclipse IDE.

However the stm32cubemx does have some useful feature in it. Just sadly still linked to that other workspace / eclipse IDE stuff. Which is rather a shame but heh it's likely somebody hanging out around the OpenOCD project has had same ideas to parse them and figure it all out.

The thing about the 'Workspace for STM32' skinned Eclipse IDE program is that its so-called 'latest version' is from ubuntu 14.04 days. All ancient, like the whole thing was left forgotten in a ditch for several years. Which is why it would be great to keep the newer CubeMX tool thingy but try do away with the other one.

Maybe not possible due to ST being total [redacted]. But one can dream eh?

 :-//
 

Offline Gandalf_Sr

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1729
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #156 on: May 20, 2020, 06:19:25 pm »
So is the code in C or C++?
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #157 on: May 20, 2020, 07:08:34 pm »
So is the code in C or C++?

Sorry for not answering earlier... it seems to be a fairly reasonable and straight C as you can see in the repo here on the flawless_testing branch.

https://github.com/luckyTomas/stm32_soldering_iron_controller/tree/flawless_testing/Src

 :-+

My thoughts about it:

In regards to your recent suggestion to move the project onto a different platform:

* The main thing to realize is that there seems to be a heck of a lot of code in there for the control loop, dynamically adjusting temperature, calibration stuff etc.

* So therefore if you wanted to move it to a new platform the general expectation of what you would be doing would be 'much more of a porting effort'. To keep that stuff and translate it over. Now I don't know the specifics or how relyant this well developed code is on features that are specific to the STM32 family. So YMMV. I am just guessing that devil is in the details of it. I have not myself the knowledge of what they do down in there. At those level.

* Otherwise (if not possible to port because it's too specific to STM32 hardware features). Then having to throw all that stuff away and redo it. Which is to say I look online and keep stumbling over many other people (quite a few, it is no exaggeration) who have done just that. And ended up with independent firmware coding or re-implemented for that build again the control loops etc. BUT so many of them fail in the performance being so so and the heat up time (from cold) to working temperature being in the laggardly range of 9-12 sec. Wheras the true capability and performance of a JBC (T245) cartridge is in the order of approx. 3 seconds. And this is by far the exception than the rule.

In fact there are only about 3 projects I am aware of which *might* have the real world performance I am keen for. (i.e. a similar performance to a real JBC station). In regards to *this* project, it's been commented by somebody else that the PTDreamer firmware is better performing (or less slow / whatever) than the KSGER closed firmwares available from KSGER. However I am not sure of the performance myself.

One other project is a cheap Russian style job (or Romanian rather) uses an ardiuno for the micro and has a cheaper BOM and everything. That one has a video of decent heating performance. The DIY kit is simpler, and you are doing things in a very 'from scratch way'. Unfortunately the guy hasn't open sourced his firmware. And for a long time. Which I feel is a shame. And why I am so interested in this project instead for STM32. (and also to buy a premade controller than build from scratch has it's advantages, and being not-Romainian everything, searching for clues in the google translate etc).

The third and final project is some clever Turkish guy who is selling his units with international shipping. And also has a video demonstrating a great performance. 3 sec with a 10 amp draw @ 24v. His units are significantly more expensive though. More like $70 - $100 depending on specific options etc. But he did a nice professional looking job of it all.

So in summary:

* Do we need yet another different platform that somebody else likes just because it happens to be what they are familiar with?

Well arguably no, because the main benefit of this project is still an option to buy a premade controller and flash it with a .bin.  Hehe we are having trouble in that area but maybe it's not enough to move platforms. Since we want to leverage the existing community efforts that have already been going on. For example if nobody else is familiar with that other new platform then er... perhaps it's not actually going to encourage the broader participation from others. And shut them out.

Maybe the performance side also comes under question. Because complications can occur for redoing those complicated stuff onto the other platform. Which is not exactly a known sure thing until it's actually done, and working on the hardware.

Also because we would have to spin out a different PCB and assemble it. Well heh I already have all the parts needed for the Romanian guy project here. Unfortunately his code is still closed source as it has remained so for some time. But it's also a freakkin arduino with literally the fewest possible moving parts. So much simpler than anything else out there. So that would kindda make more sense from the reason to 'avoid ST over complicated stuff and have things simpler, easier'.

