Old Dick Smith T-2000 burnt out

[Tomas Leitch]

Does anyone have any experience with the repair of these old DSE T2000 soldering irons?

Basically it was left on over night,it sort of heats the tip but only for a second, it makes a buzzing electrical noise inside the station itself.

I'll bring it in either this Saturday or next Tuesday and attempt to repair it.

Any suggestions on what to look for in the mean time? I imagine that it wouldn't be too complex inside.

[Tim Eastwood]

I hear a lot about soldering irons failing after being left on... still not sure why that is, what if you'd just been using it for like 8 hours straight? :( In the couple of mine that have failed it's been the ceramic heating element that has cracked for some reason... but yours sounds more like it may be the station. Not familiar with it myself but it may be possible to test the resistance of the heating element to isolate the fault

[Luke Weston]

The first thing to check, the most likely, is the heating element
itself. Is it open circuit?

Unfortunately as far as the handpiece is concerned, you can either
obtain compatible spare parts or you can't. If you can't get a
replacement heater/sensor assembly you're basically out of options.

Next thing is to check that the tip thermistor is intact, if it is
present. As with the heater, just measure its resistance.

While you're taking it all apart and testing it anyway, just check
that the safety earth continuity is good while you're at it, from the
plug to the barrel/tip.

The architecture of the control electronics varies in different
models, but it's often just something like 24VAC from a transformer,
and a triac that chops that up before it goes to the heating element,
with a couple of opamps driving that with feedback from the tip
thermistor, and a handful of passive components.

Some of the lower-end irons don't actually have any temperature
feedback at all - no temperature sensor. Sometimes the cheap ones are
just running mains AC to the element and chopping it up with a triac
and a pot. (Just like an offline AC light dimmer.) Or different
combinations of the above - extra-low-voltage with a transformer but
no temperature feedback, or an offline transformerless system with
240V element but with active temperature feedback. In any case it's
often very simple, fully analog with maybe just one chip.

If you've got an intact heating element, intact thermistor, intact
wires, intact fuse, and voltage from the transformer secondary, I'd
probably replace the triac as the next option. But I'd say it's much
less likely than the former options. As you say, there's really not
much else in it that can fail.

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers,
Luke

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[Tomas Leitch]

It is weird, I don't personally know anyone that has powered out 8 hours worth of soldering in a day though haha

I'm quite convinced it is the station, only problem is I need a soldering iron to repair my soldering iron :/ 

[Tomas Leitch]

Thanks for the very thorough response Luke, I will check all those points as you mentioned. In terms of temperature control I have the feeling this model will feature some form of control, how accurate or effective it is would be anyone's guess, but it did have a temperature setting and an analogue display for that temperature. 

The unit itself I've owned for 19 years anyway so it has had a good life, I've heard good things about the Yihua 8786 rework station that goes on eBay for around ~$85, that would be a worse case scenario if the repair isn't possible. In regards to testing the triac would I just be looking for a half wave AC signal ?

[Tim Eastwood]

I have this from Altronics, great little unit, heats in seconds and very compact. I use it for lead free pretty often and it's very cooperative

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/t2418a-micron-soldering-station-80w/

[Bharanee Rathna]

Hakko FX888D on sale at same price point.

http://www.mektronics.com.au/hakko-fx888d-digital-soldering-station.html

On May 13, 2016 8:22 AM, "Tim Eastwood" <tim.eas...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have this from Altronics, great little unit, heats in seconds and very compact. I use it for lead free pretty often and it's very cooperative

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/t2418a-micron-soldering-station-80w/

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[Clifford Heath]

On 13 May 2016, at 8:24 AM, Bharanee Rathna <deep...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hakko FX888D on sale at same price point.
> http://www.mektronics.com.au/hakko-fx888d-digital-soldering-station.html

Or the same from Aliexpress, at a little over half the price, INCLUDING delivery.

<http://www.aliexpress.com/item/high-quality-EU-plug-High-quality-HAKKO-FX-888-FX-888D-Digital-Soldering-Station-Solder-Soldering/32434170529.html>

(I've bought two if the pre-digital versions from Aliexpress - not from this store,
though it's currently offering close to best delivered price amongst stores that
have a high order volume - I use this to evaluate reputation, rather than more
subjective data)

Clifford Heath.

[Brian Gilbert]

I've had one fail just because one of the internal wires connecting to the filament broke off, soldered it back on and the iron has been running for at least 10 more years now.

[Angus Gratton]

Hi everyone,

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 08:51:01AM +1000, Clifford Heath wrote:
> On 13 May 2016, at 8:24 AM, Bharanee Rathna <deep...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hakko FX888D on sale at same price point.
> > http://www.mektronics.com.au/hakko-fx888d-digital-soldering-station.html
>
> Or the same from Aliexpress, at a little over half the price, INCLUDING delivery.

Something to bear in mind is that Hakkos appear to be widely cloned.[*] The cheaper ones appear identical to the genuine one (including packaging), except for the control board which is reengineered from different parts. So these two may not be the same product and may not meet the exact same standards.

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/hakko-fx-888-real-or-fake/msg383994/#msg383994
(the thread is long but people have posted photos of the two PCBs)

Tomas - I wasn't going to chime in because I don't want to discourage repairing stuff (yay repairing stuff!) - but for what it's worth I had the same DSE soldering station for a long time, and I kept using it because it was still working. When I got a Hakko my soldering immediately got a lot better, I think just because I was using a better controlled iron that got back to temp more quickly (65W vs 24W). Also it got easier to buy replacement tips, so I didn't let them get as worn out.

(If you do buy a Hakko of any kind I'd make one recommendation - buy genuine tips. They last a lot longer!)

Happy soldering,


Angus

[*] I said "appear to be cloned" because I've not seen Hakko say anything about cloning of their products, and it is possible (if unlikely) that they make a cheaper Chinese market variant. I saw a Taobao listing a while back that listed 3 levels of FX-888 - "Malaysian Made Genuine", "Chinese Made Top Quality", "Chinese Made Good Quality" - at different price points. I couldn't find it just now though.

[Bharanee Rathna]

> If you do buy a Hakko of any kind I'd make one recommendation - buy genuine tips. They last a lot longer!

Recommend the genuine T-18 series ones, they have higher thermal mass and work better. They're more pricey but you can get some of them from Amazon for 30-40% cheaper.

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[Luke Weston]

When choosing what/where to buy, supply of spare parts such as
different tips, replacement handpiece, heating element etc is a very
valuable feature to look for.

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[Tomas Leitch]

I agree with buying a brand that offers replacement parts, especially tips, which I was still able to get for the DSE soldering iron. I have found that the iron was starting to struggle a little bit soldering, which could be a number of causes so it could be a good time to replace it with a digital system with better heat characteristics. I'm still interested in pulling apart the station to see what the damage is and I might post pictures of the damage, I guess I have some nostalgia with this iron as I learnt how to solder with it and it has served me well. 

On the topic of clones with the Hakko FX888D is there any signs to look out for besides tearing it apart and inspecting the pcb, I've seen some on Amazon but it is the age old thing of anyone can claim that it is genuine, but I suspect with Amazons customer review section would provide some insight to this potentially. eBay might be another story altogether.