CFW for KSGER/Quicko STM32 Soldering Stations

[oleg401169]

Hello! I assembled a custom soldering station - the ksger 2.1s circuit was taken as a basis, but the project was assembled based on the bluepill stm32f103c8t6 board - a printed circuit board was developed for this project, DavidAlfa firmware for ksger 2.1s oled was installed. Everything worked right away. I decided to assemble a similar soldering station, but the Quicko STM32F103 scheme will be taken as the basis and I encountered such a problem - the image on the display is shifted up, the VTM88870B display controller ST7565, in the arduino the display works correctly, I chose the U8G2_ST7565_LM6059_F_4W_SW_F_P _Spi u8g2 (u8g2_r0, /* clock = */ 13, /* data=*/ 11, /* cs=*/ 10, /* dc=*/ 9, /* reset=*/ ; .Can anyone help me solve this problem?

[DavidAlfa]

You'll have to find out why. Probably different LCD init sequence or pixel addressing/offset.
This would need tweaking in these files:

https://github.com/deividAlfa/stm32_soldering_iron_controller/blob/master/Drivers/graphics/display.c
https://github.com/deividAlfa/stm32_soldering_iron_controller/blob/master/Drivers/graphics/display.h

Probably in the ST7565 disp_init[] array.

[oleg401169]

Thanks for the advice, I just recently started learning stm32cube ide, my little knowledge was enough to understand what to look for in this direction, but in arduino ide this was solved much easier for me by simply declaring a variable, but here everything is more complicated for me. Anyway, I'll try. By the way, the latest firmware release works better than the previous one, my station began to almost instantly come out of sleep mode and the off state when the handle was lifted, and there are many other positive things.

[Kryderr]

Hello, which solution is better for fix power issues? I have ordered DC>DC buck modules Mini560-Pro 3.3V \ 5V (5A max load)...
 
1) Use 5V DC-DC module, 24V to DC-DC input and 5V to 3.3V LDO Input
2) Use 3.3V DC-DC module, 24V to DC-DC input and 3.3V to LDO Out

3.0s board - still self-resetting some times (SE8533 LDO with 100ohm 5V resistor on input), 2.1s board work well - but 1117 LDO clone are very heat....

[oleg401169]

I use a combination of DC DC mini-170 3A (in addition to adjustment, you can also rigidly fix the voltage using jumpers and it is suitable for the input voltage) and ams1117 3.3v everything works great, the only thing is not to spare capacitors for the ams body kit

[DavidAlfa]

Thanks for the advice, I just recently started learning stm32cube ide, my little knowledge was enough to understand what to look for in this direction, but in arduino ide this was solved much easier for me by simply declaring a variable, but here everything is more complicated for me. Anyway, I'll try. By the way, the latest firmware release works better than the previous one, my station began to almost instantly come out of sleep mode and the off state when the handle was lifted, and there are many other positive things.

I'll try to figure it out based on the u8g2 settings you posted (Just arrived home after a very loooong working week).

Edit: I think it will be display.c, line 26.

Replacing:

Code: [Select]

1, c_start_line,

With:

Code: [Select]

1, c_start_line | 31,

Try different numbers between 1 and 63. I might add a new option in the display settings for this.
Attaching sample firmwares with modified LCD starting line, testing offsets 30, 31 and 32.
This causes the same image effect on my "normal" LCD, so hopefully will fix your's.

You can easily patch any official firmware release without compiling it.
Open the .bin file in HxD and search for this hex pattern:

Code: [Select]

01 AE 01 40 01 A0 01 C8 01 A6 01 A2 01 2F 02 F8 00 01 25 02 81 22 01 A5
Once found, replace the 4th byte (0x40) with the desired offset, possible values are 0x40 (0 offset) to 0x7F (63 offset).
0x40 is 64 in decimal, so it's any number between 64 and 127, use any decimal to hex converter online / Windows calculator (Set to programmer mode).
But it looks to be very close to 30-32 offset, so 64 + 30/31/32 = 94/95/96, 5E/5F/60 in hex.

Hello, which solution is better for fix power issues? I have ordered DC>DC buck modules Mini560-Pro 3.3V \ 5V (5A max load)...

A typical regulator needs "output voltage" + 1.5V, so 3.3+1.5=4.8V
Always feed it slighly higher voltage than required to provide better noise supression, 5-7V will be a good place.

[oleg401169]

It worked! I installed all the firmware for Quicko stm32f103 sequentially - the image was normally stabilized when setting offset 32, it would be very nice to be able to make such adjustments in the firmware itself. I also checked these parameters by installing them in the stm32cube ide environment, according to your recommendations, everything works!!! Thank you very much for your help and your work!