You definately cannot port some complicated ST code over to arduino though. If the porting idea is such feasible one. IDK if it really is though... you will need look more carefully in the code. Browsing the commit history is useful to see what those 2 guys were changing there most recently in respect to the algorithms etc.

There you go. I would still expect it's probably path of 'least resistance' to try flashing this v2.1s or modify it should that be necessary for a difference in the layout. And you know... it's already the biggest community project of the 3 options. And the only one with an open source code. All big pluses.

Don't let my complains about ST toolchain stop us here because maybe it's a solvable problem somehow. We have not had enough time to figure it out yet.

We just don't need to take away from those main PROs to this project. Unless it becomes apparent that is in fact really necessary.

===
For other Guy:

(sorry I confuse the 2 of you here, which is which)

Redoing the PCB to make it better is surely a great value though. It may help to get around compatibility issues or issues of finding / buying the wrong PCB. Plus the reliability improvements to the PCB itself. Finally for people like myself, also to just transfer most of the components over from 'crap PCB' --> onto 'good PCB' is also less wasteful. For everybody who already has wrong version. This is also pretty useful!
 

Offline Gandalf_Sr

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1729
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #158 on: May 20, 2020, 09:00:57 pm »
I'll give a longer reply tomorrow but I wanted to say that I don't really want to be responsible for maintaining the software but I am happy to be in charge of the hardware.  But, if no one wants to, or is able to maintain the software then the project might not be worth pursuing. I am able to port the software across if it's written in C and I am capable of maintaining it. 
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer
 

Offline darkflame808

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 8
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #159 on: May 20, 2020, 09:50:40 pm »
Quote
Oh hang on now. You have a way to get back to stock? I still haven't flashed my daily-use soldering iron because I am afraid of losing the original firmware when I turn off readout protection. Do you have a source for the stock firmware?

There is a way to get back to stock. You need to find the original firmware. Given that it's property of KSGER it's not something I can just post. I learned this when asking for guidance on a flir project. I was told "search" hahah so yah while I am new here I don't want to get on the wrong end of the eevblog hammer :D

Simply put there exists a multitude of original firmwares, about 27 if I counted correctly, Some labeled as KSGER, some T12, some labeled as hako and desolder and combo. Thanks to a screw up (or intentional?) on a subdirectory someone forgot to disable directory browsing. I was desperate to find "any" firmware I could once I got the beep of doom haha took me about an two hours of searching but eventually found one firmware made the beeping stop but had garbage on the display. I took the trailing file out of the download in hopes of finding a webpage that would explain what they were attempting to do and a directory listing just came up with a bunch of files.

I kept trying different ones until I got somewhere that looked like I was making progress. Eventually I was greeted with Chinese Writing asking for a code.

Which then began the next game of duck hunt. hahaha

You can find lots of information here.

https://medium.com/techmaker/reverse-engineering-stm32-firmware-578d53e79b3
https://weekly-geekly.github.io/articles/350602/index.html

The top link will help you learn how to get your hands dirty, the bottom one will show you that it's been done before. :)

I hope this help.
 
The following users thanked this post: dreamcat4

Offline floobydust

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 6987
  • Country: ca
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #160 on: May 21, 2020, 05:45:01 pm »
It's too bad they refused to go open-source but then they would have too many competitors.
My understanding is KSGER original firmware is copy-protected two ways.
If you re-flash, you need to run a keygen. I saw the guy disassembling the bootloader lol.
Also I notice they move I/O pin assignments around on pcb revs, and sometimes ground an I/O pin as an identifier the pcb is matching.
If you think about it, their firmware is their main IP and copying of these soldering stations is rampant.
The original firmware has an RTOS, I'm not sure which one but it explains the clunky UI.
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #161 on: May 21, 2020, 06:54:43 pm »
Have figured out today how to compile from sources the latest version of the PTDreamer firmware. I was opening it into the wrong Program... 'ST workbench' is now replaced by STM32CubeIDE. They are both effectively the same thing (a skinned Eclipse IDE).

