CFW for KSGER/Quicko STM32 Soldering Stations

[S. Petrukhin]

Can someone please confirm, is it normal for this STM32 to work at 100 Celsius? Or it's defective?
100mA current consumption.

STM32F103 it never heats up, even when all its outputs are fully loaded. It is possible that the power supply voltage is too high or something else is heating up nearby. On older versions, linear voltage regulators were installed from 24V to 3.3 V, with a current of 0.1 A, this is 2W, which will heat a small board very much.

[dreamcat4]

So glad to hear these improvements. It's a great work. Many improvements, I thank you.

 

BTW, the "Btech" logo and all the files signed by "Jose". Who did this? Was this a leaked code from a company? Or a hobby project of is employeers?

Jose = PTDreamer, the guy who originally made on the v1.5 hardware board. And is still on github, just not active anymore on this project. There is also a blog etc, just search "PTDreamer".


BTW once you are fixing the PID algorithm, here is another guy on our forums. Who has donated C code, for an alternative control algorithm. He claims it is easier to use because less tuning (fewer variables). The performance should be similar as PID.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/yet-another-controller-for-jbc-t210t245/msg3106950/#msg3106950

Of course everybody else uses PID. And I don't know if you are interested in trying it. But it's just there for you in case you ever get frustrated with PID for whatever reason(s). If your code is working now... then it would be less reason to change it. Just more of a fun experiment / to see what happens.

However if you also read back ^^ this guy's thread also contains a lot of really good information about the C245 cartridge. How the soldering tip behaves etc. Which is also good reading.

In the meantime, please take your time with the code, there is no hurry. We are glad to wait.

 

[DavidAlfa]

Oh! I thought you were him. As you share the "dream" hehehe.
This is going out of control, I'm too perfectionist... haha

I'm revamping the interface too.. just a little. Like most electronics, the meters in the upper side and the control on the bottom.
A bit more tidier for my liking.

It was going too well. Worrying. While programming, suddely the IDE crashes, St-link crashes, and also does the T12 station.
Well, I thought it was gone... after 20 failures attempting to program it, I used ST-LINk utility and made a full erase....Pheww it worked.
I think the chip is bugged, being a fake no surprises... Or maybe they're not fake but they put there the defective ones?

About the PID, it's working pretty well here. I have to calibrate the temp, my probe died yesterday so it cant be done for now.
However the temperature remains very stable.

Few pictures:

[cosmin1]

Do you have stlink for programming?
I have almost finished  fixing the firmware, after that it should be very easy to port between stm32 variants.

I just ordered one. And new processor too. Mine is STM32F101RBT6 with 64 pins. Board with 1.3" display.
Do you know (or have) a firmare that will work on my processor?

STM32F103 it never heats up, even when all its outputs are fully loaded. It is possible that the power supply voltage is too high or something else is heating up nearby. On older versions, linear voltage regulators were installed from 24V to 3.3 V, with a current of 0.1 A, this is 2W, which will heat a small board very much.

Mine is STM32F101RBT6, the 64pin version. I think in the past has some supply problems (feedback resistors where not good soldered) and now the processor is almost dead even if there are no other supply problems.

[DavidAlfa]

Well, at last I figured out how to use git. I've been always using the old school "modify, mess it up and then try to remember what did I change".
There wasn't git integration in microchip IDE until bthey migrated to MPLAB X in 2010. By then it was very buggy so I stick with the old IDE a lot of years.
Then I just got used and didn't try.
My god, this is incredibly useful. I already was able to fix some weird bugs that I caused, and I spent hours trying... with diff I fixed it in a sigh! Was a pretty stupid typo...
Now the progress will be much faster.

I just ordered one. And new processor too. Mine is STM32F101RBT6 with 64 pins. Board with 1.3" display.
Do you know (or have) a firmare that will work on my processor?

Currently not. Original firmware uses stm32f103 and my port uses stm32f072.
But mine it's not hard to port.
The main thing is to make the schematic and then adapt the firmware to it.
The I/O might be using different pinout, so may do the periphericals.
We have to check how the temperature signal is processed, etc.
If you make high definition and crisp photos, I'd try to help.
When I mead HD, I mean you should be able to read every component's value!