[DavidAlfa]

Added new option for display Y offset.

New relese: v1.10.7.

Cheers! 

[ohmware]

hi david, which custome firmware is available to this version of ksger t12 station?

[DavidAlfa]

None. And won't happen.
Read the manual / readme at GitHub.
Only oled stations with stm32!

[Jono434]

Yes, the operation manual..there you will see what NTC settings do.
But yeah it'll work without a NTC, but might have some temperature drift as the handle heats up.

I think I'll order some NTC just to be on the safe side.  Is it advisable to add NTC to C210 or C245 handle?  Will it help with temperature stability with those too?  The Sugon handles have 6 pin cable, so I need to rewire any handle that I use.  If I already need to rewire the handle, adding NTC doesn't seem to be much extra work.

I understand how to wire the T12 handle, there are diagrams everywhere.  I understand the C210 handle can be wired the same way as the T12.  For the C245, I haven't found any good resources.  Is there a link or guide somewhere?  I will keep searching around.

[ohmware]

thank you for the clarifications. one more thing, is this device used to flash the custome firmware for the iron? im so sorry for being noob.

[Jono434]

The cheap ST LINK V2 clones on eBay or AliExpress is all you need.

[DavidAlfa]

No real need of NTC for safety reasons, it might drift 10-15°C without it, no worries.

[Jono434]

I've read through the manual a few times in the last few days and feel like I understand the basics of the operation of the soldering station pretty well.  My main problem is understanding the electronics fundamentals and the technical stuff.  It's like I'm in the first few weeks of electrical college course.  I've done stuff like this before but it was 8 years ago.  Learning it again is fun, but it's also complicated.  Maybe I don't need to know these technical things right now, if I can add a buck converter to the LDO input, and find wiring diagrams for the handles.  In terms of fine tuning PID settings, this seems super technical and complicated.  In the beginning, I think I can be happy with a basic functional station with no major bugs.

Either way, I will be trying to read this entire thread at some point.  There is a lot of good information, and maybe that will help in understanding certain things better.

I've been playing around with a modified Splash images, I modified the original from Jesus Vallejo's image.  I've attached a sample image at 200% to make it easier to see (256X128 instead of 128X64).  The basic idea is to have something based on the handle that the station uses.  And to try and make sure it's centered on the display but people's display can be different.  It's easy to adjust the PNG or PSD file to move 1 pixel left or right if it's not centered.    There is T2XX and C2XX versions for personal preference.  This is all personal preference, but that's the advantage of custom firmware.

I'm not even sure I will use them but if Jesus Vallejo doesn't mind, I could share them here in a zip file, if anyone else wants to try them or modify them.

[oleg401169]

I updated all my soldering stations and the board of the future project for an LCD display - I had no doubt that everything would work perfectly.On LCD display by default, y offset was set to 56, set it to 32 with the encoder and the image on the display became normal,I didn’t have to adjust anything on the OLED displays. I would like to ask - are lcd displays supported only on the st7565? After all, the library supports many more displays, I’m just going to buy more displays for st7567 and uc1601 (they are on the list, at least for Arduino), I’ll try to experiment with them. And one more question - the list of supported firmware languages is final, I would just like to see the Ukrainian language too?

[DavidAlfa]

I designed the firmware for (And only for) existing stations (KSGER, Quicko, Handskit), which will be the majority of users, thus the gui fits *specifically* 128x64 displays, others will look weird.
Some people had a hard time reading those small displays, and 2.4" OLED were pretty expensive, so I decided to add support for those LCDs, which can found everywhere for cheap.

Only OLEDs (SH1106/SSD1306/SSD1309, etc) and ST7565 LCDs (And compatibles, like your LM6059) are and will be supported.
I won't be adding support for other displays, as I said this targets specific hardware, so just buy the correct display from the beginning.
Of course, it would be possible to make it work with other displays, but I can't be making a custom FW for everyone going different, so you'll have to do it yourself.

BTW I forgot to change settings version, so the firmware is taking the existing data, which will be wrong, that's why it was set 56 by default, that variable was used for something else.

Fixed in v1.10.8.

[oleg401169]

I'll still try to experiment in this direction.

[Rixi]

Hi guys,

With your help I updated my HANDSKIT T12 station to David's CFW and modded it to work with a C245 some months ago. Love it!

Yesterday I found this extremly cheap C210 handle and "had to" order it including another, spare C245 handle. Ordering both, combined shipping applied (cheaper shipping costs). The price was just too good. Now I thought this is maybe also interesting for some of you guys:


You can find it here on AliExpress.

Has anyone of you ever opened this kind of handle or even inserted a shake sensor into it?

