Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neomys Sapiens]

YES !

I don't need a desoldering tool badly enough to justify the expense right now, seeing how little use it would get.

However my hot air station, the cheap 858+ I bought for 50 Euros 4/5 years ago... that I could justify because for little money it allowed me to tackle SMD stuff which I just could not do before.
It opened a new world of possibilities for only 50 Euros.

Just in order to beware you your PCBs from harm, I do NOT think that it is a good idea to aquire a crappy cheap desoldering station. Stick with Weller, JCB, Pace, Edsyn (i do not know whether Metcal or Hakko makes one).
Mnem is just right regarding the Soldapullt series of pumps, they are the ones to get. (also an Edsyn product)

[Neomys Sapiens]

I see TM500, I buy TM500.... 

Slightly envious...
Although you missed a tiny fact: shouldn't that have read I see TM5000, I buy TM5000....?

Eehh, what's an extra zero between friends? 

That depends on whether you have a fitting mainframe or not! 

I got three TM5006 mainframes. hahahaha

Too much stuff, help meeeeeee!

No problem. I can provide you with a shipping adress!

[TERRA Operative]

I've had a few ESD Edsyn Soldapullit suckers before I bought my Hakko station.
They were great and I loved them, hence why I bought the second when the first wore out (because I used it so much, because I loved it).

[TERRA Operative]

I see TM500, I buy TM500.... 

Slightly envious...
Although you missed a tiny fact: shouldn't that have read I see TM5000, I buy TM5000....?

Eehh, what's an extra zero between friends? 

That depends on whether you have a fitting mainframe or not! 

I got three TM5006 mainframes. hahahaha

Too much stuff, help meeeeeee!

No problem. I can provide you with a shipping adress!

Oh, you are a funny one.    You can fly to Japan and battle me for one, BYO katana.   

[Saskia]

only have a dotanuki. will that do?

[TERRA Operative]

I'll meet you at Akihabara, I'll be the guy in a samurai outfit and surplus electronics components spilling out of my pockets. 

[mnementh]

I'm of mixed opinion on desoldering stations... IME, even the good ones are a fair bit of assache when it comes time to clean the handset. The difference between the good ones and the cheap ones is how many desoldering cycles you get through before you have to stop and clean them.

There's truth to that, but there is a counterbalancing parameter: how long it takes to clean it out.

I've found these to be good. It is fast to clean: just pull it out and push it in (no unscrewing), and squeeze it to loosen blobs in the silicone tube. Flexible silicone tip deforms to where you need it to go.  Plus they aren't expensive
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/desoldering-reworking-tools/3437253

   

Yeah, the Chinese clones of the SoldaPullt DS017 are a shockingly faithful copy, and can be bought as cheaply as $6 each.

https://www.zoro.com/aven-solder-sucker-high-impact-plastic-17535/i/G8776470/

I think I paid $14 for the two I have off AliEx like 10 years ago, and that was paying extra to get the "10 days instead of Slow-boat-from China" shipping.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20220413073832&isPremium=y&SearchText=solder+sucker

EDIT: Use the search above, just ignore ANY hit that isn't the unit in my pics above. They usually come with an extra nose and nylon tip.

Cleaning is: 1/4 turn collar, pull the halves apart, tap both halves on the edge of the trash can. I clean it about once a month; usually when it finally gets a glorp bad enough to impair function. 

Maybe twice I've had to clean a huge glorp that had accumulated on the piston; it's nylon like the tip and a knife blade pops the crunk right off, then slide it down the needle into the trash. Easy-peasy. 

Normal usage is easier than those too, because of the design: Trash can under the bench by my right leg, shove plunger up against the bottom of the bench till it clicks, and it dumps the smaller bits of cruft off the needle into the can every time I cock the action. I can do his without even looking away from my work as I heat/apply flux with the Metcal in my left hand.

The DS017 (and faithful clones) is superior to to every other tube-and-piston type desoldering pump I've ever used because of two things: Huge pump and huge, heavy spring. Together, they simply produce much more and faster airflow than any other design, and better than most of the electric pumps too. And the oversized pump chamber means they simply don't need to be cleaned as often.

The only real drawback is that the big pump and heavy spring mean a considerable amount of recoil on actuation. I have a few times broken unexpectedly fragile bits because I forgot to stabilize the thing when triggering.

EDIT: Well, also because I often use it to desolder things that are NOT soldered to a PCB.  D'OH! 

mnem
 

[Robert763]

   If you want to improve without spending a fortune:

https://www.reichelt.com/be/nl/desoldeerpomp-elektrisch-30-w-met-verwarmingselement-vel-vtdesol3-p253395.html?PROVID=2812&gclid=CjwKCAjw6dmSBhBkEiwA_W-EoK7nJjUV_ZzMp4rtJMrQMSADpsAymioJ88af4ZNQNwMezJr-zXyNYhoCTmIQAvD_BwE

Quality is only so-so as you would expect for that price but easy of use compared to soldering iron + braid = +1000%

Oh gawrd... I think that gave me eye cancer.     

