Parkside 20V soldering iron and hack (Patreon)

Published:

2022-09-26 20:41:53

Imported:

2022-10

Content

I'd guess this is sold under different names around the world. It's a Parkside soldering iron that uses clip-in 20V batteries.

It actually feels pretty good to use, and because of it's unusually high fixed temperature it packs quite a punch when soldering.

That high temperature probably makes it ideal for soldering large wires together, but could pose a risk of component damage if used by someone new to electronics soldering. If you're experienced in soldering it will be much less of a risk, and you may even like the much faster melt and flow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPJJBa6-TVQ

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Slightly weird circuitry. This took longer to reverse engineer than expected, but yielded new information on the thermal sensing of Hakko-style soldering irons. The default temperature of 500C (932F) is quite dramatic for a soldering iron, but there is a way to hack it to a lower temperature if desired. The circuitry is a bit weird, in that the main control chip may have a stand-alone comparator section, but also monitor its activity externally and override it to shut the iron down. At least, that's my first guess at what's happening. Alternatively it could be ensuring the MOSFET is forced off in sleep mode, although the sleep current draw is very low at about 1uA. The hack to set a lower bit temperature or allow it to be adjusted is to remove the zero ohm link shown and either solder a fixed value resistor in the two outer holes of the bypassed preset position, or put in a 100 ohm multi-turn preset. If using a single turn potentiometer I'd suggest a value of 56 ohms. I tested with various resistors and got the following results:- Existing zero ohm link 500C. 10 ohms 460C 22 ohms 410C 33 ohms 360C - common standard electronic soldering temperature. 47 ohms 315C 56 ohms 277C 100 ohms 77C The construction of the soldering iron seems quite robust, and the default bit temperature will probably make it ideal for automotive wire repairs or fast soldering. The iron wins lots of points for using the very common soldering iron bit sold in bulk on eBay. Supporting the channel with a dollar or two on Patreon helps keep it independent of YouTube's quirks, avoids intrusive mid-video adverts, gives early access, bonus footage and regular quiet Patreon live streams. https://www.patreon.com/bigclive #ElectronicsCreators