Weller soldering station pen upgrade

[burnfingers]

Hey guys, EE and comp sci student here and I have a question that I hope you can help me out with. I use a lightly modified Weller WTCPK military soldering/desoldering kit for all of my work as it's dependable and easy to pack around, but the TCP24G pen (24v, 42w, TCP24P equivalent) that they were issued with is a bit of a monster for some jobs; it's unnecessarily thick and bulky. What I would like to do is modify a slimmer pen to work with the WTCPK.

The WTCPK uses a 4-pin Jones plug and I have managed to get my hands on another male plug to use provided I can find an appropriate iron. This is a 3 pin soldering station mind you, the iron only receives chassis ground and power. The transformer model used is unknown to me, the sticker on the side reads "E.D.S. T-176".



I had a PES51 that would have been perfect, but the WTCPK burnt out it's heating element despite being rated at 24v and 50w.

So, any thoughts? It doesn't have to be a Weller iron, certain HAKKO pens seem like they may work but after the PES51 burnt up I thought I'd better ask around.

[stj]

Re: Weller soldering station pen upgrade

forget using a differnt iron.
the tcp has integral temperature control.
the pes51 has a sensor and a controller in the base.

infact all irons other than tcp have a controller in the base.

you have 2 options.
1: buy a cheap iron+base
2: build a system using the existing base, a controller board, and a modern iron.

if you choose option2 then these links are a good starting point.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271730739685
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311177745256
http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum...hp?f=56&t=5264

[stj]

Re: Weller soldering station pen upgrade

btw, the pes51 is a good iron, you should have asked here about repairing the base.

[burnfingers]

Re: Weller soldering station pen upgrade

Ahh interesting. I'm not opposed to installing a simple controller in the WTCPK but part of it's attraction is that it's uncluttered and has few parts that can fail in the field. Would a salvaged TCP controller or equivalent work with the sensor in a PES51?

And yes, hindsight is 20-20, that's why I'm here. I'm not repairing the base btw, both it and the TCP24 work great, I'm just wanting to use a slimmer pen with it for certain projects.


EDIT: the TCPs apparently use a ferromagnetic temperature sensor which is less of a controller and more a physical switch, so that won't work. Arduino Micro and a relay then, unless someone knows of a slim iron that uses the same temperature control system?

[stj]

Re: Weller soldering station pen upgrade

the tcp dosent actually use a sensor as such at all, it has a magnetic switch at the tip of the element and a magnet on the back-end of the tip.
the heat lowers the field of the magnet.

there is absolutely no way to use the base with a variable temperature iron designed for a different base.