Best,
Rixi

[Jono434]

David, what we have been talking about in the last few weeks is slowly starting to make more sense now.  I connected a 3.3V buck converter last night and did some experiments but also have 5V and other versions to play around with if required.  The 3.3V worked fine, but the soldering station was idling and wasn't under load.  I have the Blue PCB and can share voltages that I measured at a later point.. if it helps anyone.

I received a full KSGER unit on the weekend, and opened it up last night for the first time.   I didn't buy any KSGER handles, I will only be using modified handles.. so it'll be a while until I wire up a handle and can test actual soldering.. but understanding how the unit functions is becoming easier and easier now that it is in front of me.  I can't patch firmware until the ST LINK arrives, which is maybe another week or two.  But I understand the purpose of NTC in the handle and cold temp vs thermocouple temp a little bit more now.

I have attached a wiring diagram that I created a few days ago.  If there is any criticisms or improvements, anyone feel free to share your thoughts.  It's easy to edit and can be helpful in the future for noobs (like me).  There's two versions, a simplified version, and an extra info version.

It is intended to be printed out on A4 paper in landscape mode.  But can also be used in any image viewer on the PC obviously.

[Jono434]

You can find it here on AliExpress.

Has anyone of you ever opened this kind of handle or even inserted a shake sensor into it?

Are these Sugon handles?  Or a clone?  They look the same.  I have T12, C245 and C210 versions of these handles and will be wiring them up in the next few weeks.  I won't be using shake sensor though, only Stand Mode for sleep via banana jack on back of chassis.  But for your question, it seems easy to simply wire pin 1 the same way as original KSGER handle.  It depends if it's a 3 core wire or a 5 core wire (probably 3 core).  I bought 5 core wire for this reason (flexibility of options).

The wiring diagram I attached above is based on using those style of handles.  They are basically green/foam versions of the blue Aixun handles.  It doesn't say, but it seems like there is 6 pin (black connector) and 5 pin (silver connector) versions.  There is such little information it seems to hard to say, but the handles look exactly the same as Sugon handles.   The interior of the handle likely looks something like this (attached).

[Rixi]

You can find it here on AliExpress.
Has anyone of you ever opened this kind of handle or even inserted a shake sensor into it?

Are these Sugon handles?  Or a clone?
[...]
The interior of the handle likely looks something like this (attached).

I don't know the Sugon handles. A year ago I ordered a handle that looks the same (like the linked one) and had the same black connector. I then soldered my own connector to it, so I can use it with my HANDSKIT T12 station (very similar to KSGER, Quicko... stations) and it works great.

I already tried to open this handle, but I couldn't find out how. And was affraid of breaking it. That's why I asked if anyone already opened it. My goal is to upgrade it with a shake sensor.
Instead of the shake sensor I would also be happy with a proper stand to use the "stand mode". The only nice stand I found is this grey one from Aixun, but it's so expensive. Any recommendation for a cheaper, but nice stand?

[DavidAlfa]

I always hated the profiles being erased when the settings version changed, and I'm sure you also did.
Some parts of the firmware were still made for the old settings storage (Circa mid-2022), but since then, system settings and profiles were moved into different sections, so there was no reason to keep erasing everything when one part failed or changed.

From now, when the system settings version changes (New option added/changed to system settings, but still same tips/profile structure), the profiles will be kept .
New release: v1.11.0.

[Rixi]

David, that’s awesome. You are awesome!

[Jono434]

You can find it here on AliExpress.
Has anyone of you ever opened this kind of handle or even inserted a shake sensor into it?

Are these Sugon handles?  Or a clone?
[...]
The interior of the handle likely looks something like this (attached).

I don't know the Sugon handles. A year ago I ordered a handle that looks the same (like the linked one) and had the same black connector. I then soldered my own connector to it, so I can use it with my HANDSKIT T12 station (very similar to KSGER, Quicko... stations) and it works great.

I already tried to open this handle, but I couldn't find out how. And was affraid of breaking it. That's why I asked if anyone already opened it. My goal is to upgrade it with a shake sensor.
Instead of the shake sensor I would also be happy with a proper stand to use the "stand mode". The only nice stand I found is this grey one from Aixun, but it's so expensive. Any recommendation for a cheaper, but nice stand?

I believe it requires breaking it, but it's only breaking the glue bond.  If I find a link to the video or pictures, I can post it.  And then once the wiring is finalized, it can be glued again.  But it's not something you want to be modifying constantly.  There is also a chance that the handle will be damaged, all of this stuff is experimental.  But others have successfully pulled it apart and put it back together.

If you go back a few pages, I had a lot of problems with finding stands.  For now, I'm using the cheaper Aixun T3A black one.  It will function ok.  There's room in the future for other options, but for now I'm just focused on verifying that everything functions ok electrically.