/g/electronics101

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

roy@... (Roy J. Tellason, Sr.) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 10:31:38 -0700

On Thursday 03 April 2025 06:49:27 pm benx618(g) via groups.io wrote:

You might check out a Ryobi item: 18v 120w temp controlled pencil iron (400-900° settable with knob) useful for electronics, etc. Uses Ryobi 18v standard batteries. Uses 'standard' interchangeable tips. I use mine mostly for short mobile or outside location or electronically isolated tip iron use.

Ryobi model PCL946B = tool only. May also come in tool/batt/charger combos too.

Hm. We have a number of Ryobi tools and are fairly satisfied with them. I'll have to keep that in mind should the need arise.

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

roy@... (Roy J. Tellason, Sr.) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 10:28:33 -0700

On Thursday 03 April 2025 04:11:49 pm wn4isx via groups.io wrote:

What's funny is she uses a PC with a CAD program for quilting and a computer controlled "sewing machine" with zero issues. And she's never caused a 2M HT to lock up.

In our case she does things the old fashioned way, and I've seen some of the results. Quite the seamstress! Her sister next door has one of those computerized sewing machines and has had lots of trouble with it. Watching videos like Big Clive tearing things down it amazes me how they're sticking a microcontroller chip in so much stuff these days. Never had an HT lock up...

I think it was P. J. Plauger who said something like "No program should leave its sanity at the mercy of its input."

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

roy@... (Roy J. Tellason, Sr.) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 10:24:00 -0700

On Thursday 03 April 2025 03:58:35 pm wn4isx via groups.io wrote:

On Thu, Apr 3, 2025 at 11:14 AM, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

Wahl Isotip 60
Take a look at
https://iso-tip.com/battery-repair-for-obsolete-irons

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that I may have gone around with those folks before. They show a yellow, a gray, and a black one. Mine's red. I'd have to find it to be sure of the model number but I think it might be a 7800. The normal thing is a continuous slow charge when it's in the stand, and there's a white plastic bit on the side of it that you can use to reset the thermostat, at which point it goes into a quick charge mode with the temperature of the battery actuating the thermostat, with a quite distinctive click. The battery has a metal cup on the top end for that thermostat to sit in, so it's pretty unique, can't just stick a couple of cells in there.

The page you link led me to this one:

https://iso-tip.com/product-category/repairs-parts

But the link given to send it to them for a rebuild leads back to that same page. I may try contacting them but at this point I have no urgent need for another soldering iron, so it's one of those round tuit things...

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Re: switching BJT from saturation into active mode

dhlocker@... (Donald H Locker) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 09:48:31 -0700

A BJT is inherently a current-controlled and -controlling device. Ibe controls Ice, within the limits of the surrounding circuitry. I have no idea why you don't want to use current sources if you are after a device behaviour model. If there is another goal, it would be a good idea to tell us, otherwise we can lead you to a perfect but perfectly useless circuit.

To get the device in your earlier schematic into active mode, you'll have to drive the base with less current than I(e)/Hfe. This is known as "biasing a transistor" and is pretty standard electronic design. Most good biasing schemes that I know of use some form of current sources, since Vbe varies with temperature so much. Do a bit of net search for "transistor bias" and related terms; you should be able to come up with something useful.

In your original schematic (I'm not going to bother downloading another), note that V1 is 5V and V2 is -1V. The base current of Q1 will therefore be somewhere around ((5V) - (0.6V) - (-1V))/(100ohm + 1kohm) = 4.9mA. If Q1 has an Hfe of about 100 (just a WAG, understand), then Q1 will be capable of carrying 490mA through R3 -- that WON'T happen given R3's value and the 5V from V1. To be in active region, Q1's base current has to be less than 0.01 * whatever current V1 can provide through R2 + R3.

If you _really_ want to use V2 and R1 to bias Q1, you'll have to increase V1 to a positive value near V1 - V(b,e): so somewhere around 4.0V to 4.5V. A base-emitter shunt resistor might also be helpful, but that will be left as an exercise for the student.

Donald.

On 4/4/25 08:09, john23 via groups.io wrote:

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

nuno_yahoo@... (Nuno T.) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 09:23:03 -0700

I’m in the UK. Those are available here, but not cheap��

Nuno T.

Re: switching BJT from saturation into active mode

yafimvar@... (john23) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 05:09:49 -0700

Hello,I prefer not to use current sources
A you can see In the attached photos and simulationI this I got it to be in active mode by tweaking the resistors .

