Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

[pfrcom]

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...4&postcount=32

The station seems to be doing its thing, but the iron doesn't heat up

Is this likely to be the element, or something more serious ?

Can anyone link me to a maintenance manual for a Xytronic LF-1000, which I think my Altronics Micron T2380 actually is

[pfrcom]

Re: Soldering station busted

The soldering iron is labelled "SIA100KT 32V/100W" which does seem to confirm it's Xytronic

But all I find from Googling SIA100KT is Polish sites

[stj]

Re: Soldering station busted

open the handle and meter the element,
then meter the cable from iron to plug.

[pfrcom]

Re: Soldering station busted

It's opening the handle that bothers me ...

After I remove the barrel, nut & tip there's a plate with 3 self tapping screws going into the plastic body

Once I remove the 3 self tappers it doesn't seem to want to come apart

There's a screw at the other end of the handle - maybe that's a cable clamp that needs to be removed as well ?

[ben7]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

I'd only worry about opening the the handle if there is no element resistance, measuring from the end of the cable (at the power unit).
Is the heating element even removable? Maybe it's just meant to have the whole iron part replaced when the element goes bad. :S

-Ben

[stj]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

sounds like the old weller design, if you have a rubber or foam sleeve on the handle you can slide it down and there is a second screw under it.

speaking from experience, there is a fair chance the cable has a break where it enters the handle if you use it a lot.

[stj]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

I'd only worry about opening the the handle if there is no element resistance

but as the handle contains a 2wire element, a 2wire sensor and an earth wire, you would need to know the pinout to check from the plug.

[pfrcom]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

I still haven't got around to trying to disassemble the soldering iron again

No hurry, seeing Altronics have advised they're out of stock of heating elements until late October - and replenishment will start from Perth, the other side of Australia

What a joke - the T2380 was advertised as a heavy duty station, suitable for a production environment

To add insult to injury, the element's price will be aud39

I'm wondering whether I'd be better off putting the money towards a Hakko 888D

In the meantime I've unpacked its predecessor, a reliable Aussie built-to-last station - coming up to its 30th birthday, and fired up without a problem

[pfrcom]

Re: Soldering station busted

open the handle and meter the element,
then meter the cable from iron to plug.

The screw at the other end of the handle must have been a cable clamp because after removing it, as well as the 3 self tappers, the assembly pulled apart fairly easily

There's continuity between the green & black wires shown in the pic

Also continuity between the two orange wires soldered to the PCB, under the red & white connections

Except for the orange wires, there seems to be one-for-one continuity between each of the wires and the connector that goes into the soldering station

What next - source another element and hope that's it ?

[stj]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

open the plug at the other end, and check continuity on all 5 wires.

[pfrcom]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

open the plug at the other end, and check continuity on all 5 wires.

Unsure what you're suggesting - I've already checked continuity on all 7 of the wires, from the element end to the outside of pins in the plug

And speaking of pins in the plug, their original soldered connections look perfect on the inside - refer to pics

I've also added extra pics of the element end - is the yellow wire the one that delivers input power ? - I'm assuming it is, judging by the size of its soldered connection to the small round PCB

Which colour is the other power wire likely to be ?

Why are there two orange wires, and what are they likely to be for ?

The two square solder points next to where the black cable comes in, are where the orange wires connect to the rectangular PCB

The two smaller round solder points adjacent to the square ones, connect something coming out of the element - temperature sensing perhaps ?

[stj]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

yellow looks lithe the earth wire to the body of the iron.
the orange pair may be a tilt switch or some other type of switch to detect if the iron is in the holder - does the holder have a magnet in it?

the white/red pair and the black/white pair - one is the element, the other is the sensor.

try this:
put a meter set to volts across one pair and heat the tip with a lighter.
if your on the sensor wires there is a 50/50 chance you will see a rising voltage as the tip heats.

if you do this with both pairs and dont see a low rising voltage, repeat it metering resistance.

[pfrcom]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

does the holder have a magnet in it?

Not that I can see - nor is holder in any way connected to station

try this:
put a meter set to volts across one pair and heat the tip with a lighter.
if your on the sensor wires there is a 50/50 chance you will see a rising voltage as the tip heats.

if you do this with both pairs and dont see a low rising voltage, repeat it metering resistance.