So what I am doing is trying to document (as best as I can), all of the steps required into the README.md file. Then upload that to Github. And submit the changes as a PR to LuckyTomas. Unfortunately I have not heard back from those 2 guys after emailing them yesterday. The last activity on the source code was back in February this year.

In the meantime here is the compiled .BIN and .ELF attached. Of course we didn't check it / try it yet. Or map the pins for the other version of the PCB. So YMMV.

Personally I would suggest to try to backup the OFW before flashing. But of course you guys are talking about copy protection, keygens, etc. Which all gets in the way of that process.

I have also included a warning message in the updates to the README file. Showing clearly (with photos) which one is which. Since they are both labelled as "v2.1S". I think that is going to be clear enough in future to anybody else downloading the source code. Being right there in the README.md. However it still does not find us where to buy the correct version online. Or if it's still even available.

 :-//

Will report back after finishing these changes / raising a PR on github.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2020, 07:33:42 pm by dreamcat4 »
 
The following users thanked this post: darkflame808


Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #163 on: May 24, 2020, 08:59:13 am »
Thanks for those schematics etc.

 :-+

BTW I am debugging my SWD programmer now because i cannot seem to get SWD conenction to either of my boards (the 3.1 or the 'fake' 2.1S).

It is beginning to look as if the board is pulling the SWK_CLK (clock) whenthe programmer is attached. So if theres any other tricks, other than simply connecting to the 'C D V G' swd header then pls let me know. Thank you.

Simply cannot get any SWD connection working to these boards yet. My first time.
 

Offline darkflame808

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 8
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #164 on: May 24, 2020, 09:44:20 am »
Tested and confirmed. It worked on my board. Thank you.
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #165 on: May 24, 2020, 10:00:35 am »
Tested and confirmed. It worked on my board. Thank you.

Can you be more specific please? About what you are referring to? BTW thanks for those files (not that i have had time to look at them yet).

 :-+
 

Offline darkflame808

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 8
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #166 on: May 24, 2020, 10:23:46 am »
I tested the file you posted it worked on the board I posted earlier that did not work. I’m sorry I never sent the files I was afraid of getting into trouble. Floobydust posted a few links which have a lot of the files I saw earlier. I just wanted to say thank you. It was your file that worked while all the other ones didn’t.
 
The following users thanked this post: dreamcat4

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #167 on: May 24, 2020, 10:54:01 am »
I tested the file you posted it worked on the board I posted earlier that did not work. I’m sorry I never sent the files I was afraid of getting into trouble. Floobydust posted a few links which have a lot of the files I saw earlier. I just wanted to say thank you. It was your file that worked while all the other ones didn’t.

This is very good news yes? Because I have not flashed yet. I am not sure which PCB excactly you are talking about here. I know its back in thread somewhere but have not had time to look can you please get link for us to see? Thank you so much.

[edit]

...Also if you tester with a T12 or T12 tip? Or a JBC tip? And what was the heat up time from cold iron to working temperature?

I ask because a lot of those recent activity on the source code seems to be around those control loop algorithm. Thank you again.

 :-+
« Last Edit: May 24, 2020, 10:56:39 am by dreamcat4 »
 
The following users thanked this post: darkflame808

Offline darkflame808

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 8
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #168 on: May 24, 2020, 11:08:01 am »
Here was my post regarding my board. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/stm32-oled-digital-soldering-station-for-t12-handle/msg3076054/#msg3076054

I have only tested my stock ksger tip on it. I have a 10 pack of various t12 tips coming in Monday. Heat up times are quick. About 8-12 secs to hit target temps. I’ll make a video comparison between the two when I get my tips in on Monday for your observation. Would be great to see how it turns out! Getting new toys in the mail everyday. Your cfw adaptation is icing on the cake. Thank you greatly.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2020, 11:10:16 am by darkflame808 »
 
The following users thanked this post: dreamcat4

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #169 on: May 24, 2020, 11:51:59 am »
Here was my post regarding my board. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/stm32-oled-digital-soldering-station-for-t12-handle/msg3076054/#msg3076054

Ah this is the version with aliexpress listing claiming 'v2.1S'.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32891292698.html

I have this same PCB here just cannot flash it yet due to some other technical problems. I would very much like to be 2nd person to do this. And to confirm your report. (Which is different PCB than what they had shown originally in github https://github.com/luckyTomas/stm32_soldering_iron_controller/blob/master/schematic/Ver2.1S/t12-stm32-controller-back.jpg)

If I can confirm that it works (indeed!) then i can add information about its compatibility to the github. Instead of saying to people to avoid it.