I made few equations for the BJT shown in the photo ,could you help me to develp a mathmatical way of finding the values for setting the PNP into active mode?

/g/electronics101/files/john233/2.zip

Thanks.

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

benx618@... (benx618(g)) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:49:27 -0700

You might check out a Ryobi item: 18v 120w temp controlled pencil iron (400-900° settable with knob) useful for electronics, etc. Uses Ryobi 18v standard batteries. Uses 'standard' interchangeable tips. I use mine mostly for short mobile or outside location or electronically isolated tip iron use.

Ryobi model PCL946B = tool only. May also come in tool/batt/charger combos too.

- currently in stock or free deliver from HomeDepot (I'm in southern Calif near Los Angeles) list $50.

- currently in stock at DirectToolsOutlet dot com (South Carolina based, Ryobi authorized etc) $32 + shipping $15. note occasional deals with free or 50% shipping.

Ben

Re: switching BJT from saturation into active mode

dhlocker@... (Donald H Locker) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 14:10:38 -0700

In that case, you have to reduce the base drive. Separate bias and signals on the base would probably help.

I would change the series V2 and V3 into one current source - the DC offset is the bias and the Amplitude provides your signal. You can .STEP the DC offset to set different bias conditions.

Donald.

On 4/3/25 14:16, john23 via groups.io wrote:

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

wn4isx@... (wn4isx) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:18:37 -0700

Or a car battery, quasi sine wave inverter....

I've done that. Unless it is a smart soldering iron, even a dumb square wave inverter will power it just fine.

The quasi sine wave inverters powered my Weller with temperature control, but it wasn't all that bright, it used a magnetic switch and the Curie effect to control the temp. A dumb square wave would probably have worked but all I had was a quasi sine wave.

The Curie effect is the characteristic of magnetic metals to become non magnetic at some given temperature.

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

wn4isx@... (wn4isx) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:11:49 -0700

On Thu, Apr 3, 2025 at 11:23 AM, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

My late lady was like that. When working at a call center in the area, she hit some key or combination of keys on the terminal she was using and not only took down the whole call center, but also the two other ones that William-Sonoma had running at the time. It took them a few hours to get things back up again.

My wife was taking a business management class that used DEC VT100 (or 101) dumb terminals and time shared an IBM "big metal" computer. Like your late lady, she pressed some key or combination and crashed the main frame.

Crashing an IBM mainframe is an extremely big deal, you don't simply cycle the power, you call IBM, they send out service engineers who cast arcane spells and use a special key to launch IPL [Initial Program Load, boot to mere mortals].

The crash log IDed the terminal and user and she was "questioned" [think enhanced interrogation without water boarding] by upper level IBM engineers. They were concerned because the military and by the statement "Cheyenne Mountain depends on these" suggested NORAD used them. She was honest, showed the the 'database' [a very primitive asset/inventory management program] she was running. They paid her several hundred dollars over the next few weekends to try and replicate the problem.

I suspected it was something she was doing and something someone else was doing and a memory leak allowed data/instructions from one terminal to mix with those from another terminal.

What's funny is she uses a PC with a CAD program for quilting and a computer controlled "sewing machine" with zero issues. And she's never caused a 2M HT to lock up.

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

wn4isx@... (wn4isx) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:58:35 -0700

On Thu, Apr 3, 2025 at 11:14 AM, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

Wahl Isotip 60

Take a look at

https://iso-tip.com/battery-repair-for-obsolete-irons

Re: switching BJT from saturation into active mode

yafimvar@... (john23) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:16:03 -0700

Hello Donald ,Veb supposed to be forward biased so emitter needs to be less then base.

I tried to increase R1 drastickly but it didnt work.

could you help with mathematical way in my circuit to set it into active mode?

The goal is to test small signal responce in saturation and in active mode to see the difference.

Thanks.

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

nuno_yahoo@... (Nuno T.) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 09:16:25 -0700

Seems a very good product. I'll consider it.

Thanks

Nuno T.

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

nuno_yahoo@... (Nuno T.) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 09:12:42 -0700

Unfortunately, a gas one is out of the question for a number of reasons.

Has to be battery powered. Only alternative is an extension lead with several tens of meters��

Nuno T.

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

roy@... (Roy J. Tellason, Sr.) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:49:30 -0700

On Thursday 03 April 2025 09:40:58 am acnestis via groups.io wrote:

Who knew that a fault in the radio would stop the passenger-side window from working? The amount of digital electronics in modern cars is astounding (bordering on criminal.)

Yes!

