Desoldering gun station modified to use a 18 volt @ 20 amp switching power supply

[sam_sam_sam]

I have wanting to do this project for quite sometime now and I finally found a switching power supply that will work on this desoldering gun station ZD-915 that the original switching power supply took a shit and just was not worth trying to fix it because this switching power is not quite big enough to handle the heater element and the vacuum pump

One note when I tested the switching power supply and the voltage control board I noticed that this desoldering gun heat up much faster than the original switching power supply which I was really surprised by to the point that I might buy a couple more of these switching power supplies later on when I can find them on sale again

One other note the switching power supply output is set to 18.21 volts I did not have to adjust it at all

One final note that anyone that decided to do this modification to there ZD-915 or similar brand soldering/desoldering station because of a switching power supply failure should be aware of this fact that if they use this brand of switching power supply I would highly recommend that you recap the switching power supply board and remove the temperature switch for the cooling fan and modify the original switch power supply board and only keep the secondary side of this switching power supply board and how you hook everything thing is up to you

So one day I was surfing the eBay website looking for switching power supplies for my battery testing machine that I want to modify the original switching power supply because I do not want to have a boost converter to supply the 12 volts from the switching power supply that is 5 volt @ 55 amp output rating instead I going to use a dual output switching power supply that has a 5 volts @ 12 amp and another output that is 12 volts @ 5 amps

While looking for this switching power supply I found this one that this post is about and eBay was running a spring sale on different items and it just so happen that it was on the ones that I have been looking for a while

There are some pictures of the switching power supply that did get recapped except for the two filtering capacitors and the capacitor for the cooling fan which I did not have a small diameter capacitor to fit where this capacitor is located the other issue with this switching power is that the temperature switch was not close enough to the switching transformer to turn on the cooling fan soon enough to keep the enclosure cool because after about 20 minutes of running the enclosure was getting real warm so I removed the temperature switch and jumped it out and have it run at full speed for now but I am going to see if I can fit a temperature controlled cooling fan instead but that is when I have finished with the desoldering gun station wiring and mounting the voltage controller board to the enclosure and some other things that I need to do but this is for another day

Now I am doing a burn in test for the rest of the night until in the morning I will end the test when I am about to go to work in the morning

[sam_sam_sam]

I might work on this tomorrow for awhile mounting the power supply/mosfet controller board that was modified I need to look for a better heat sink than I one I tested it with I know I have some but I got to remember which container I have them in and mounted the switching power supply on the top of desoldering gun station enclosure and reinstall the vacuum pump and it's wiring and give it the torcher test and see how well preforms with this switching power supply setup I might redo the the soldering iron/ desoldering gun combo with this setup if the testing goes extremely well I might invest some money it to making a better setup with a better switching power supply

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I found the heat sink that I wanted to use however there is nothing to support the component leads so I going to use some plastic spacer and hot glue the plastic spacers to the heat sink to the top of the circuit board so it stable for the size of the heat sink the reason for doing this-this way is because just to one side of the mosfet there surface mount components that are going to be under the heat sink that is not going to work I will show some pictures of the issue at hand

[sam_sam_sam]

Here is picture of the desoldering gun station with the modified original switching power supply secondary only being used

I still have to install the cooling fan modify the vacuum pump/cooling fan circuit board so I have full voltage to the cooling fan because it is a 24 volt cooling fan

[stj]

i'm curious, did you current-clamp the pump / heater to see how many amps it actually will use?

[sam_sam_sam]

No I have not done this yet but I do plan on doing this because I want to know exactly how much current it draws because I want to know if I can run two units at the same time or not or do I have to use two switching power supplies for my dual unit soldering/desoldering station and build a docking station type unit for it

[sam_sam_sam]

Here are the results of the new switching power supply with everything turned on and with just the heater element on and cooling fan and back light
Pictures are below

With the results that I got I have decided to take this switching power supply and put it my two dual soldering iron and desoldering gun station because with these results I can run both of them if I turn ON the desoldering gun first and then the soldering iron next and it would be below 20 amps ( one test I am going to do when I have modified my dual soldering station I going to turn both units on at the same time and see if the switching power supply can handle the load or not )

I going to put the unit that I am using to test the switching power supply back together like it was originally and use it for a backup unit if for some reason my dual soldering station malfunctions

I am very pleased with the results of this switching power supply actually works very well with this desoldering gun station with the modification on the secondary original switching power supply as the multi voltage rails that are need for the controller board

So now I have to modify one more switching power supply and put it on this test jig and test the next modified secondary switching power supply board and sure that it works correctly and there are no issues with it and then modify the dual soldering station

Now need to order two more switching power supply from this eBay seller and recap both of them and get them ready for use in the dual soldering stations

More to come when I have completely modified the first dual soldering station

[sam_sam_sam]

i'm curious, did you current-clamp the pump / heater to see how many amps it actually will use?

I did not do the test with a clamp on meter because I do not have one that works anymore but I did with my multi meter and the test results are above

[stj]

so it only draws 6A??
thats a lot less than i expected - try it with the pump line blocked
btw, if i did that i would be a opro and fit some nice low voltage connector on the back - like an XT30 (15A per pin - the names are misleading)

[sam_sam_sam]

btw, if i did that i would be a opro and fit some nice low voltage connector on the back - like an XT30 (15A per pin - the names are misleading)

This is not a bad idea I think about how to do the low voltage wiring

I have the XT60 one which I going to use for this and they are the mounting version of them

I forgot to upload this picture as well

[sam_sam_sam]

The second secondary switching power supply board is 90% done now I have to take out the switching power supplies out of the dual soldering iron / desoldering gun station and install the modified secondary switching power supply boards and mount the switching power supply to the device enclosure and wire both sides of the device to the main switching power supply and torch test for several hours and get some other projects done or as completed as I can but still be using the soldering station and give a real good work out

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I took out the two original switching power supplies and tried to fit the new switching power supply and it is just a little bit too long but I have to figure out if I cut the metal off on the end that has the terminal connections do I still have enough room for the modified secondary switching power supply boards if not then the new switching power supply will be mounted on top of the dual soldering station and or mount the switching power supply inside of the dual soldering station and mount the secondary switching power supplies on top of dual soldering station and put them in a small enclosure with a small cooling fan

[sam_sam_sam]

Maybe I will work on next weekend if I do not have to work at my job on Saturday I have not felt very good today to really work on anything much

[sam_sam_sam]

I have not had much time to devote to this project but I have not abandoned it I had to work this last Saturday and I have to work this Saturday so I not sure when I will get back to this project again

[sam_sam_sam]

This is project has been completed