So for flashing: I might need some help. For example what programmer and software do you guys use?

For myself (so far)... I can see my programmer (TUMPA v2 over openocd) seems to send some pulse trains over its SWD 3 wire when not connected. But when I connect up to the 'CDG' pins on stm32 T12 controller PCB. I hold NRST low or connect it to the NRST on my programmers SWD header. The target PCB is powered independantly with 24v and I can see NRST affects the device. It freezes and unfreezes.

Unfortunatly the clock line on the SWD measure 0.95v on my basic multimeter and i cannot get a response from target in openocd output. So my SWD connection fails. This was about 4 hours of frustration yesterday night.

Perhaps I missed some step to cut trace or modify the PCB? Same seems to happen on my other v3.1 board.

 :-//

About 8-12 secs to hit target temps.

Perhaps that is expected for a T12 tip? However that I feel is not the best. The gold standard is 3-5 seconds on a JBC tip. Which is to say something like 8-10 amp draw from the 24v supply. As per this other youtube video (other guys $100 product).

https://youtu.be/fvIjh8lIlpw?t=87

And this is really the thing we want to be aiming for. Or otherwise at least try to understand why its not possible. If there is some limitation. This also plays into the idea to make our own PCB version... we do not wish to handicap ourselves by copying an existing schematic if that design has a flaw that prevents a higher speed of performance (more current draw, more power to the tip).

About 8-12 secs to hit target temps. I’ll make a video comparison. Thank you greatly.

... hehe  :)

if you are going to make video do you also have access to a power meter plug? To measure the watts. Then please plug that in to the socket / PSU. And put next to the iron. It will show us the watts power draw / consumption from the mains. As it is heating up. Thank you.

 :-+

In meantime, i try to understand SWD and how to be flashing it. The has been support and help from OpenOCD (Paul Fertser) who I am very grateful for.

 :palm:
« Last Edit: May 24, 2020, 12:03:46 pm by dreamcat4 »
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #170 on: May 24, 2020, 12:23:31 pm »
Oh BTW another new project. It might be worth to start a new thread



that one is arduino based (328P) MCU. The mosfets and transformer looks nice. And in the youtube comments is link to its github repo. For open source files HW and SW

https://github.com/Canonius/JBC_Soldering_Station

Its still new project. So i do not think they have compatibility yet for all the other JBC handles such as T470 etc. And heat up time is 6 second. Still it is the most promising other open source project. As the other simple Romanian arduino design (by 'xDadu') remains closed source AFAIK

OK I made a New thread about it here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/dual-jbc-t245-compatible-300w-soldering-station/new/#new

To keep this thread free from those further discussion.
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #171 on: June 10, 2020, 04:34:32 pm »
So, if the IDE setup for STM is so bad, what if we changed the processor to a Cypress PSoC 4000? The PSoC Creator IDE is great and I can get code running PDQ in that environment.  Annoyingly, Cypress are now migrating to a new Eclipse-based IDE called ModusToolbox and I'm struggling to get anything other than the canned examples working but the PSoC4000 is all still done using PSoC Creator - everything is free BTW.

Hey again... here is the thing that I have been slowly realizing today. Whilst investigating other STM32 parts... their whole platform is not necessarily bad because of the software side. After getting to know the right development tools and support it is OK to use in 2020. And there is a wealth of support and knowledge out there. What I see now letting it down is the many different specific hardware versions and "variants of versions" out there. So (to cut a long story short) not only do ST silently for example remove a DAC, in the 'value version' that carries the same name. Or they rebrand a 103 as a 100.. there is also these 'GT32' clone chips now by LTSC which also themselves have subtle different hardware changes under the hood. And that creates a sort of hell of incompatibilities with so many SKUs, and if you order a specific chip, lets say a CBT8 variant from aliexpress. And its not actually quite the same. Then something is broken vs a differently sourced chip. That I think is the true hell of STM32 platform.