[cosmin1]

Thanks man, you're the greatest!
As far as i could find out, the board is KSGER v2.1s r3, acording to github: https://github.com/dreamcat4/t12-t245-controllers-docs/tree/master/controllers/stm32-t12-oled/v2.1s-and-Ve2.1S/r3

I uploaded the pictures here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HLGSN3M6CB--ZOcvBISrT-DVY-xlbpAI?usp=sharing
If you need more or different angle, just ask.
I have these schematics, but different processors.

[floobydust]

I can try draw the schematic from your pictures of 2.1S r3, the board is very similar to 2.1S deluxe version with the desoldering option. Black solder mask is no fun.

[cosmin1]

Black solder mask is no fun.

I know... It's no rush. I will get the processor and the ST-Link hopefully in about 4-6 weeks.

I only ordered this black board for JBC tips compatibility.

[DavidAlfa]

Hi all, I recently bought a T12 station with this firmware in mind.
It's the Quicko T12, it shows HW version 3.4 and it's totally different.

Original FW is absolute crap, well, at least it works somehow, but it could be much better.
It uses STM32F072C8t6. Flash reading protected, of course!
Very close specs, 64 Flash, 16KB RAM (103 has 20)KB, 1 ADC instead 2 but enough channels...

The schematic is similar, it adds another sensor amp circuit, I guess for handle temperature sensor.

From what I see most is just swapping pins. Ex, SDA1 for SDA2, ADC inputs, few GPIOS.
Theorically, just need to relocate the pins in stm32cubemx, adjust ADC factors, touch some code, mainly swapping peripherals modules, timers, adc, PWM, as the pins in this board use other ones.
And compile! Hah! It's never that easy. I've tried and it messes up everything.

This is the same board:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32963498371.html


Edit: Corrected schematics.
(Click to open in a new window, high resolution)

Well, I finally release the firmware and the code for the Quicko T12 soldering station.
I think it's mostly bug free, no crashes, stable readings, everything working nicely.
Lots of small improvements here and there. Nice BETA logo on boot up 
Added a reset method,  pushing the button before powering up.
It will warn you, so there will be no surprises. In case you mess up with the parameters and want to reload defaults...

Don't get fooled by the RAM usage, the compiler shows 35%, however the GUI mallocs a lot more, around 90-95%! This was a bigr problem in the F072, as it has 4KB less than the F103.
I ran intro serious trouble until I got the culprit of so many Hard Faults!
Also the flash is near it's limit at 95% usage.

The final PWM uses 50Hz, PID set to 100mS.
Works very well, makes no noises and the switching losses in the mosfet are minimal.

Anyway, you can tweak these settings in the setup.h file, along with other parameters like the Timer, SPI, PWM, ands ADC devices.
So for a different stm32, you only need to run cubeMX, copy everything, and change the names in setup.h

I must say, I'm tired, not of coding, but of fighting for nothing. Nothing works smooth for more than 2 days!
I miss the old and stable IDEs. When they switched to java-based eclipse, problems began. Not to mention it's a resource hog (2GB RAM usage for 5 text files opened?)


Have fun!

BTW, I recommend you the DL-32 tip. It's by far the most heat conductive tip I've tested. Will beat the crap out of any ground plane like butter!

[dreamcat4]

Have fun!

BTW, I recommend you the DL-32 tip. It's by far the most heat conductive tip I've tested. Will beat the crap out of any ground plane like butter!

OK Thanks David. I have put your changes in a single git commit (dated Nov 03). And set that to a feature branch, made that the new default branch on my repo. The current state of the forks:

https://github.com/dreamcat4/stm32_soldering_iron_controller/network

It seems a couple of other people have also been active recently, at this same time. Nothing significant, except maybe 1 thing. Which was a bugfix for display (garbled lines) by LuckyTomas.

Other than that, I don't really see much point going back, if we have kept compatibility? We should go forwards!

I thank you so much for putting all that work into this open source project. And making a great effort to improve it.

 

[DavidAlfa]

The thing was that I didn't knew of your port until I was half doing mine lol.
Anyway I consider my code pretty clean, as for the DMA spi routines, never seen any display corruption, should be very east to implement.
I'll have a look at your repo too!