I didn't see rising voltage on either pair

With the white & red wires, I saw resistance steadily falling from ~2800 to ~2200 ohms while heating the element with a heat gun

FWIW the rectangular PCB is marked:
S+ corresponding to black wire
S- green wire
H1 white wire
H2 red wire

I can't see any markings on the small round PCB which I assume connects directly to the element

[pfrcom]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

The two smaller round solder points adjacent to the square ones, connect something coming out of the element - temperature sensing perhaps ?

I mislead saying this - in fact there's a grey cylindrical component sandwiched between the two connectors into which the white & red wires go

The grey component has two wires coming out of it, one really fine and the other quite sturdy, which go to the smaller round solder points that I mentioned

[Agent24]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

Any markings on it? Photo?

[stj]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

sounds like a tilt switch maybe.
can you meter it while changing the angle of the board?
tip - put your meter probes into the plug at the other end of the wire.

[Agent24]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

sounds like a tilt switch maybe.

That was a thought I had too, but it doesn't make sense to me.

The angle\position most soldering irons are in when they sit in their holder is so close to the position they're in when you're using them that I can't see how a tilt switch would discern between use and idle positions without significant chance for error.

Maybe it's a reed switch or hall effect sensor and the holder does have a magnet hidden in it somewhere.

[pfrcom]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

Any markings on it? Photo?

It can be seen in the pic in post no. 9, beneath the yellow wire

One of the leads coming out of the grey cylindrical component is extremely fine, so I'll let sleeping dogs lie rather than try lifting it up to view markings

I took the cover off the station to see if anything obvious was wrong (nothing I could see)

FWIW the two wires inside coming from the orange wires' places on the socket, seem to go to points on a sub-PCB marked LED

Before re-assembling the soldering handle, I clipped test leads to the white & red wires marked H1 & H2 on its PCB

Assuming H1 & H2 meant heater connections, I measured resistance first at ~6 Kohm (after sitting overnight in a chilly garage)

Switching the station on, I saw voltage start at 0.25 climbing to ~0.3 - I was expecting something much higher, to drive a heating element

To compound my confusion, inside the station I unclipped the connector going to the outside socket, then clipped the test leads on pins corresponding to H1 & H2, to which that connector joins

Switching on again, I saw voltage start at ~0.4 then settle down to zero

Coming back to my original question

Is it likely a replacement heater element for the soldering handle will fix the problem ?

AKA does a measurement of ~6 Kohm mean the element is kaput ?

I'm in the rebound phase now, considering big $ for a JBC CD2BD which seems to have maintenance data and spare parts, unlike this unsupported Xytronic P.O.S.

[Agent24]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

S+ and S- make me think Sensor +\- for a thermocouple (which are polarised, so marking positive and negative makes sense)
If working, they should read fairly low Ohms if you check the resistance, and it will output a value in millivolts. (If you read on volts scale you likely won't see anything)

H1 and H2 do indeed seem likely to be for the heater, but if you are measuring ~6k Ohm it does seem the heater is bad.

It's possible for some reason that the heater drive circuit doesn't switch power on if the heater is broken. This would make sense if it's controlled with a TRIAC and the heater comes first in the circuit. That way an open or high resistance heater would not allow current into the TRIAC, thus the TRIAC would never turn on, thus there would be no return path to measure voltage across.

Check inside the station to figure out the control circuit and it should become apparent what the scenario is...

Or you're measuring in DC range while it's an AC output - or vice versa.


JBCs are good performance and good quality, most likely better than your T2380 but of course more expensive. The tips (cartridges) each cost about the same as a new heater for your current iron. If the T2380 works well for you a new element might be cheaper for now. Up to you, I guess.

Also note, if you can track down the part number for the heater (Farnell probably has it written somewhere) you may find the same thing much cheaper on eBay... that is what I did with my Duratech from Jaycar. It's a rebranded ZhongDi and the spare parts are much cheaper on eBay than from Jaycar. (Something like $30 vs $150 for a new handpiece when I bought it)

[stj]

Re: Altronics T2380 Soldering station busted

put 3 12v lamps in series, or a single 100v lamp across the H wires.
see if they light up.

if it is a xytronics unit then the element is something like 36v