Those cheap Chinesium desoldering pumps are just the worst; I get the feeling that adding a $2 Chinesium soldering iron to it is going to be more like The Worst²...   

See my post above. 

mnem
 

I also have one of these but seldom use it, prefer to fire up the big boy 

The problem with all units of that basic design is the recoil hammering the hot metal tip into the track and damaging it.
correct technique for seperate iron and sucker is to remove the iron just before pressing the button. The soft plastic tip is less likely to damage the board.

[Vince]

ed.
If you find cheaper in the Euro zone, please share ! 

https://www.eleshop.nl/zd-8915-desoldeerstation.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw6dmSBhBkEiwA_W-EoGsWCirBt7LrNpIwoMLgYsc1zN4I4Mch59MlUqi2JkTq9zfrfflv-BoCr3YQAvD_BwE

I'll collect my cookie later today

Sorry, no cookie for you, because you people told me to search for " ProsKit SS-331 ", and yours is a different brand and model, albeit the same product obviously, so how could I possibly find it ?! 

You do however get a big thank you. 

99 Euros that's my budget for a decent tool like this. Plus this one has a pale blue that's similar to my old Weller iron, so it will blend in just nicely. I am not a fan of the modern trend of flashy bright colours, and weird looking childish toy-ish color schemes and user interfaces... Rigol and Hakko come to mind.

So, thanks a bunch for the link, I am saving it for later 

[med6753]

I see TM500, I buy TM500.... 

I have it's ancestor, with none of the digital junk. 

[BU508A]

Might be worth spending a little time to check every solder joint now you've found a few bad ones....

LAst week I touched up EVERY single joint on that back plane, each and everyone ! Yet that freaking ground wire still failed....

.. because yeah, "touching up" is not good enough, you NEED to suck/wick the joint completely to expose the pad and then only can you see if the pad is tinned/good, or just bare copper that the joint didn't stick to ! So that's a lot work to do !      No I don't have a power desoldering tool, just wick and manual pump/solder sucker.

Put one on your shopping list, you'll not regret it, promise you.

I second that. RS 137-2292 works very well for me.

Good lord, 280 Euros !! 

Check out TME:
https://www.tme.eu/en/details/sp-1010dr/desoldering-stations/solder-peak/

I've bought this model at TME and use it. Works very well, especially on big caps with huge groundplanes. Can recommend it.
Cleaning it is a bit of a hazzle but managable.

[med6753]

I have this. It works, most of the time. If not it's old fashion liquid flux and braid.

[mnementh]

Aggghhh! More eye cancer!!! 

mnem
At least it's not that octagenarian stripper... *blerk*   

[mnementh]

Boring Just for Fun Everyday Print #312: Sword Gamepiece   


     

So the other day my son decided he wanted a Claymore sword as a gamepiece...   

Looks very nice, good job on the drawing and on the printing! 

Thanks! 

It was fun working with my son on the design, and showing him how to service the printer. I'm hoping maybe we'll do more of it. 

mnem
*makes mental note to see if I can get him hooked on MythBusters*

[Vince]

Nixie DMM repair update

OK. So... now that the meter kinda "works", from cold, I thought OK let's start today's debugging session by measuring the zero offset from cold, and log some data, because we are TEA here eh.

So I fire it up for the first time today and... "free running" again 
I immediately tap the back of the back plane PCB and wiggle that #2 Nixie board... within 5 seconds the meter decides to obey and behave ! 
So yeah.. I really need to suck all those solder joints on the back plane, and redo them all... might redo them with silver solder, for I gather it's more "flexible" , less prone to cracking, than regular solder. Anything that can help to keep those back plane joints from cracking twice a day... is good to take.

So I logged some data, see graph below. Yes, I am taking this seriously, see ! 

As I felt before, it's like an exponential. But now I have actual data to prove it ! 
It starts very high, 1,000mV offset, then in only 30 seconds it's already plummeted  down to 500 or so. Then it slows down a lot and I switch data logging to one minute rather than 10 seconds.
After about 30 minutes it kinda settles for  about 65/70mV, but I kept logging data anyway, in case it drops lower than that in the longer term... it did not, 60mV was like " its " value, it was its thing... so be it. Still wayyyy too high to fall within the compensation range of the Zero trim pot, though.

The more data you have, the better your chances of embracing the bigger picture and discern patterns, and not confuse a micro-event for an overall, guiding pattern. So it helps get a proper diagnosis quicker, and not follow red herring like I have been doing for the past week with thermal theories 

Yes, I am glad I logged that boring data for so long, patiently, sitting at the bench looking at my smartphone/clock app, because while it was stagnating at 60mV or so, at 37 minutes something interesting, weird, sudden, unexpected happened.... Out of the blue, instead of reading 60mV, it read 2 or 4mV !    Just a spurious reading, a glitch, then back to its cruising level of 60mV. But... a few seconds later it did it AGAIN... and again... with every passing minute, it spent more and more time displaying near zero, and less and less time displaying 60mV.
After an hour or so, zero had become the norm, and 60 had become the rare/spurious reading, things had turned 180° ! 
So, I was able to use the trim pot to finely adjust it to spot on zero. 2 hours later it was still at zero, holding it just fine.. and I would still get the random 60mV reading. Well actually after a while it started climbing a bit and settled for 150mV or something, whatever, its living its life.

SO !!!

Having this sudden change to zero.. same symptoms as last night !  Must be a dodgy joint somewhere, not a leaky transistor any more !
So I will redo all the joints on that comparator board. I mean all the joints in the critical area, the front end of the two comparator section : S1 to S4, and all their associated satellite components.
There is still a thermal effect looking pattern here, though, isn't it... but I guess it must be happening within the dodgy joint itself, rather than in a component. Must be happening within this microscopic world that is the interface between the bottom of the solder blob, and the top of the copper pad on the PCB. I guess... 

So... lots of wicking and solder sucking action for me soon ! Hoping that will fix it, cross your fingers !!! 

[Vince]

EDIT : timer app on the smartphone says the experiment has been running for 4H30min now, and offset is still bang on zero, it's solid as a rock 
Still get the odd 100mV reading, every 2 or 3 seconds or so.

[THDplusN_bad]

Good Day,

I am happy to let you know that the drama with my 2nd GRUNDIG PN300 power supply came to a good end.

I have replaced the EMI filter with a new MIFLEX type "KSPpz-10" filter. This combines a 0.1µF Cx and two 27nF Cy capacitors with the same wiring arrangement as the original filter. It has a smaller diameter, so I have used two zip ties instead of the original mounting hardware. I have soldered the wires "old school style" and used some quality heat-shrink tube.
I was glad that the unit has passed all tests, including a "full load" test with 30 V and almost 4.6A outputs in parallel mode and also my custom test for stuck relais. With 0 fail. Happy, happy, happy...

Happy Easter hols, all.

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

P.S. I have also used my latest tool for the first time. This is a pair of cable shears made by KNIPEX, type 95 05 165. It surely makes a clean cut.
https://www.knipex.de/sites/default/files/Product%20data%20sheet%20EN%2095%2005%20165.pdf

[Ice-Tea]

I have it's ancestor, with none of the digital junk. 

That's a light, innit? On/off?

That's digital, son.

[med6753]

I have it's ancestor, with none of the digital junk. 

That's a light, innit? On/off?

That's digital, son.

Your comedic skills ain't working. Don't quit your day job. 

[Ice-Tea]

For the Solartron fanboys.

[Ice-Tea]

Don't quit your day job. 

Which one? 

[med6753]

For the Solartron fanboys.

Do I spy blue Philips CRAPacitors? 

[TaylorD93]

YES !

I don't need a desoldering tool badly enough to justify the expense right now, seeing how little use it would get.

However my hot air station, the cheap 858+ I bought for 50 Euros 4/5 years ago... that I could justify because for little money it allowed me to tackle SMD stuff which I just could not do before.
It opened a new world of possibilities for only 50 Euros.

Here Vince, Defpom got one from Banggood to compare with a older one he's had for years:


Later he does some mods to it:

Catching up with the thread, i have this type. But having alot of trouble with it, the pistol is clear but there still seems to be some kind of blockage and a squeaking/whilstle when the vacuum switches off.

Gave up trying to sort it out, so just went back to an old fashioned solder sucker.

[Ice-Tea]

For the Solartron fanboys.

Do I spy blue Philips CRAPacitors? 

Yeah, but they mostly measure fine except for one which is fine-ish.

[ch_scr]

Boring Just for Fun Everyday Print #312: Sword Gamepiece   


     

So the other day my son decided he wanted a Claymore sword as a gamepiece...   

Looks very nice, good job on the drawing and on the printing! 

Thanks! 

It was fun working with my son on the design, and showing him how to service the printer. I'm hoping maybe we'll do more of it. 

mnem
*makes mental note to see if I can get him hooked on MythBusters*

Just tell him girls like 3d-printed "unique" earrings and pendants - like names or starsign symbols and stuff...
While you're at it,also tell him "girls like boys freshly showered" as well - worked on me