[DavidAlfa]

Whoops, you commited the whole project over the previous one! This is more like a branch, for the stm072, until we can make some changes to build it easily (ex. #define use_stm072, use_stm103... ).
My current firmware won't work as is with them!

I'm not too used to github, how to check out the previous version to compare?
Also, I'd like to comment most differences I can in the commit you pushed in, there're tons of changes ...

Edit:
Well, I tried to commit...No way. Errors everywhere, not permitted... seems to be the ssh keys, should open git console to generatethem , and... surprise command not found, doesn't work, blahblah I'm really fed up.
Here are some little changes with all the commit messages from the beginning that should explain everything.

I will try now to delete everything and clone your repo, I got a mess between my local git and... I admit that I'm lost hahah

[dreamcat4]

It is committed as a feature branch ATM. It hasn't been merged onto master. I just changed my default branch.

Yeah to compare the code you can use the "compare branches" feature in github. Please try to find some free time to lean about using git, and github better.

Because splitting your work into multiple different commits makes it easier to follow changes. Too many changes in 1, it's hard to understand for others.

The commit msg is like a summary of an atomic change, so really the "branch compare" function is just reduced to a regular diff at this point. Since it's all in only 1 single massive commit.

 

The other way to communicate changes is to write a changelog, and put that into the README.md.

So instead of trying to go back and rewrite the git history. (when you cannot remember what you did anymore). It would be more helpful to just improve the current documentation in the README file. To update the details there and make it easier to understand the current status.

I was going to do this anyway. It's just better coming from you! As you are much more familiar with the code. Do you have a github account yourself? Can you re-redit the readme file to better reflect all these changes?

[DavidAlfa]

I have so, but I'm not familiar with git, appart of the classic "git clone" something, "make" and ta-daa!
See my previous edited post. All is there, all the changes I did, etc.
I cloned your repo , changed few things, when I came to commit & push, error! I just roll'ed my eyes, "I see we found each other again...".
No patience left!

Also, I've tried fixing the tab identation, no way, tried only spaces, 2 tabs, 4 tabs...the code appears broken in the browser, however it displays ok in Notepad++.
So it might be a Window issue

[dreamcat4]

Hi again,
OK I have now had time to work on the README file. It now better reflects and represents the current project status more clearly. But I could use your help improving it further. There are a couple of sections in there named "Working" and "TODO". So if you feel like you can add more useful comments in there. And update that stuff. Please be my guest. Otherwise (as you said) we we can take your comments over the last week, in all these previous forum posts. Here on this thread. And summarize those back into the README.

Here you can see the current README.md in my fork:

https://github.com/dreamcat4/stm32_soldering_iron_controller

'git pull' it. To grab it then can just edit the readme. Your repo will be out of sync though... this is why you need to set aside some time to learn git. For merges, stashing, etc. As git typically won't let you sync changes with a dirty work area. What I do is either 'git stash'. Or otherwise just clone as a seperate (whole new folder). Then manually copy the working changed back into the repo folder. From the *old* repo folder.

* For doing some other changes in the repo, such as the Tab indent. Please make a seperate individual commit for that other type of action.

IMHO tabs and indentation can be annoying, sure! However some of our developer tools can at least be half-smart about the way they handle tabs and spaced. To be more intelligent especially when comparing files etc.

You can of course know what my own tools are:

* Linux
* Sublime Text 3 - no problem with tabs / spaces. Or newline CR LF!
* BTW - Please use unix newlines, not windows ones. Shouldn't be a problem.
* SmartGit - for git GUI
* Beyond Compare 4 - for diffs and folder compare

BTW if you want to try moving away from STM32CubeIDE. Then PlatformIO runs as a plugin inside of VSCode. So then I would suggest VSCode for your editor.

There is nothing wrong with using Notepad++ either. Or other different tools, which I didn't mention above. For example being on windows (rather than linux) you can use SmartGit for sure. But there are also a couple of other great options in windows for a git GUI.

Hope that helps. 

[DavidAlfa]

Otherwise (as you said) we we can take your comments over the last week, in all these previous forum posts. Here on this thread. And summarize those back into the README.

