Alientek H550 programmable Hot Air Gun - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: DaneLaw
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2025, 11:00:20 pm
content: This is a not a new release, its an older product from a couple of years ago' that I purchased 1½ years back, and haven't seen any feedback, and generally been quite impressed with it, not least for the cost.... It matches the criteria I had for a Hot Air Gun, so I thought I would share some internal pictures & feedback.It's from the same company that also makes small PSU, hot plate, digital multi & scopemeters, alongside numerous other products.Punctual Atomic or for the western market they are branded underAlientekI was in the market for a dedicated Hot Air gun, as small as possible without sacrificing too much, while being of decent quality..I mainly looked at two models that both were plug & play without a big mothership/station/rig, as size was one of the main criteria for me, and being able to pack it away in a small footprint and take it with me to items or various heating situations, and same criteria I use for most of my gear...It's not that often I need a hot air gun, but having that direct fine-heating ability in a small mobile form factor, can be quite handy (at least for me).I looked at mainly these two models *Quick TR1 & *Alientek H550, which both seem decent in quality with a modern UI..After seeing some videos of Quick TR1 and its excessive loudness (even at low speed) and that I was also left with the impression that you couldn't program it with different temp & fan profiles, which makes no sense?https://youtu.be/G7btXliv4sc?si=vHErutvEV-svXLw-&t=530I went for H550 (Option 3] that incl. most attatchements, as in also spiralling & cyclone airnozzles for this unit, that according to the web  claims to optimise the airflow for SMD work, create less turbulence, better contains components in their place, and center the heat better... - All claims that I lack experience to have any saying on.I also liked that the H550 handpiece seemed optimised for comfort, very light (168g) and easy to maneuvre & hold with two fingers, as quite narrow in the middle, and only the crucial parts were placed in the handpiece while numerous secondary components, like AC to DC circuitry were placed in a PSU 1.25 m back, where you then had an extended heatresistant silicone wire to the handpiece, - that in general felt welbuilt with inner heat-resistant silicon-wires and a decent quality (brushless) fan.The main wire to the handpiece from the PSU seems flexible & maneuvrable even though it carries numerous internal wires, but the silicone nature of all the internal wires & the silicone slewing seems to help a lot, so it doesn't have a will of its own, that you constantly have to counter & adjust. . - The handpiece in itself is around 168 grams.Worth noting that the handpiece seems to have this rubberized almost velvet-finehair-texture, that do feel good, secure & preferred, but also makes you wonder how well these "coating formulas" actually work nowadays on modern products, after having way to many products from the last few decades that suddenly turns into a sticky mess after the petroleum components goes haywire.The stand & its structure is mostly annodized metal with some silicone or foam-feet and heat-resistant reinforced plastic for the mount, with sensors/magnets at the sides, seems designed well' so you can store the PSU and it will stay there, or you can screw the handstand on the wall or where you want as its optimised for it. (decent stand)Its 220V and it came with one of these 3-pin Mickey Mouse AC plugs into the PSU [IEC C5 & C6] that goes to a thick AC cable with ground (Some of the pictures below are with a thinner 2-pin EU to IEC C5 cable that doesn't have ground for ease of use).

author: DaneLaw
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2025, 11:02:47 pm
content: The UI gives 3 user-adj. scenarios ( incl. 2 profiles) that you can adjust to certain preferred values.. temp heat, fan-speed etc.. You can jump to those by a long push on any side buttons (vid below) that will activate either of those 2 profiles while also having a variable in the middle..Internals:All the wires internally in the handpiece and all the ones that come from the PSU, looks to be silicone.It seems to have some inner balance control, so when boosting up, it will adjust the fan & balance certain temperature merits and monitor the situation, but you can adjust those to suit you.I was pleasantly surprised by how silent it actually is..To what extent it will balance the temperature in regards to changes to its fanspeed and regulate.. I don't know.Also worth noting the display & its reading seems representative, as in displaying the actual temperature-level, and not like I have seen on some (incl. soldering irons)And products that almost seems like they are trying to bamboozle the end-user with a temperature feedback that doesn't seem to reflect the actual intermittent temperature.A brief glimpse of some of the UIAs far as I can tell, its looks like you can upgrade its software/firmware, but I don't know if there is a newer one.., Im still on SW1.0 (hardware 1.0).Also haven't checked if users have made a custom variant, and tweaked the firmware with certain behaviors, features, temp profiles.It claims to be quite advanced for a hot air gun, and constantly monitors numerous parameters and will close down while giving display-info if something should be tripped.It has a PDF about how you do / activate user-calibration (if you should need that) but I haven't looked into it.but like always, that also means that the more things can go wrong when you implement advanced programmable features, at the end of the day, it's just a hot air gun, but fitted with a modern programmable approach.