So yeah... I do see more value in switching to a different platform. Now that we have newer processors out there. Thing is though... Cypress PSoC 4000? Really? That seems to be based on cortex m0 and it's not one of the more mainstream micros that everybody knows about. And you say here they move to eclipse also. In fact the only feature that really seems in it's favor is that you personally are already familiar with that platform. Well there is nothing actually wrong with that if the intent is for some kind of a pet project.

However my previous criticism still stands that a platform for the broader community is going to be a platform that is better know and more familiar to the broader community. So if not STM32, then what else? Well it strikes me from that perspective. (to start from scratch) then something with the following characterics:

* Faster, to have a higher performance. Both for driving the screen and also reacting to the tip / driving the mosfet(s)
* Has very few different SKUs / variants. To avoid confusion around subtle hardware incompatibilities.
* Popular to the community
* Cheap - that anybody can afford to risk / break
* Easy to source worldwide
* Has good development tools, good
 support (a mature platform, which is not buggy)

And really the only platform i can actually think of which satisfies all of those requirements well right now (2020) is ESP32. It also has 2 cores so potentially can drive the display off a different core than thesoldering  tip. So as not to be any bottleneck or compromise one for the other. Also it's coremark score of about 400+, it has some precise timing capability. All are a good fit. It seems to tick all of the boxes above. Its cheap enough and mature enough to be a safe choice. And have such a large and enthusiastic community for getting (the most possible) other people to take an interest and want to contribute, help with the efforts.

IDK there must be some drawbacks come along with that too. I cannot think what they are. If somebody else has something negative about ESP32 platform specifics. Then it's nice to hear it. Otherwise it's going to be my new search term going forwards! Since there are many new JBC controller projects like this out there. They just keep showing up!
« Last Edit: June 10, 2020, 04:51:52 pm by dreamcat4 »
 

Offline Gandalf_Sr

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1729
  • Country: us
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #172 on: June 10, 2020, 06:52:43 pm »
LOL, as you were coming around to moving away from the STM32, I was starting to accept that it's an OK processor.  The PSoC4000 isn't a very good choice given it's an m0 but there are others, the PSoC5 is nice but it's stupidly expensive. The PSoC6 is dual core (M4 & M0+) and I do have some LQFP100 samples, there's also modules like the CYBLE416045-02 which is FCC certified with BT 5.0 that would allow remote control :D

If you're willing to work the firmware, I'll do a PCB design with whatever you want in it, I have most of the PCB components ready to do a design.
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer
 

Offline dreamcat4

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 495
  • Country: gb
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #173 on: June 10, 2020, 08:22:20 pm »
Interestingly I also asked today on other opensource project what they think about MCU choice, and if ESP32 is good (or not) since it is indeed popular atm amongst hobbyists. So here you can see linked that other discussion in case its helpful to you:

https://github.com/Jan--Henrik/Otter-Iron-PRO/issues/5

As for me I have simply ordered some RCT6 today on aliexpress. And paused working on it anymore until they arrive. Which should take anout 1 month to 6 weeks.  Then can replace the original chip with a new blank one. To keep the original spare, because it has the original firmware on it. For backup purposes. Since it (turned out) it was not any one of the 'existing 27 known OFW firmwares'. Therefore cannot back it up any other way.

Then (eventually) can flash that same existing fork of the PT Dreamer firmware and confirm that the other guy said. Except also mod the pcb for the JBC T245 tip. It's no big deal really.
 

Offline floobydust

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 6987
  • Country: ca
Re: CFW for STM32 OLED Digital Soldering Station with T12 Handle
« Reply #174 on: June 14, 2020, 02:46:44 am »
I noticed the JBC option on the T12 controller PC boards looks like they are doing it incorrectly -
You'd want to remove the 0R resistor to disconnect heater(+) from the (Hakko) thermocouple input, for the JBC thermocouple lead. Like in this schematic?
OLED-V3.0 has a R0 not populated, which is still wrong I think, wrong pcb traces. You have to disconnect the TC amp from the heater for JBC compatibility.
 
The following users thanked this post: dreamcat4


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf