Voltlog  

I just pulled my unit apart, despite having the same HW 2.1S version, the board is completely different ! I am doing a video on it now.

I appreciate the clear and simple advice on the follow up video, some creators can carry on and on about how smart they are. You like to share how your community comes together and helps with information. Thanks. And it Really shows how good the content and confided you are in your delivery is on your video's. Keep it up...

I remember digging into the R10 resistor and memory backup circuits for this chip, and I think I figured it out. IIRC The resistor is needed when the backup circuit for the controller is supercapacitor based. Seems they changed their mind underway and went with battery instead. But as those two different circuit setups are otherwise _almost_ identical, they overlooked and forgot to nix the resistor.

I bought a KSGER T12 V2.01 station recently, and it's identical to yours, minus R10 not being installed. KSGER must have realized that R10 was causing problems

Thanks for reviewing the issues with the unit. Was already thinking on getting one and it's good to know the drawbacks it has beforehand.

Keep up the awesome work mate, makes a lot of sense… 🤙🏼

Thank you for keeping us rookies safe!

I have one on order, thanks for the review.

Great tips, going to take that into consideration to change mine. Thanks friend

Ive bought this unit in 2020-03 and they've connected the soldering iron tip to grounds where you showed. Also the display pcb is some new revision and has a different layout from yours. The only negative i could find from your unit is that the large capacitor is too tall for the enclosure so the plastic bulges out and pressess really hard on the capacitor. I guess i could either hollow out the plastic a bit, or file down the screw holes upon which the pcb rests.

5:40 do you have a video show how to solder 1M resister between the tips and earth?

I would definitely recommend against changing the earth connection. Especially with the isolation issues in this device. Having an iron with directly earthed tip might have actually saved my life before: I had a faulty PSU´s GND still attached to the circuit I was working on, and when I touched it with the iron, there was a short circuit which blew some fuses. The PSU´s GND had a failed noise suppression capacitor to the 230V live which was apparently shorted. It was NOT a class-Y capacitor as it should be. Had the iron used a 1M resistor to "earth" the tip, this would not have shown a problem and would not trigger any RCD. So who knows what would have happened next. So if anything, I would make it thicker than it is here to avoid the earth connection blowing up under any fault condition.

Thank you very much for this video and the very useful hints you gave, for example about R10. I bought exactly the same recently and mine shows a temperature that is off by far (15% or so). I checked the tip temperature with a cheap soldering iron thermometer from aliexpress and another cheap general purpose thermocouple thermometer as well. I used the tips that I ordered together with the station from KSGER and all show the same big offset.

The battery drain is probably an issue with the rotary encoder shorting the 10 K resistor out. Check John Salt's video on that and let us know if it is really the case. Would check it myself but mine doesn't have RTC functionality.

The delay is there to protect the circuit from unregulated mains. A refrigerator has circuit similar to this for its compressor.

Great video. I just bought this soldering unit online and it arrived with the display screen not functioning. It beeps and gets hot so I'm assuming other than the screen it works. I'll be asking for a refund/return though. Two questions though. 1. I opened up the case and there's a red LED lit up on the board that has the display and controls. Does this narrow down what could be causing the screen issue? 2.That sensor and/or backup battery (yellow circular component) is instead glued to the top of the large transformer instead of on the bottom of the case as seen in this video. Would that matter, thermal or otherwise? Thanks.

Great info - thx

Thank you very much for finding this.. I saw later either in this video or another, that you remove r10.. I can affirm that I just got my ksger t12, after having watched your video (and was ready to rip the r10 off from the get go).. only to find they're no longer putting the r10 on the boards. I have the metal bodied one, and my power port is directly soldered to the psu.. so there is some small differences.. but our controller board with the stm32 is definitely the same pcb. Looks like ksger took you seriously and has, in fact, stopped putting that resister on the board.

The R10 issue would explain why the CR2032 on my unit was completely drained when I got it. I replaced the battery and set the clock. A few days later, I noticed the battery was drained again and the clock was back to showing 2013-1-1 00:00:00. Has it been confirmed that it is safe to remove R10?

HA! I have that same multimeter. Absolutely love it.

It may be some sort of copy protection schemes. I remember the time when I was working with a guy who design system board, he always put copy protection to his board. I learned some tricks from him. The company who clone the original board may miss the spot. That may be why there is an extra R10 resister there by no reason.

What's the max volts, you can put through these? I know it says 24v but how much m,ore can we get away with?

any update on the resister/battery drain problem?

I just bought one of these but it has a problem. The NTC temperature on the front panel shows 24 when switched on but there is an exclamation mark (!) next to it. It heats and works well, but when on standby, a shake causes the ! to change to the thermometer symbol and the 24 figure changes to (e.g.) 45...then 65...then 86... then ! 24 appears again (presumably it thinks the handle is too hot). The NTC resistance is 8.3K at room temperature and I can see no shorts in the iron itself or the plug. Any help appreciated? What is your NTC resistance (I have T12 9501 handle). Shake does not bring it out of standby,

The thought of R10 was likely to bleed C1 for safety reasons, forgetting that it also contained the battery..

Is the plastic case better than the metal one?

Do you think that smps has more than average failure rate?

I stand corrected on the internal fuse part I see :-) Would be interesting to know the rating of it compared to the external fuse. But probably not possible to read of it? Thank's for this excellent followup video. Well, now we know were the fuses that should have been in "that other brand of soldering stations" have gone.

I've just got the t12 2.1s stm32 and the pcb is different like the heatsink the only trace is to the rectifier its a 2.2 pcb , i still had to-do the ground mod though and srap the paint for the dial and handle connection to get ground, even the controller pcb is different its blue and different that I've seen online also there is 3 r10 chips, i did put some thermal pads on both rectifiers though may as well

Any feedback from manufacturer about that R10?

The turn-on delay could be to avoid problems when used with slower power supplies (the controller could be bought separately).

What is the DC resistance of your T12 elements? You said 24v for the supply, but measured almost 26v. I thought T12's are 27v for their 70w rating. You'll probably need to use a real meter to test the element. I'm curious because my old atten (radioshack) station uses a similar element/themocouple arrangement as the t12's, I've been tempted to get and swap one to try it. My '60w' station's original element is right around 10R5 on my old Keithley 5.5d. I have bought 3 replacement irons and 4 elements trying to find a replacement, all were either totally wrong 4 wire elements or are between 12 and 13 ohms. This makes them 40 to 50 watt units. Heck, if a T12 element is around 10 ohms, I'd measure and add a few turns of wire to my transformer's secondary. I'd rather bump it up to 70 watts than kick myself in the nuts with 50. 2:40 They made 2 different heatsink footprints. The holes are present for the narrow version. I looks like they even silkscreened the narrow fins missing on the larger HS version. I'd check my heatsink drawer for a narrow replacement and test the real temperature values...by that I mean, I would lazily place an 80 degree C thermal switch on the smaller heatsink and wire power through it. -Jake

Nice video and I'll do some checks on my device. But is there someone who also has the ticking sound in this station? It's a silent repetitive ticking sound. Thanks!

@VoltLog That issue with the heatsink and the only thing protecting you from getting mains on the iron tip being easily damaged soldermask is a pretty serious matter. That would normally be grounds for a RAPEX recall and sales ban on the product if it was actually sold through official channels in the EU - there is no way that could pass any sort of safety testing! Frankly, until that is fixed, I would hesitate to recommend this station to anyone - that's a fairly big risk that someone gets hurt.

Delay at startup is the stm32 f1. It always delayed at startup. I’m surprised they use the f1.

My station has the same power supply and the EMI is terrible. I can hear it on FM radio. I am not sure if it is radiated or conducted. My bet would be on conducted as I cannot see much filtration on the board. My case is metal without Earth connected to it! I will need to fix the EMI issue as it is illegal. Other than that it is nice soldering station. I regret that I choose the station with an integrated power supply.

Just curious for the price to performance which is best for which value? I'm looking at a hakko fx951... what would you recommend

I just purchased the 24V version. It hasn't arrived yet, but feel safer purchasing my own decent 24V power supply and then no issues with direct mains connection.

I’ve had my v2.1S for about 15 months, and haven’t had to replace my backup battery yet. Perhaps, like @‘Defpom’s Electronics & Repair’, my design is actually different as well.

@VoltLog Maybe it's better to buy the mini version (DC) of this station with separate power supply?

i got mine and it stopped working after about 20 minutes. I opened the case and the red LED next to R16 is blinking slowly. The OLED is not coming on at all. Any idea what that red led is indicating? testing the DC out of the board is jumping all over the place and shows low voltages from 12v to 1 volt.

Versions without battery are better. The battery is useless complication and source of problems. Also, there are versions which can wake up from sleep mode (heating element off) just by moving the iron (there's tilt switch in the iron). These are more convenient than others which require that you press the button to wake them up from sleep mode. They have tilt switch too, but the firmware is configured differently and they wake up only from standby (temperature lowered to 200°C) and not from sleep.

anyone having problem with solder station standby not working and if yes how to fix it?

The corner of that heat sink could even scrape off the solder mask while screwing it down on the board.

No need to take the metal case apart to check the ground. Just do continuity & resistance checks between the earth pin on the plug and the case.

I bought a WEP 926 soldering station and found it to be useless, not enough heat to solder RC hobby battery terminals, EC5's and XT90's, Im sure its ok for PCB work but quite disappointed. I will do a video on it one day.

The delay it is the firmware boot up and the problem with that resistor is a tab from the potentiometer on the front that have pierced the solder mask and it is shorted to ground

How to increase voltage

I have an idea, why not unscrew the heatsink and raise it so the isolation spots are are good and support the heatsink using a makeshift brace, done and for the mains bus-bar, just coat it with epoxy.

Here is my short video on the KSGER HW 2.1S oddity: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IVoSrIcuQ-0.html

I bought the 24volt version. Problem solved.

The heatsink is part of the primary side, the soldering mask is between the heatsink and a primary side track. Not really a problem.

Considering the money they cost you are bound to find something. Unless you spend big money use this one because it works well.

If the battery holds the settings and cals for the different tips, that R10 is going to sux.

I Removed R10 and the drain is still happening, i don't know what i will do next

I ORDER THE FRONT PANEL TO MAKE ONE IT DOES NOT EVEN TURN ON ITS A "HANDSKIT" BRAND

Thanks for the review. Here are some more questions about the capacitors in the power supply. It seems like there were no complaints, but, for example, C7 according to the scheme for the PWM controller SG6842 should be 1.5nF x 1000V, and for some reason set at 4.7nF x 100V. (2A472J instead of 3A472J (3A152J) or at least 2J472J). The main thing is not to put a ceramic instead of a film, otherwise the power supply starts to make noise. It is advisable to replace the electrolytes too, there were complaints about their malfunction: 2pcs Rubycon 1200uF 35V ZLH 12x25 long-life with low ESR are suitable for the output filter. In the input circuit 1pc Nippon chemi-con 68uF 450V KXG 18x25. In the latest modification, the manufacturer sets 400V, 82μF. (it is better to replace with nichicon PT 420V, 120uF. 30x18mm. - installed horizontally.) PWM CR6842 (SG6842) power supply 47uF 50V KY or Rubycon ZLH 56uF 50V. And also pay attention to the heatsink of the rectifier diode MBRF20200 - the Chinese forget to smear the diode with thermal grease, and the heatsink itself is installed directly on the high-voltage circuit track next to the 68uFx400V capacitor, where all the insulation is only varnish on the track.

the programable mcu like the arduino takes some seconds to boot up

Original Hakko is more difficult to use, the user interface is very poor. There is no comparison, being a pioneer does not guarantee you are always better.

This guy claims the battery drain was because of a short caused by the switch: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B-xWhPcr6jk.html It would be odd many boards would have the same problem from a part which I'd assume is something soldered by hand?

Hi. Any way to fix a T12 D12 tip with burned sensor? I may have pushed it to above 450 to above 480C. It's a new tip. God bless, Rev. 21:4

POWER SWITCH IS SINGLE POLE ONLY! This is no good and leaves parts of the circuit live ALL TIME. a proper mains power switch is supposed to switch BOTH lines N and L, so the circuit is really off the grid when switched off.

why dont you get a TS80 or TS100 and look at the firmware source code.

you didn't miss anything. you just don't know what you are talking about

First