I am not looking forward to ending up with something newer, though it's only a matter of time with one of our vehicles heading for 200K miles and showing some rust. The other one is approaching 150K. On one forum I participate in, there's a thread entitled "De-Crapifying cars", where the poster details a bunch of nonsense that he had to deal with in his Subaru, which basically took them off my list of brands to consider.

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

roy@... (Roy J. Tellason, Sr.) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:44:26 -0700

On Wednesday 02 April 2025 10:30:03 pm wn4isx via groups.io wrote:

An informative review can be found at
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pinecil-v2

Looks very impressive.

It does. But although they mention a $26 price in there, the links to buy one are at $40 or so.

And what's with the default to conical tips in so many cases? I notice in that review that they mention "chisel" and "bevel" as being the ones they found most useful, and I tend to favor a chisel tip myself, where you can use a corner, an edge, or a flat to control how much heat goes into what you're trying to solder. I can't see a way to do that with a conical tip.

My bench iron at this point is the kind where you can screw a heating element into an edison socket in the handle, and screw various tips on to the heating element. I have a few assorted heating elements, and a couple of different handles. One of those was purchased at Radio Shack, and the rubber where you grip it has gone wonky, typical of their products. I think the original brand was Ungar, but I think they got bought out by Weller? My favored tip is a PL-113 (iron plated). So a while back I wandered into a Radio Shack store (when we still had some around) looking for a new heating element, or something, and they no longer carried that kind of an iron. What they did have was every single iron in the store had a conical tip on it, which I didn't want. I ended up ordering one online from someplace, temperature controlled and a 3-wire cord so the tip is grounded, which my older iron ain't. I haven't used it a whole lot, and am not overly confident in its ability to handle this PL-259 I need to solder here. I'll probably break out my Weller gun to deal with that one...

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

roy@... (Roy J. Tellason, Sr.) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:23:33 -0700

On Wednesday 02 April 2025 10:24:42 pm wn4isx via groups.io wrote:

I am really tempted, the price is reasonable, the power requirements practical and it avoids the risks inherent with an open flame.

It does look tempting, but that 30 day warranty put me off...

Oh, can you crash the OS? I ask because my wife has killed everything from windup watches to laptops simply by touching or holding them.

And no I don't believe some people have odd magnetic fields or whatever because I can measure almost everything and tests show she is a normal person...who just kills even primitive tech. I often wondered how on earth she can drive a car with 5 CPUs, but it gave me a headache so I gave up wondering and wrote it off as one of those mysteries of life. After all, she does love and put up with me and has for 46 years.

My late lady was like that. When working at a call center in the area, she hit some key or combination of keys on the terminal she was using and not only took down the whole call center, but also the two other ones that William-Sonoma had running at the time. It took them a few hours to get things back up again.

One or another of the youtube channels I watch had a similar iron with oled display and all. I don't recall the brand, nor do I recall what specific channel that was. They seemed to do all right with it, but I'd look around for something other than that one.

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

roy@... (Roy J. Tellason, Sr.) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:14:05 -0700

On Wednesday 02 April 2025 02:19:32 pm Nuno T. wrote:

Looking for good recommendations on a battery powered soldering iron.

Precision work is a requirement, doesn't need to work for hours on end,

1/2 hour every now and then is enough.

Any recommendations from your experience?

I have a Wahl Isotip 60, so called because it'll charge up in one hour. It needs a battery, and the battery is no longer available, so I can't use it. When it did work, it worked well, but it's currently useless...

--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Re: switching BJT from saturation into active mode

dhlocker@... (Donald H Locker) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:54:01 -0700

V2 is turning the Q1 on very hard, such that it is in saturation, and Vc (product of Ic and R3) is quite large. If you don't want Vc to be so large, you have to reduce the base drive (V2/R1) of Q1 or divert some of that current away from the B-E junction.

What is this supposed to do?

Donald.

On 4/3/25 08:19, john23 via groups.io wrote:

Re: Battery powered soldering iron

rhinnes@... (acnestis) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 06:40:58 -0700

Hi Nuno!

I've been following Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics on Youtube, where Ivan Temnykh is enamored of his TS-101 battery-powered soldering iron. Maybe worth looking at. I have Essential Tremor at age 82. Thus, soldering, doing camera lens repairs, etc.., has been out of the question for almost 20 years now, so don't have personal experience with this tool.

Warning: Watching his videos can become infectious. Who knew that a fault in the radio would stop the passenger-side window from working? The amount of digital electronics in modern cars is astounding (bordering on criminal.)

Good luck,

- Ralph