Did you check the changes.txt in prev post? That's what I tried to push in the git. Pulled the last version ("the david alfa improved" one), changes few things, then tried to commit as long the giant commit message... Error hahah.
Yep, I guess I have to learn how the system works. Must admit it's a bit overwhelming at first!

I would revert the last commit and put that one. I'ts basically the same with a little bug corrected, and everything explained.

[dreamcat4]

Otherwise (as you said) we we can take your comments over the last week, in all these previous forum posts. Here on this thread. And summarize those back into the README.

Did you check the changes.txt in prev post? That's what I tried to push in the git.

Ah thanks! Sorry I did not see that before now. Sure I can add that for you no problem! Will have time to add that in... sometime during the next day or 2.

have to learn how the system works. Must admit it's a bit overwhelming at first!

OK let me try to help you better. To make learning git become easier:

It is a lot harder to do 2 different things at the same time. That is not going to help you learn git. When you have also some real changes to do, inside a large project. That is not going to work out so well.

So! My advice (and for windows platform).

* If you are on win10 then use WSL and install git inside WSL.
* Then do a basic tutorial for cmdline git. It must be of a good quality.
* Dummy tutorial project is a good and safe practise area. Without distraction from other real world project tasks.
* Make an example project, do not use a real project in this part.
* The 'getting started' tutorial is only for:
* Basic things, like: simple checkouts, how to make a commit. How to create a new branch etc.

This tutorial is best. Recommend:

https://git-scm.com/docs/gittutorial

Once you have done the basic cmdline git operations:

Then look for 'git cheat sheet' online:

* All git commands listed on a single page, (html, image, or PDF file).
* google image search for: "git cheat sheet"
* It includes more advanced git commands. But only the ones which are really useful and needed.

Here are the 2 best 'git cheat sheets':

* https://www.jrebel.com/system/files/git-cheat-sheet.pdf
* https://www.git-tower.com/blog/git-cheat-sheet

The 2nd one (by 'Git tower') requires newsletter signup. Then they will email you a link to download the cheat sheet. The download package includes a localized Spanish 'es' version. In your own language. Hope that helps.

OK. So you have played on the cmdline and learned as much as you can with dummy file. You have the git cheet sheet. What next? What to do after that?

...then you should install a GUI program for git. They are like an IDE. It makes the advanced operations much easier to do. For things like merging, rebasing, discarding changes or cherry picking, undoing mistakes in your git history, etc.

There is a lot of choices on windows. Here are my recommendations:

* SmartGit
* Github Desktop application
* TortoiseGit - with context menu desktop integration into Explorer.exe - very useful!
* Other desktop apps (sorry i forget now!). Some are better than others.

You should try as many as you think might be good ones. Choose the best one of which feel has best interface. That is easier for you to use.

Hope it helps 

[DavidAlfa]

Thanks! Will have a look.
English is not a problem, I prefer it in fact, as a technical problem/question will be much easier to find on internet.

Now I was trying to port the firm to the 103...guess what, sorted few things I missed, but the stm is crazy, sometiems can erase, others not, the debugger hangs everytime...
Will try to set up vscode!

[dreamcat4]

Cool man 

[DavidAlfa]

Definitely my 103 is defective - Thrown into the bin.
Hope next ones come better!

[dreamcat4]

Definitely my 103 is defective - Thrown into the bin.
Hope next ones come better!

* Can you please tell us where you got the defective one from? Where exactly?
* Please also tell us where the new ones are from.

Because I have been sourcing from aliexpress. Different sellers. Maybe we can compare / know better for next time. Thanks.

[Il_Marco]

Hello to everybody,  I don't have any knowledge on programming, compiling etc. But I have a JBC T245 HANDLE (with some Tips)  and I'd like to buy one of these controllers on aliexpress (only the controller board to use with an external PSU), a few Spare STMs to solder and a ST-Link programmer to experiment and use it. Can you suggest me which one is best to buy and experiment with? Maybe using the new and adapted good work of DavidAlfa.
Thank You.

[DavidAlfa]

Definitely my 103 is defective - Thrown into the bin.
Hope next ones come better!

* Can you please tell us where you got the defective one from? Where exactly?
* Please also tell us where the new ones are from.

Because I have been sourcing from aliexpress. Different sellers. Maybe we can compare / know better for next time. Thanks.

It came from a blue pill I had bought time ago. It's not an original st,but a "CKS32F103". It worked well until..it no longer worked.
I will buy few more just to experiment, I'll post updates about how they go.
I want to buy the 103, someone said his T12 came with a 101 so I'll get the 101 as well... unless they allow me to remotely debug their board using teamviewer haha.
Did you already bought any good ones? If so, please share the seller, thanks!

Hello to everybody,  I don't have any knowledge on programming, compiling etc. But I have a JBC T245 HANDLE (with some Tips)  and I'd like to buy one of these controllers on aliexpress (only the controller board to use with an external PSU), a few Spare STMs to solder and a ST-Link programmer to experiment and use it. Can you suggest me which one is best to buy and experiment with? Maybe using the new and adapted good work of DavidAlfa.
Thank You.

The problem is that they change the design pretty often, usually to save few cents.
Mine is the "Quicko T12", but I've checked Aliexpress and I see they're different now, at least the GUI.
As long as it's stm32 based, it shouldn't be too hard to port...

My board is this one, pretty expensive nowadays:
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/32963498371.html

Maybe you could ask the seller to send actual photos of the pcb, then we could check out the compatibility.
I must say that, after having seen the other stm32 T12 boards, I'm happy with mine.
At least the power supply side is well made, the board doesn't heat up and the operation is very stable.
And it comes with circuitry to connect the handle temp sensor too...

I'm also thinking in adapting the JBC handle. But I don't think I will...
For me the T12 are doing fine, they are cheap, and I won't cry if I burn a tip...
Now with the firmware update the temperature stability works better.
Previously it would burn the board easily because at 400 it would oscillate a lot, between maybe 460 and 380.
In heavy copper traces or ground planes, it would either burn it down or make the tip stick to the trace and lift it off...

And, I have "overclocked" mine a little bit, since I bought it a year ago.
I modded the power supply from 24 to 30V... seems to be not much of a difference, but in terms of power it actually boosted from 72 to 112W.
Didn't burn any tip yet, except one... I was debugging and I stopped the core with pwm set at 100%.
Then I saw something glowing bright orange near the wall, like a candle 

[dreamcat4]

Added your changes.txt ---> as Changelog.md. Reformatted the text a little bit,

Did you already bought any good ones? If so, please share the seller, thanks!

Dammnit. I just realized that is what I also got for the 32 pins version. The reasons was because the 32 pin count version is more expensive than those Blue Pill boards.

So best thing is to buy from somewhere like Farnell CPC, or Digikey.  I guess there are also some on Aliexpress. But it is not so clear if they are genuine ST version.

For the 64 pin version, (STM32F103RCT6) I purchased a couple of these. From an aliexpress seller. However I have not used them yet. So I don't know if they are any good. However if there is a problem found later on in the future. Then I will post a comment here to warn people.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000122132651.html

Perhaps when I have other things to buy from Farnell, enough to put together a larger order. Then I will order some from Farnell (the 32 pins, genuine). But it's not happening anytime soon right now.

[DavidAlfa]

For me, the only reason for buying genuine stm is if the clone doesn't work with the IDE. I want a smooth experience.

Otherwise, if I can save some cash, I'll go with clones
Currently I'm trying too move on  from uGui to U8G2 library, as the second is specifically made for monochrome displays.
Plus it has a lot more of fonts.
Got it almost working now, while saving at least 10% flash space.
The gui shows distorted but it's close... needs some tweaking.

I definitely will changed the way update_display works, returning if the dma is active, without refreshing the display.
Who cares, the screen will update again in next cycle call, after few mS.

Just for benchmarking purposes, I made some performance tests counting cpu cycles used the SPI DMA mode...
It's great, almost no CPU time is used, only the interrupts and the few cmd bytes sent between rows.
Otherwise, with HW SPI and no DMA, it spends nearly 76K CPU cycles ( 1.6mS).
Overclocking a bit the SPI to 24Mbit (a bit over max specifications of 18Mbit but it works), efectively halves that  time do 38K cycles.
Not to talk about software SPI, it takes 700K+ cycles...